London Olympics 2012 10 years on - revisiting photos from the time.
This proved to be a mad day from start to finish and by the end of it I was wondering if I could do an Olympic-themed photo every day of the event. I did.
The artist Martin Creed invited everyone in the UK to ring a bell at 8.12am on 27 July, the opening day of the Olympics, as part of his London 2012 festival project All the Bells Work No 1197. See Big Ben chiming at the surreal time of 8.12am
https://youtu.be/pQLATV1piuk
Diary entry from 27 July 2012:
Day zero - and a very long day it was too. Early start at Big Ben to ring 'all the bells' as part of Martin Creed's (he of the Turner prize-winning light going on and off in a room) contribution to the Olympic party. Big Ben was due to ring outside its normal donging times for the first time in decades. Loads of people there: bicycle bells, hand bells, tambourines, wind chimes (and me with my little jingle bells).
After work off to the Royal Albert Hall to meet Dave for the prom and dinner in the Elgar Room - prawn skewers, potato cakes and a ridiculously chocolatey ganache. Plus champagne cocktails.
The prom was the last in Daniel Barenboim's Beethoven cycle - no 9 - a feast of dancing melodies and lusty singing. Barenboim came on after all the clapping and stamping had died down and gave a speech to the remaining audience about the special work his mixed orchestra of middle Eastern young musicians are doing to show a different side to a troubled part of the world.
As the prom overran, we had to rush to catch the opening ceremony, missing the first 20 mins. I have to say, even though Danny Boyle didn't include morris dancing, he threw in everything else: shire horses, maypoles, Jerusalem, James Bond and his new Bond 'girl', Mr Bean, a minute's stillness, Abide with Me, Michael Fish and his 'there won't be a hurricane' moment, Shakespeare, children's lit, the NHS and on and on - and the winged cyclists were fab. Loved every minute - and the parade of athletes and their get-ups: Italy dressed by Armani, USA dressed by Ralph Lauren, Team GB dressed by Primark ...
And the torch at the end was sumptuous - nice to see the youngsters doing it and the copper kettle/beacon thing was wonderfully executed.
Back to 2022 - Jersey tiger
https://365project.org/boxplayer/365-2022/2022-07-27
Oysters
https://365project.org/boxplayer/extras/2022-07-27
Photo originally taken 27 July 2012
Westminster SW1
