Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 02/23/2012 at 12:26 PM
News The Popdust Files: All Things British, Closing Ceremonies, Olympics
Anglophiles of the world, stand up. Billboard reports that the Olympics this year will include a closing-ceremony tribute to British music—all British music. The show is said to be a symphonic arrangement of the history of music from the United Kingdom, an “elegant mashup of British music” with orchestrally-arranged English songs that everyone knows and loves.
“We go from—without saying we’ve booked anyone—Elgar to Adele,” says music director David Arnold. “It is, in a sense, the soundtrack of our lives,” confirms opening-and-closing-ceremonies producer Stephen Daldry. Well, we don’t know about any of that Edward Elgar business—he’s the guy who did “Pomp and Circumstance,” yeah?—but we have an idea about how the set should go from the rock era forward:
The British Invasion. Starts out with the Whotles super-group of the surviving members of the Who and Beatles, Roger Daltry on vocals, Pete Townshend on guitar, Paul McCartney on bass and backing vocals and Ringo Starr on drums. They perform rip-roaring versions of “Twist and Shout” and “My Generation,” before being interrupted by the opening sitar riff of “Paint it Black,” at which point the Rolling Stones show up, beat up the Whotles and steal their instruments, and play a riotous version of “Sympathy for the Devil.”
Read the rest: http://popdust.com/2012/02/23/olympics-closing-ceremonies-all-things-british/
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