Still on that Clash reggae trip – another of the great tracks off “London Calling” is The Guns of Brixton.
A bit of Clash bravado, but Paul Simenon contributes a menacing vocal and the bass line is just one of the best. So good it led to….
But not just yet.
First, in the 80s soul/dance sphere, one of the great tracks was Just be Good to Me by the SOS Band. From 1983, produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, no less.
The twelve inch single version ran to nearly ten minutes. I’ve included a shorter version here. It’s almost rock, with the strident rhythms, the chorus – and the cover! But the voice – Mary Davis – is pure soul. It was a disco anthem.
Norman Cook, ace DJ, Fat Boy Slim, took the bass line from “Guns Of Brixton”, the melody from “Just be Good To Me”, threw in a bit of his own dub and rap, and some Ennio Morricone western sounds and came up with the brilliant single Dub be Good to Me, in 1990, under the name of Beats International. Lindy Layton on vocals. I bought the twelve inch and loved it then, and I love it now!
And then, twenty-odd years later, London rapper and soulboy, Professor Green, took inspiration from “Dub Be Good To Me”, and maybe all three songs, and gave us Just Be Good to Green. Lily Allen on vocals.
The culmination of our journey and a recent hit, so let’s watch the video too.
Four fantastic tunes, one symphony of reggae, rap, soul, dance and pop, spanning 32 years.
I was a student at University College between 1977 and 1980. The era of punk and new wave! I studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. The subject generally gets the blame for most things that go wrong in Britain these days, as half of our Prime Ministers did the same. Oh well, I enjoyed it and it has stood me in good stead throughout my career in the private and public sector.
When you are a student – or at least when I was a student – you have so much to keep you amused and engaged that you don’t necessarily appreciate your surroundings. Even when they are as magnificent as they are in Oxford. When I go back now, I always think, wow, what a privilege to have been at Oxford, to have been surrounded by all this beauty. Why didn’t it bowl me over at the time?
This weekend I was in Oxford, at the College, for a Gaudy. The word derives from Latin (of course) and essentially means enjoyment or merry-making, a feast. The Gaudy is a get together of a number of years of student intake, in this case people who started between 1975 and 1979. There were about 130 people there. A great opportunity to catch up with people who you may not have seen for ten or twenty, or even thirty, years. This is mostly good! We had a series of gatherings, and just ate and drank a lot, in our penguin suits.
The grouping of years meant that this was a bit of a male occasion, as the College didn’t admit women until 1979. Most Oxford colleges were single sex until then, when the majority changed their ways. Others followed a bit later. We were reminded last night that the first intake of women comprised 29 out of 300-odd undergraduates. I think it is now evenly split. Of the 29, 10 were there last night.
It was a beautiful Autumn day, crisp and sunny. I found a space around 4.30 to nip round the College and environs to take a few photos. To appreciate those surroundings that never quite made it into my consciousness, other than in a vague way, when I was studying here in the late seventies.
Not a lot has changed and here are a few of the shots I took yesterday.
The Chapel, through the Master’s garden. (The Master being the head of the College, effectively the Chairman. Currently Sir Ivor Crewe).
From the Master’s Lodgings, a view into the Radcliffe Quad.
The Radcliffe Quad.
Views through to the main Quad.
The main Quad.
View of Univ from the High Street.
Merton Street is out of the back of the College. Home to Merton College and Corpus Christi. Also where I lived in my first year – in the pink building below.
Logic Lane (sounds like something from Harry Potter, but massively predates it of course) runs through the College grounds and is a public path for most of the day. Views from both ends.
Looking into the High Street we see across to Queen’s. Always a big rival in sport. The local derby!
The Gaudy reminded me, once again, how lucky I was to be able to study at Oxford and in particular, at Univ. It has shaped my life, and I am so grateful for the learning and experience and friendships I took from those three years.
I’ve been playing a bit of Clash reggae this week. Never fails to lift you up. Some of the best music ever, in my world. My Have you Heard 3 is a tribute to some of that music.
“Revolution Rock” is up there with the best of Clash reggae. Pure celebration, with punching horns, a thudding bassline, a hint of dub and Joe Strummer in fine voice, calling us to arms. It’s off “London Calling” which is a candidate for best album in the world, ever. The moment when the Clash embraced the history of rock’n’roll.
But it wasn’t an original. That was by Danny Ray. Not an artist I know much about. From Jamaica, spent a lot of time in England, and best known in the reggae world as a producer. Just listen to his version of Revolution Rock. From 1976. Simpler than the Clash’s and with that elastic guitar sound that reminds me of Junior Murvin’s “Police and Thieves” (also covered by the Clash, of course).
Danny Ray
I’ve got this track on a compilation called “Revolution Rock: A Clash Jukebox”, which may have been a freebie from a music magazine in the first place. Or maybe it was Trojan records. Lots of songs either that the Clash covered or were inspired by. Anyway my mate Osama Rahman put a copy my way. It has original versions of other great Clash reggae tunes like “Armagideon Time”, “Pressure Drop” and “Junco Partner” (which wasn’t even reggae). As well as bizarre interludes like Anthony Newley singing “Pop Goes the Weasel”.
Big up to the Big Oz!
Everybody get off your seats… and rock to the brand new beat!
If you are in Barcelona and fancy a few hours of tranquility and lovely architecture, I can recommend the Poble Espanyol, up in the hills – Montjuic to be precise – overlooking the city.
I went there with our friends, John and Anita during our recent holiday. My wife, Kath, got to stay with the kids in Calagogo. But she got the guitar concert the night before in a lovely mountain village called Pals! The five teenagers we had between us preferred the beach, swimming pool, sleeping, hanging around the houses and the beach parties. Fair enough. But one of us had to hang around with them just in case.
The Poble Espanyol was built in 1929 for the Barcelona International Exhibition. It’s a life size display of architectural styles from around Spain. It was so popular during the exhibition that it was decided to keep it going – the original intention was to dismantle it after the exhibition finished.
I think they made a good call there. It really is a relaxing and intriguing place. Many of the buildings now have shops or cafes and restaurants on the ground floor. Arts and crafts and some very nice food and drink. You are spoilt for choice.
Here are a few photos.
This (below) is where we had lunch. A lovely cafe called Casa Arribes, serving food and wine from Arribes del Duero, a region next door to Portugal. We had a tasting menu which was just delicious! The red wines of the region are powerful, aromatic. Pirita and Terrazgo were the ones we tasted. Made from grapes unique to the region – one, I think, called San Juan. There was a lovely tangy white as well.
This one’s from the start of the visit, when we stopped for a quick refreshment. Yours truly in the pink shirt. Drinking Coke!
Maybe not the priority if you are only briefly in Barcelona, but if you have a bit of time definitely worth a visit.
I was listening to my iPod on shuffle tonight as I cooked dinner, and on came “If Not For You” by Bob Dylan. It’s from one of his post motorbike crash country albums of the late sixties/ early seventies, “New Morning”. It’s a nice song, not amazing, but good. But it reminded me that I first heard it sung by none other than Olivia Newton-John, an Australian folk singer who went on to greater things as the co-star of the film “Grease” with John Travolta. She also sang “Take Me Home Country Roads”, which became a bit of a Euro-disco hit in recent times. Bryan Ferry sang ‘If Not For You’ on his Dylan covers album, “Dylanesque”, too. Sadly there is no record of him covering “Take Me Home Country Roads” in a reggae/dance style!
So many songs spinning through my head!
Starting with Bob’s original If not for You from “New Morning”.
But I first heard the song as a twelve year old on Top of the Pops, by the lovely Olivia. Steel guitars to the fore. Influenced I think by another version, by George Harrison. This video is from Australia, but it’s similar to Top of the Pops.
A few years later Olivia was transformed, in “Grease”. At the time it seemed one of the most unlikely makeovers. But a good one!
Before “Grease” her other big hit was ‘Take Me Home Country Roads”.
This was originally by John Denver. I am not going there! But I did like the fact that it was eventually turned into a Eurodisco song, which I heard on the beach at my favourite place, Calagogo, on the Costa Brava, in Spain. By the Hermes House Band, who I think are from Holland.
The remix is even better!
So many songs spawned by a snippet of Bob Dylan! Let’s at least end on another cover of ‘If Not For You”, this time by the front man of Roxy Music, the very great Bryan Ferry.
If we had a vote, I think I know which of these videos would win though…
Roxy Music are one of the great British bands of the 70s – and 80s. There has never been anyone else like them. When they burst on the scene in the early seventies, I, as a young teenager, didn’t really know what to make of them. They were weirder than David Bowie and almost as as good. (It was the time of Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane). Their music was a melange of glam rock, prog, jazz, cabaret, rock’n’roll, psychedelia, just about everything. And they looked and dressed like no-one else. Absurd and cool at the same time.
The original band was Bryan Ferry on warbling vocals, Phil Manzanera on guitar, Brian Eno on synthesisers and general weirdness, Andy Mackay on sax and woodwind, Phil Thompson on drums and Graham Simpson on bass. ( The latter didn’t last long even though he was a founder member. Bassists always came and went in Roxy). Ferry was the main songwriter and grew quickly to dominate the band, especially after Eno left, after the first two albums. We will always wonder what would have happened if Eno had stayed, as he seemed always to be the most radical, sonically. But we shouldn’t underestimate the creativity and radicalism of Ferry.
The music has stood the test of time. The seventies music still sounds like nothing else, just as it did when it was first released. There was a second wind in the eighties, when Roxy moved with the times, and incorporated a smoother, slicker, atmospheric, soulful sound, most evident on “Flesh and Blood” and “Avalon”. It was very much the Bryan Ferry show after the creative burst of the first half of the seventies. The days of Brian Eno laying down the crazy synths sounds , and guitarist Phil Manzanera inventing new noises were over. But a new generation in the eighties loved the remade and remodelled Roxy. A couple of years ago I went to see a reunited Roxy (sans Eno) at the London O2. To the delight of me and my friends they started with a whole load of seventies classics. They went down pretty well with the crowd. But then, when they launched into the eighties, a whole new part of the crowd – and I have to admit, more – went crazy. This was their Roxy. To be filed with Dire Straits, Sting and Phil Collins. Hmmm….
So this is my Ten. I can’t help but concentrate on the seventies classics. They are the ones that marked out Roxy Music as one of the most distinctive bands of the era. They are the ones I still still listen to and marvel at. But I’ve squeezed in a couple of later tunes, because I do like Roxy Mk II too.
For some reason, I haven’t been able to upload some of the Roxy tunes from my iTunes, so I’ve reverted to Youtube. Quite a few live videos from the early days, when they were a staple of a BBC rock show called the “Old Grey Whistle Test” (OGWT). actually, given the visual aspect of Roxy it’s no bad thing.
10. Take a Chance With Me, from Avalon
This is one of the eighties tunes. “Avalon “is a mellow, atmospheric album. This track has grown on me over the years. I think it is Bryan Ferry at his most soulful. The video here shows how he looked in the early eighties. To be contrasted with the seventies appearances. But it has to be said that Bryan in the late seventies and early eighties was probably the coolest man on earth. Perfect haircut (which I tried but failed to emulate) and an ability to wear a suit like no-one else. Maybe he just had a good tailor..
9. Amazona, from Stranded
“Stranded” was released in 1973. It was the first Roxy album I got to know at the time it was released. It’s a brilliant piece of work. With an iconic cover. “Amazona” is a funky track that I grew to love in later years, prompted by the fact that rapper Ice-T sampled it for one of his great tunes, That’s How I’m Living . Sounds like it, anyway. (Listen to it here by clicking on that title). Picking this one has made me leave “Street Life”, from the same album, out of this Ten. Oh, I’m still wondering whether I’ve done the right thing!
8. Mother of Pearl, from Stranded
An epic. The raucous start descends into a woozy mid tempo chug in which Bryan Ferry declares, Oh Mother of Pearl, I wouldn’t trade you for another girl… Roxy’s love songs were different!
7. Angel Eyes, from Manifesto (but single version here)
Roxy went a bit quiet after 1976. “Manifesto” was the first step in their re-emergence. I really liked the diamond sharp dance riffs and the sheen of “Angel Eyes” when it came out in 1979, and I still do. This one has a proper promotional video.
6. Virginia Plain, single.
“Virginia Plain” was the song that made Roxy Music stars in 1972. Strangely it wasn’t on the debut album. It was a frantic, skewed rocker, with Ferry’s undulating vocals giving it an strangeness that was a big part of its appeal. It made no2 in the charts, and made Roxy the outre limb of the glam movement.
5. Love Is the Drug, from Siren
A jaunty, sleazy classic from the mid seventies, when Ferry had taken to wearing military style outfits, which might have attracted more derision had he not been so damned stylish!
Dim the lights, you can guess the rest…
4. Do The Strand, from For Your Pleasure
“For Your Pleasure” was Roxy’s second album, and maybe their best. “Do The Strand” is one of those songs that only Roxy could have done. Frantic piano, wailing sax, Ferry on full warble, rock’n’roll from, I don’t know, Czarist Russia? Nonsensical but memorable lyrics… Rhododendron is a nice flower…
Go to 1.20 of this video for the start of the music. The first bit is Richard Williams, who used to present OGWT, explaining why Roxy were great. Which is good, if you are interested.
3. Editions of You, from For Your Pleasure
In which all the players take turns to wig out, with Eno to the fore. And a segue from his synth craziness to Manzanera’s guitar solo that still takes my breath away.
2. Ladytron, from Roxy Music
The intro to this song, featuring Andy Mackay on clarinet, is so beguiling and disorientating. It conjures up images of darkened dens, of mysterious caves, mist and danger (too much Harry Potter!). It is the best single segment of music by Roxy Music, I think. And I love the way that the opening salvo slides into Ferry’s wistful croon:
You’ve got me girl on the runaround…
This video might demystify the music a little, but it shows how distinctive Roxy Music were at the time (1972). And still are.
1. In Every Dream Home a Heartache, from For Your Pleasure
In which everything about Roxy Music – the strange, sleazy sounds, the songs about faded glamour and empty encounters, the richness and originality of the music, the singular oddness of Bryan Ferry’s voice, come together in a maelstrom of angst and musical mayhem. The only song about an inflatable doll that doesn’t attract immediate derision. In fact, the only song about an inflatable doll that I know!
This is the very essence of Roxy Music.
Again, the video is from the BBC’s “Old Grey Whistle Test”. Look at those eyes!
Near Misses
So many, so many!
“Re-make, Re-model” and “If There Is Something” from the first album. The second single, “Pyjamarama”, with jangling guitar, Ferry vibrating, and saxophone soaring. A feel of Bowie. The song I most regretted leaving out of the ten. ‘Street Life” and “Song for Europe” (jamais, jamais, jamais!) from “Stranded”. “The Thrill Of It All”, “All I want Is You”, “Out Of The Blue” and “Prairie Rose” (Roxy meets country rock) from “Country Life”, with the most provocative cover of all the provocative covers. ‘Both Ends Burning”, ‘Whirlwind” and “Sentimental Fool” (cousin of Ladytron) from “Siren’. “Dance Away” from “Manifesto”. and then all those eighties smoothies: songs like “Same Old Scene”, “More Than This’, “Oh Yeah” and “Over You”.
So, I was writing a piece for my musical journey book earlier tonight, about Kylie Minogue. Part of a sweep up of 80s popsters who didn’t fit into any other categories. Next to her on my iPod was Kurt Vile, Americana personified. How different could they be? But I love them both.
Kylie for some of the best dance/pop of any era. Catchy tunes, great videos. And humour. Go Aussie!
Kurt, for some seriously good heartfelt country rocking. With a blurred but hard edge.
One of my shots from Latitude festival. See my blogs for more.
So for this match made in heaven, I’m going for Kylie’s classic 1990 dance hit What do I Have to Do? and Kurt’s acoustic guitar masterpiece, Heart Attack. From different worlds, but both do something for me. And given that Kylie once teamed up with Nick Cave, I can’t see why a duet with Kurt Vile wouldn’t work in the future.
In fact, I think it would be brilliant!
(Click on the titles to play the songs. separate page so you can click back on the text to continue reading)
I was fortunate to be at the London Paralympics closing ceremony on Sunday 9 September, with my friends Tony and Jon.
This post is mainly about the sights and sounds of the Paralympics and indeed the Olympics. But also the feelgood factor, the togetherness, the appreciation of the athletes, the inspiration, the pride in GB. Wow! I think we may just have rediscovered ourselves as a nation. And GB, UK, not just England. I wonder whether it will have any effect on the debate about Scottish independence. Maybe a few people, both sides of the border not so keen now? Maybe…
Anyway, I said it’s mainly about the sights and sounds. A few photos and an appreciation – again – of Coldplay, whose live performance was the centrepiece of the evening. Regular readers may recall my Coldplay Top Ten, written with my son, Kieran. Have a look, it was great fun writing.
We were in the top tier of the stadium, but in a great position, so we had all the main events, including Coldplay, facing us. The first thing that struck me as things got going was the sheer colourfulness of it all. That remained throughout the evening, helped by the pixel panels fixed to 70,799 seats. These together produced 640,000 computer-controlled LED pixels that lit up the stadium in all sorts of amazing ways. So I read in the programme!
So let’s start with a simple shot of inside the stadium.
The athletes paraded before the televised ceremony at 8.30pm, so they were in their seats when it started, and TV viewers didn’t have to watch the rather dull scenes as people enter the stadium very slowly for a couple of hours. But I did wonder later whether the athletes felt that the ceremony wasn’t enough about them as a result. But I doubt it, given what a great spectacle it was.
GB coming in.
We had these flags in front of us. No-one knew which countries they were Checking since, I think it was Kyrgistan, with Kuwait and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (ie, Laos) either side.
Paralympics symbols floating.
Smoky!
The entrance of the flags.
Shot through with love…
The main themes of the show were about the flames and the seasons. We had a helpful piece of paper telling us this. Otherwise, to be honest, no-one would have had a clue what all the processions and general weirdness was all about. Not that it mattered. It was all spectacular and fun!
Before Coldplay came on there was an interlude. Amongst other things, it served to acknowledge the contribution of the volunteers the Games Makers. I couldn’t agree more, it has been a brilliant aspect of the Olympics and Paralympics. All the people in their purple shirts, ready with a smile, ready to help, the epitome of the positivity that has characterised these games. The antidote to cynicism. Can we build on this, defeat the naysayers long term? The media moaners, the trolls? Oh, I doubt it, but at least these games gave us hope.
Then it was time for Coldplay and their friends. their set split into the four seasons, but I’m not sure anyone really noticed. It was just a good concert. Coldplay were perfect for the occasion: those big, heartfelt anthems. Nothing too complex, just sentiments that everyone can easily share. That is what we needed, to articulate the feelings of these games. A simple love, fellow feeling, admiration of the individual and team heroics before us.
They played their best tunes, old and new. From “Yellow” to “Clocks”, “The Scientist”, “Viva la Vida”, “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”, “Charlie Brown” and best of all, Para-Para-Paradise!
They had a couple of top guests too. Rihanna and Jay Z. Shows the pulling power of these Coldplay boys, modest though they may be.
I didn’t catch Jay Z on camera, as I was trying to take a video, but here are a couple of Rihanna.
Coldplay and the multitude of dancers,
Couldn’t see the fireworks in full from where we were sitting, but they certainly lit up the place. And I liked this shot of lights that looked like a Star Trek laser beam zapping some aliens.
So that’s it. A brilliant, moving, inspiring summer of sport in which we celebrated huge success amongst the British athletes, saw an exhibition of great skill and effort and dignity, felt an affinity with our fellow citizens that was unique in my experience, and fell in love with ourselves amid the strife of economic recession and political inertia. We shed some tears of joy in both games, gulped as we witnessed athletes overcoming disabilities to perform at astonishing levels. We marvelled at world records and the sheer brilliance of the elite performers. It’s been a trip, and the main man, Seb Coe summed it all up perfectly last night, as he described the Paralympics:
In this country we will never think of sport the same way and we will never think of disability the same way. So yes, the Paralympians have lifted the cloud of limitation.
I like that, lifting the cloud of limitation. One for us all.
Last weekend my family and I paid two visits to the Olympic Park, to watch the Paralympic Games. On Saturday morning we spent a few hours at the Velodrome, watching the cycling, and on Sunday evening we were at the Olympic Stadium itself to see the athletics. Both were brilliant.
The Velodrome is a wonderful building, inside and outside. Affectionately nicknamed the “Pringle” its wooden curves make for the most distinctive architecture in the Park. Inside it is impressive too, though strangely it seemed a bit smaller than I’d imagined from viewing it on the TV.
This is a shot I took back in May when we visited the park for London Prepares.
Inside.
It’s a venue fit for heroics and the cyclists certainly obliged on Saturday morning. There was some extraordinary racing. Now, you start at first observing what any particular athlete’s disability is and marvelling at how they can perform at such a high level; but very quickly that is all forgotten and it’s just raw excitement at the brilliant competition. Readers of this blog will know from earlier Sportthoughts entries that I love the cycling, both on the road and in the velodrome, and the racing on Saturday was a real privilege to watch.
Lots going on in the technical areas.
The first race was the men’s 1km time trial tandem race for visually impaired riders. It’s a two man race (obviously, being a tandem!) with a guide at the front and the main cyclist at the back. Quite how it’s designed so that the rider at the back determines the speed, I’m not sure, except that the cogs at the back wheel are much bigger than those that the front rider are pedalling through. There were two British partnerships in the race: Neil Fachie and Barney Storey and Anthony Kappes and Craig Maclean. They were the last two pairs to race, so were favourites. Faschie and Storey were amazing and the roar that drove them on was immense. You get this wave of sound as each part of the crowd urges them on as they pass that section by. So in the crowd it’s like a sonic Mexican wave. But for the riders it will be constant as they move around the track. It has to be inspirational.
Faschie and Storey set the best time and waited for Kappes and Maclean They began… and stopped. The chain had slipped. After a tense interlude, it was deemed a technical fault rather than the riders’ fault, so they had another chance. Ready, steady… same happened. Two false starts and out. Gutting. But Fachie and Storey Gold.
We then had two sets of heats for individual pursuit at 4km. 16 laps of the tracks. Different disabilities, C4 and C5. In the first set, C4, Jody Cundy, who the day before had dominated the media with his outburst after being disqualified in another race, raced to the third best time, which put him in the bronze medal race later in the day. Hugely popular. His parents and other supporters were sitting just in front of us. So proud.
Sod’s law – camera battery ran out, but I’ve googled some images from the final later. It then dawned on me that I had the iPhone, from whence the next few shots come.
In the second set, the C5, Jon Allan Butterworth was GB’s hope. He lost an arm in the Iraq war. He was up against Irishman Cathal Miller. Plenty of Irish fans in the crowd. They set off. Slowly but surely (or is that quickly?) Butterworth caught up with Miller, who was one of the best himself. Eventually, Butterworth overtook his rival, and right in front of us. Amazing moment and frightening when you see how close the bikes were to each other. Butterworth went on to break the world record time, to a huge roar.
But in the last pursuit, the Aussie, Michael Gallagher, did even better and broke the world record again. Brilliant, and given a reception equal to any of the GB boys. That’s what the Olympics and Paralympics have been about. Partisan yes, but also appreciative of excellence from all participants.
In the finals, Cundy got the bronze and Butterworth the silver. Cundy caught his rival after six laps and that was it, being a final. Butterworth went off fast, led for a good part of the race, but was then overtaken and well beaten by Gallagher. Credit to both.
And those bikes – I’d love one!
Jody Cundy winning that bronze.
Google Images/ cyclingshorts.uk.com
Googles Images/ jodycundy.com
Jon Allan Butterworth, silver.
Google Images/ telegraph.co.uk
google Images/ telegraph.co.uk
So, on to Sunday and the athletics. The stadium packed to the rafters, 80,000 people. Must be amazing for the athletes. I imagine the crowds they usually perform in front of are quite small. And then 80,000! Inspiring yes, but also pretty frightening!
What we saw was a succession of astounding races. (And, this night, long jump, javelin and discus). Again you marvel at what people are capable of, given their disabilities, and then simply succumb to the excitement of the finishes. Just a few highlights here, biased as ever to GB.
The visually impaired athletes run with a guide. So they’ve got to be pretty good themselves! But what a wonderful partnership. What trust and understanding it must involve. An inspiring example of teamwork. Here’s the first example we saw, with the winner the Brazilian Terezinha Guilhermina, in the women’s T11 200m.
Graeme Ballard lined up for the men’s T36 100m. He got silver, pipped by Evgenii Shvetcov of Russia.
GB’s Libby Clegg won silver in the women’s T12 100m for visually impaired racers. A really popular result. First photo here is before the race, second after.
In the men’s T64 100m, which was a wheelchair race, the Finn Leo Pekka Tahti won, I think, for the fourth Paralympics in a row. Respect.
Lots of great races, but the first of the Big Two was the great man, Oscar Pistorius of South Africa, in the T44 200m. Tremendous excitement in the stadium. Pistorius is the first worldwide hero of Paralympics, and the man who crossed over and competed superbly in the Olympics 400m. This would be his crowning glory.
A couple of shots. The side-on one, if nothing else, shows how fast they were going.
But shock. After leading so clearly, Pistorius was overtaken on the line by Alan Fouteles Cardoso Oliveira of Brazil (the guy in green, lying third in this shot). In the stadium we applauded the winner, and remained unaware that soon after Pistorius cast doubt on Oliveira’s blades. Great story for the media. Overshadowed everything else. On the one hand a shame. On the other, the controversy normalises the Paralympics. Gives it greater prominence in the headlines. Pity, but that is how the media operates. Jody Cundy’s outburst and Pistorius’ allegations were the headline moments. The Paralympics go mainstream.
But then, the best moment of all. GB’s David Weir in the men’s T54 5000m. One of four races he is going for, from 800m to the Marathon. Yes, the Marathon! Talk about a combination of speed and endurance. And what a race! The wheel chairs are extraordinary, especially when they start moving at the speeds the athletes propel them. You almost think you are watching a form of cycling or something like go-karting. Having 5000m allows the race to ebb and flow, allows the tension, the anticipation, to build. And it did. The lead changed hands countless times. Early on I guess it was everyone doing their bit to keep the pace up. Later, it got very tactical. Weir lurked two or there back and then, on the final straight, pounced. And won! The crowd went crazy. It was the Mo Farrar moment for the British Paralympics. Fantastic.
We all went home happy after that!
Warming up.
Winning.
Google Images/ bbc.co.uk
Celebrating! (iPhone shot)
The positive feeling around the Paralympics is amazing. And Channel 4’s coverage has been excellent too. I’m no expert on Paralympic sport, but this must be a watershed for all the sports. The moment when people realised, hey, this is just great sport, and the fact that the participants have disabilities just makes it even more admirable. Rather than being an afterthought, a speciality.
Since the weekend, the events have carried on thrilling, and David Weir has had another win, in the 1500m. More uproar in the stadium. And tomorrow we have one of the most anticipated showdowns. GB’s Jonny Peacock against Oscar Pistorius in the 100m.
I had the pleasure and privilege of going to the Paralympics on Saturday and Sunday 1 and 2 September. Saturday for cycling at the velodrome and Sunday at the main stadium for the athletics. Planning a blog about those visits but it’s getting late tonight and it would take a couple of hours, with all the photos. So a little taster here, of the buildings as we left on Sunday night. iPhone as my camera had run out of battery. With some of those distortions when you zoom in.
The multicoloured stadium.
A distorted detail.
The Orbit in iPhone techno colour.
I look at these and the Orbit starts to make sense. Virtual reality.
Thoughtsfromwestfive 