mattygs

Not sure if this one has been posted before, it's Betty Ann Monga of Ardijah fame from the Closing Ceremony of the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games performing * We Can Work Wonders* with a gaggle of youth assembled by World Vision from memory. Nothing overly or interesting here, possibly with the exception of Betty's wonderful puffy shoulder pohutakawa inspired frock.

Have the venues all been sorted out yet? they may very well do. Of course the large capacity of Millennium Stadium is also very attractive , this is after all the money maker tournament for the IRB after the rugby centric tournament here in New Zealand.

Matches have always been confirmed for Wales, up to 5 was the figure quoted in the bid I believe, but it was under the proviso that Wales would not play there. Now we have the WRU coming out wanting to play their matches in Cardiff. Again, really in conflict with the 1 country World Cup concept, it's not a Welsh world cup, but rather Millennium Stadium covers the Western territory for England 2015. Story link

Not really sure if 23 is a good option. We'll have been in England and Japan, most likely time for a Southern Hemisphere host. Im guessing Argentina, or South Africa. If Argentina wasn't interested, you would be hard to go past the Sarfies, especially after they supported NZ (eventually) for the 2011 tournament hosting rights.

Well, it will certainly be a very different world cup, alot bigger for sure. I guess there will not be the complete rugby saturation factor which has been a positive of the World Cup here, I see they have guaranteed matches up in the North, so it's great they are spreading it around abit. *The* RFR seems to be in abit of a shambles at the moment though, so really does look like they need to sort out the Whare before they invite the Whanau round. Also be interesting to see what teams have evolved in the 4 year cycle. Much has been made of the age of the NZ and Oz teams, and how Australia was very much a side in development, though I read in the SMH the other day that the Aussies average age is something like 26 compared to NZ's 27. something , so really will be up in the air. Also be keen to see how this Cardiff scheduling goes, seems like they are wanting to give a few more matches to Wales? Im really hoping not, I thought we would finally got a single host home unions world cup, unfortunately, they can't keep away from each others tournaments.

Very very interesting. Surely ceremonial stunts though are normally tested first in a simulated ceremonies pitch off in the whops. Anyway, forget the scaffolding, what we really wanna see is a machine in there digging a gigantic hole in the ground.

Boys 2 Men and Nsync did the national anthems in Atlanta and Salt Lake. Pretty sure both also used the respective house choirs of the evening, that being the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake and the Centennial Olympic Choir in Atlanta.

As long as we don't see a return of the classic *let's pretend all this sh1t we found on the side of a road is a drum and bang it with the help of some disabled friends* segment, then music is ok by me. I like stylised reworkings of more traditional pieces, like was done in the handover soundtrack. It's funny, but I guess until you go to London, you don't quite get the shipping forcast and *mind the gap* references in it. Julian Scott has always provided some great soundtracks, granted Im not expecting him to be involved in this (though nothing to say he won't be asked to compose something), but I loved his Arise suite from Manchester. It was orchestral in every sense of the word, but was still very modern, something like that would fit well in London in some of the protocol style segments. Like Baron though, Im hoping they don't go down the music (let's say, a ceremony full of songs) avenue. Something like Sydney's Paralympic opening ceremony rock opera probably wouldn't be a favourite of mine. Hoping we hear a good mix of some newly composed songs, some classics given a new twist, and some great new orchestral compositions.

Also appeared in the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony Baron, think you've seen that.

ahhh, those were the days. Have a Smash Hits Poll winners party reunion for the opening ceremony and I'll be a happy wee pup.

Music hmmm. Well, you know my favourite teeniebopper days Steps is contemplating a reunion with a new reality show. hahaha.

The Commonwealth Games have never really broken the mould with pictograms have they. Glasgow has taken quite an interesting approach so far to it's branding. It has almost moved away from the more emotive and passionate kind of looks and designs other cities have taken, and brought it all back to the fact that this is esentially a very competitive sporting event. An event where athletes are working their lives to shave just hundredths of seconds off times, or add just a little bit more power to get the gold. They're emphasizing that when it comes down to it, it's all about the measurement of time, speed, weight, power etc etc As long as they temper this by the friendliness and passion of the event, it should work well. Will be interested to see what their graphic panorama look is like. Wonder if this very articulate brand will have a backdrop of some more traditional Scottish shapes and colours. I hope so. Actually, the way the pictograms are displayed on the website are quite cool. They are kind of drawn echoing the circles of the logo. Actually, the way the pictograms are displayed on the website are quite cool. They are kind of drawn echoing the circles of the logo.

In Edinburgh at the moment, will be heading out to Glasgow tomorrow for the day and evening, so will be keen to see how the city is looking.

And a couple of pieces from the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games Ceremonies, the music by Julian Scott was used throughout both ceremonies Message to the Commonwealth http://www.mediafire.com/?v4tflx9nvonraxs"'>Arrival of the Queen Arrival of the Queen

Few more . Talking about music used to light the cauldron, here is the track from the opening ceremony of Albertville 92. Albertville 92: *La Flamme* The opening of the Atlanta Games Atlanta 96: Call to All Nations

Here's another one for you guys from the Athens 2004 Opening Ceremony, the Olympic Zeibekiko which opened the show. The composition is the same, but unfortunately it's not the exact Olympic version - sort of lacks the power of it. Still, pretty close, so a good track to have. Olympic Zeibekiko

I don't know for sure, but for some reason, the title *skyline firedance* or something similar seems to be familiar to me for that particular piece of music. That's just a guess though. I will try do abit of research and get back to you. It doesn't seem that it is a David Stanhope piece though, as I think he just composed the Games 2000 Fanfare music and the composition used during the closing ceremonies fireworks start.

Here's another rare studio quality track, the Flaming Arrow Torch theme from Barcelona 92 opening ceremony. Flaming Arrow

Cheers bro, yeah, not entirely sure about the negative thing to the post was. I did have another rare piece of music used for a cauldron lighting sequence that I've recently come across too. I've always liked Call to Glory, and got used to it even more when the Australian Rugby Union used it for alot of their game presentations a few years ago. Its taken me a while to find it, but got it from a friend of a friend - one of those things. haha.

Not sure if this will work, but here is the Medal Ceremony Music from Sydney 2000 - *Call to Glory* by Greg Bowman. Loved this piece, and really started the emotion charged medal ceremony compositions that we also saw in Athens and Beijing. Call to Glory

Just read that they were planning on having the mirrors dangling down to form a chandelier as reported, but they were messing up the laser display and started janging around and knocking into each other as the winds picked up - so decided to remove them,