Relight My Fire : The London 2012 Olympic Legacy

Picture Credit : Yahoo Sport

After the glorious Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, the amazing achievements of all the athletes and the "Team GB" record-breaking medal stash we were left with a bit of a damp squid of a Closing Ceremony.  I don't doubt for one minute that organising an event of that scale takes a lot of inspiration and forward planning and was it marvellously bonkers as only the British can be but it took Eric Idle, Freddie Mercury and John Lennon to save the day and two of them are dead!

Whilst the Opening Ceremony celebrated the moderisation of Great Britain during each period that the Olympics had been held in London (1908, 1948, 2012) and was perfectly executed, the Closing Ceremony seemed to have been mashed together at the last minute with whoever was available on the night.  Billed as a celebration of British music, there were noticeable gaps.  There were, of course, stand out performances - The Kaiser Chiefs, Take That, The Who and Annie Lennox to name but a few - but the majority of the acts appeared to miming or singing out of tune.  Also, where was the Metal and the Rock and was 'Madchester' really represented by an out of tune version of Wonderwall?  Why didn't Duran Duran sing "Rio" and whose bright idea was it to invite Jessie J and her trademark screech to fill in for Freddie?

Picture Credit:
LBC 97.3FM

London, and indeed the whole of Great Britain, has been in the media limelight for the last couple of week and, on the surface of things, the whole Games ran seamlessly.  The coverage on the BBC was second to none.  I was very lucky to have my summer leave from work coincide with the Games and became an armchair athlete and critic, expressing my excitement and imparting my wisdom across social media channels.  

Now the Olympic cauldron has been extinguished and the flag passed to Rio for the 2016 Games, spectators - ticketed or armchair - are sent blinking back into the daylight of reality.  What now?  We have agreed that the next generation of athletes is the legacy of the Games and that the end of these Olympics should be the start of a new era for this country.  Can we keep up the good spirits that the Games have left as part of the legacy?  Can we celebrate the good and try to change the bad?  Can we encourage the next generation to act upon the inspiration that was so prevalent during the last couple of weeks?  It doesn't even have to be sports related - I am going to use the Olympic Games as ways to inspire my own children and the young people that I work with every day.  I hope you will too.  Let's keep that fire burning.

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And here's some afterthoughts for you, just in case you thought I was getting too serious...

The trucks carrying the music acts reminded me of the floats used on Lytham Club Day and St Annes Club Day.  A low-loader or stripped down arctic lorry, decorated the night before with crepe paper and, in my own personal experience, members of the local AmDram group or dance school in costume promoting the up and coming show.  And I have the pictures to prove it (in my private collection with a couple on Facebook).

My most retweeted tweet of the night:

And now you can see Boris Johnson dancing... FOREVER
(blogged on Tumblr)
(originally seen on The Huffington Post UK twitter account)

This is obviously not from the Closing Ceremony but from Queen's Wembley concert in 1986

I'm hoping it can save this blog post!
All together now...
YE-DA-DAY-DAY-DAY-DAAAHHH
DAAAAYYYYOOOOO

(popout : http://youtu.be/kXOOwNS2qk0)