Olympic games 2012 opening ceremony performances

It was at Trafalgar Square, in London, and just on the other side of the square there happened to be fifty of the drummers doing something for the BBC. So I went up to them and we were all still so excited. They were demonstrating the rhythms that we were playing. You know, what we actually played, although a lot of it was improvisation, was just this core, raw rhythm, really. It was very infectious, very moving, a purposeful rhythm, and something that can easily be memorized.

Something that the audience can truly feel, as well. It was this indescribable feeling that was physical as well as visual as well as aural. Something that was quite unique and very raw, indeed.

Touch the Sound , the documentary about your life and musical work, is a beautiful exploration of your experience with deafness, which began for you as a child. Would you tell us more about your technique and how you taught yourself? This was really affecting my balance and my sense of touch and there was no sensitivity there, or not the sensitivity that I felt was actually inside of me.

Basically, it opened the door to suddenly think, my gosh my body could become a huge ear in a way. There has to be this segregation. A woodblock and a triangle are two completely different sensations and the body has to be really aware and focused. It has to listen. Someone up in the balcony will have a very different experience from someone in the first row or tenth row or on the side.

None of us are experiencing anything in the same way. So that opening up of the body was a key element. Well, to feel the difference between a C and a C sharp, I mean, you could if that pitch was truly isolated. It really is just the sensation that will change from instrument to instrument, from dynamic to dynamic, from mallets or sticks you were using to different mallets and different sticks.

The art of listening is really to experience then what happens after that attack so that you can link up the next sound. It sounds like this is not only applicable to deaf drummers, but to all drummers to improve their experience of music.

Oh yes! Anybody can approach it this way if they want. For example, there are two people in the corner now. But this whole body language has given me the sound world. Switching over to your influences as a youg musician, you grew up in Northeast Scotland. How if at all did the indigenous musical traditions there influence your own musical style? What else shaped your approach to music performance and composition as you grew up and began to pursue music as a profession?

So a lot of the entertainment that happened in the home was connected with your family, making music, whether you could play anything or not, it could just be singing a traditional sort of song.

If someone could play the piano they would play the piano, but it was all Scottish music, and that was as normal and as natural to me as anything. Really, it was this connection with other people that was very important, the sharing of music making.

I think the link between what happened in the family environment and what happened in school was seamless because music happened in school. By the time I left primary school at the age of eleven, all of the pupils there could read music. They could all read music, they knew the basics of music. They knew what a treble clef was, then knew what a bass clef was, they could read rhythm, they could sing songs, they knew pitches, they knew how to notate the music.

So when I was twelve years old I saw the school orchestra play, all new pupils got this assembly whereby the school orchestra played, and I looked at the orchestra and I thought it consisted of people like me, my age group. Brass, no I already had a brother who was playing the trombone.

So I thought the percussion looks quite interesting, and I asked for a lesson through the school, and that was the beginning. During the age of industry scene, towers rose from the ground and the Olympic rings were forged.

Dame Evelyn Glennie was among several famous performers to appear during the event. A scene from the portion of the show representing the industrial revolution. The Olympic rings are hoisted into the sky. Spectators cover up as rain falls in the stadium during a pre-show performance. An actor dressed to resemble the Queen parachutes from a helicopter over the stadium. Performers dance in a scene paying tribute to Great Ormond Street hospital.

Actors perform in a sequence meant to represent Britain's National Health Service. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Children perform a song. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Lord Voldemort looms over the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Spectators wearing 3-D glasses during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — An artist performs during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — General view taken as actors perform during the opening ceremony.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Giant pictures depicting villains of British literature, including Captain Hook from "Peter Pan," are displayed during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Performers float with umbrellas as they play the role of Mary Poppins. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Dancers perform during the opening ceremony. Bean plays in the orchestra.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — A broad view of the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Performers dance to British music spanning the decades. Olympics: Opening ceremony — A general view of the opening ceremony.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — An artist performs with a glowing pacifier during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — A performer in a giant ball is passed around during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Dancers perform under a "setting sun" in a scene dramatizing the struggle between life and death.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — General view of performers during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Dancers perform in a scene dramatizing the struggle between life and death. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Performers dance during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — A parachutist lands outside the Olympic Stadium. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Artists wearing wings and riding bicylces perform during the ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — The Olympic stadium lit up in red and blue during the opening ceremony.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Members of the Australia team parde into the stadium. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Members of Brazil's delegation hold their national flag as they walk during the opening ceremony.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Simon Whitfield of the Canada Olympic triathlon team carries his country's flag. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Canadian athletes enter the stadium. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Chinese athletes enter the stadium.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Croatia's delegation parades during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Athletes parade during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Members of India's delegation parade in the opening ceremony.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — A member of India's delegation takes a picture as he parades during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Ali Mazaheri of the Iran Olympic boxing team carries his country's flag.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Members of Iran's delegation parade during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Reigning Olympic men's meter and meter champion Usain Bolt of Jamaica carries his country's flag. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Natascha Keller of the German Olympic hockey team carries her country's flag during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Philippine Van Aanholt, an independent Olympic athlete, parades during the opening ceremony.

Olympic team around the stadium. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Members of the Britain's delegation parade wave. Olympics: Opening ceremony — British spectators cheer as they attend the opening ceremony.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks explode from the top of Tower Bridge. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks go off from Tower Bridge. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks light up Tower Bridge.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks are displayed at Tower Bridge. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Torchbearer Sir Steve Redgrave hands the Olympic flame over to the seven young athletes who represent Britain's hopes for the next Olympics.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — The young athletes carry the Olympic glame. Olympics: Opening ceremony — The Olympic flame is carried into the stadium. Olympics: Opening ceremony — The Olympic flame burns in the cauldron. Olympics: Opening ceremony — The Olympic flame is seen in the stadium during the ceremony.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Participants look on as the Olympic flame burns in the cauldron. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks over the Olympic Stadium. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks burst above the stadium during the opening ceremony. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks cast a purple glow over the Olympic Stadium.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks explode from the stadium roof. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks ignite over the Olympic Stadium. Olympics: Opening ceremony — People cheer as they watch the opening ceremony on an outdoor screen at Piccadilly Circus. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks light up the Olympic Stadium and the night sky. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks illuminate the sky in a fiery rainbow of color. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks go off over the Olympic Stadium at the official opening of the Games.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Danny Boyle, the director of the opening ceremony, reacts to the show. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks form a fiery ring over the Olympic Stadium. Olympics: Opening ceremony — General view as fireworks illuminate the sky during the opening ceremony.

Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks are let off over the Olympic stadium. Olympics: Opening ceremony — Fireworks light up the sky during the opening ceremony. Story highlights Young athletes light the Olympic cauldron after the queen opens the games Performances pay tribute to British history, literature and music The Greek delegation leads the parade of athletes into the stadium Organizers had sought beforehand to keep the event's details secret.

Few shows can claim such an audience.