Pandemonium: Underworld, And I Will kiss.
July 24, 2016 7:03 AM Subscribe
And I Will Kiss is the music to the Industrial Revolution (Pandemonium) sequence of the 2012 London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony [shorter version]. With the input of Dame Evelyn Glennie, the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, the London Symphony Orchestra and 1,000 volunteer drummers, Underworld produced a 17 minute piece to the brief of frightening people.
Clips of the music being used in the Olympics (interrupted by TV commentators): [1] [2] [3 - stills] [4]
Frank Cottrell Boyce on helping put together the Olympic opening ceremony: "A few years later Danny Boyle was directing Frankenstein at the National Theatre and I immediately thought of Pandemonium, which has thrilling stuff in it about electricity and lightning and magnetism. The cheapest copy I could find set me back £42.50. I was generous enough to buy it but not generous enough to forgo mentioning the cost. I handed it over saying: “You’d better read this. It cost me £42.50.” Danny loved it. I don’t know how much influence it had on Frankenstein because I couldn’t get tickets. But when it came to the opening ceremony, it was key. Danny had one key word for us – visceral. How do you make people feel rather than just admire. That’s where his idea of forging the rings from muscle and sweat and steel there in the stadium came from. Once he’d had that idea, Jennings’s book gave us the context, and the chimneys and the steam and the title."
What the volunteers heard and saw: Olympic Opening Ceremony Hidden Camera - With Performers In Ear Monitor.
Comment from the American Enterprise Institute.
Previously on MetaFilter: Isles of Wonder.
Clips of the music being used in the Olympics (interrupted by TV commentators): [1] [2] [3 - stills] [4]
Frank Cottrell Boyce on helping put together the Olympic opening ceremony: "A few years later Danny Boyle was directing Frankenstein at the National Theatre and I immediately thought of Pandemonium, which has thrilling stuff in it about electricity and lightning and magnetism. The cheapest copy I could find set me back £42.50. I was generous enough to buy it but not generous enough to forgo mentioning the cost. I handed it over saying: “You’d better read this. It cost me £42.50.” Danny loved it. I don’t know how much influence it had on Frankenstein because I couldn’t get tickets. But when it came to the opening ceremony, it was key. Danny had one key word for us – visceral. How do you make people feel rather than just admire. That’s where his idea of forging the rings from muscle and sweat and steel there in the stadium came from. Once he’d had that idea, Jennings’s book gave us the context, and the chimneys and the steam and the title."
What the volunteers heard and saw: Olympic Opening Ceremony Hidden Camera - With Performers In Ear Monitor.
Comment from the American Enterprise Institute.
Previously on MetaFilter: Isles of Wonder.
2003 called: they'd like part of their videogame soundtrack back.
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:05 AM on July 24, 2016
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:05 AM on July 24, 2016
The complete ceremony appears to be on YouTube, with reasonably minimal commentary.
posted by pharm at 8:13 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by pharm at 8:13 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
I still stand by my comments on the whole opening ceremony from the original Metafilter post linked above. Co-incidentally, we were listening to the soundtrack only last night & talking a little about it with some old friends.
posted by pharm at 8:15 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by pharm at 8:15 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
2003 called: they'd like part of their videogame soundtrack back.
Meh, Underworld were releasing progressive house ten years previous to that so what's your point?
posted by lawrencium at 8:47 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Meh, Underworld were releasing progressive house ten years previous to that so what's your point?
posted by lawrencium at 8:47 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
The soundtrack is really good to code to. Though I'm also really fond of the later part of that album, which is much of the music from the parade of athletes. It alternates between High Contrast and Underworld, with a little Bowie thrown in for the home team. (I do wish the remix of Rez went on about 10 times longer.) It's missing some selections, as I'm pretty sure they played Abba when Sweden came on.
Underworld also did the music to that Frankenstein production, if memory serves.
The saddest thing about that ceremony, in retrospect, is that it was a tribute to things that the Tories are working overtime to destroy. "Hey, they did a celebration of the NHS with a battalion of Mary Poppinses vanquishing disease. Let's kill it!"
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:29 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Underworld also did the music to that Frankenstein production, if memory serves.
The saddest thing about that ceremony, in retrospect, is that it was a tribute to things that the Tories are working overtime to destroy. "Hey, they did a celebration of the NHS with a battalion of Mary Poppinses vanquishing disease. Let's kill it!"
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:29 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Meh, Underworld were releasing progressive house ten years previous to that so what's your point?
You're reading things too deeply - the post was a reference track for anyone interested in a segue.
posted by Smart Dalek at 9:30 AM on July 24, 2016
You're reading things too deeply - the post was a reference track for anyone interested in a segue.
posted by Smart Dalek at 9:30 AM on July 24, 2016
The BBC's recent Imagine documentary on the volunteers' experience of rehearsing for the ceremony is still available on iPlayer. The enthusiasm, love and energy they brought to this whole gloriously bonkers project was of the most cheering things I've seen in months. A perfect antidote for the Brexit blues.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:31 AM on July 24, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 9:31 AM on July 24, 2016 [3 favorites]
And now...The Isambard Kingdom Brunel Dancers!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:11 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:11 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
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posted by Conrad-Casserole at 7:25 AM on July 24, 2016