It's not every night you get to walk the red carpet at a film première, watch a really good new film and then get to meet one of our Olympic gold medallists, but that's exactly what happened to me last night. I've been in a really good mood today because of it all. (Well, I was until we were all told at work today that we're not getting any pay rise this year, but that's another matter.)



I'm still getting over the thrill of shaking the hand of boxer James DeGale (above), who won team GB's final gold medal in Beijing. I'm pretty sure I've never shaken the hand of an Olympic gold winner, let alone one as powerful as his. (He didn't have the vice-like handshake that I was expecting; it was all quite normal.) I watched his final rounds from Beijing last Summer, so it was good to have a little chat with him as well.

Anyone who follows sport, or watched the Olympics, or listens to Five Live, knows already what a friendly and polite young man James DeGale is, but it still took two bottles of Sol before I plucked up the courage to speak to him at the party we attended last night, and he was chatty and charming. I was in Bed at Gatecrasher with my friend Sarah, which sounds saucy, but that's the name of the club within a club! We had both attended the Midlands première at Cineworld next door of a film called Clubbed, thanks to my friend Phil who is doing the PR for the film. We were gatecrashers at Gatecrasher. Clubbed hits screens across the country this Friday. I'll review the film tomorrow, as it's well worth a few words and worth seeking out, if you get chance. You'll have to see it in the next few days though. This ain't no Mamma Mia - it won't be around as long and it requires a stronger stomach.

Have a look at the trailer below, or the official Clubbed website here. I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Labels: Beijing, boxing, Clubbed, film, James DeGale, Olympics

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It's World Food Day today and Blue Peter's 50th birthday. The government has decided to mark these occasions with a parade of our Olympians and Paralympians around London on buses, while sending the Queen to visit Google (according to their homepage):



Tonight, I will be scanning something which relates to one of these events, which will make you smile. No time now though...

I haven't yet watched today's 50th anniversary Blue Peter programme, but it reminded me to dig out this from my tape collection. This is what I was doing thirty years ago today. It's cassette number one from my collection, from 1978. (I'd had a tape recorder since 1975, but started numbering them from this one because on side 2 it has Blondie's Parallel Lines; the first album I ever taped from a friend's vinyl copy.)

On side 1 is Blue Peter's 20th anniversary programme, which I've labelled correctly on the spine, but for some reason called 'Blue Peter - Highlights from the 25th Anniversary Programme' on the inlay card, erroneously adding five years. (I was only 12 in October 1978, but it's no excuse!) The recording is an audio copy of the anniversary programme, which I deemed important enough to preserve for posterity by holding the microphone from my Kasuga cassette recorder in front of the TV for 25 minutes. As a sign of things to come, side one also includes three songs from Eurovision 1979.

To the twelve-year-old me in 1978, Blue Peter was more than an institution already and felt like it had been around for ever, so for it to make fifty is amazing. Congratulations to all concerned!



The Queen had a garden party yesterday for Blue Peter viewers and former presenters, but, according to Richard Bacon last night on his Five Live show (which I listen to every night), he and Janet Ellis weren't invited, so they had their own party, together. It's often been said that Janet Ellis was sacked from Blue Peter in 1987 because she was pregnant and not married to the father of the baby, but she says this is a myth and so does Biddy Baxter, Blue Peter's legendary editor. (Some people also think that the baby in question was Sophie Ellis-Bextor, but Janet had given birth to her eight years earlier.) Richard Bacon also had his moment of disgrace, but I really hope that these aren't the reasons why these two weren't invited to the palace, or it would indicate that things haven't moved on very much where the monarchy is concerned.

Good luck to Blue Peter and all who sail in her! May you never go the way of Grange Hill and Top Of The Pops.

Labels: Blue Peter, google, Olympics, World Food Day

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1,434 days.

Or 204 weeks.

Or 3 years, 11 months and 4 days...and a mere £9.325 billion.


... until Friday 27 July 2012 - the start of the London Olympics and Paralympics.

You wouldn't want to be Lord Coe, would you?

London officially becomes the next Olympic city at the end of today's closing ceremony in Beijing. (BBC One coverage starts at 12:00 BST.) This is despite the fact that Beijing is still to host the Paralympics, which start in thirteen days' time. Bumbling Boris, who will hopefully be voted out of office two months before the London Olympics start, will be handed the Antwerp flag and then it's all ours!

At exactly 14:04 BST today, if it runs to time, London will be given eight minutes of the closing ceremony to give a flavour of what we can expect to see in 2012. (It's that Chinese lucky eight thing again.) This will apparently include:

• A London bus being chased into the stadium by three of our cyclists; gold medallist Victoria Pendleton, triple gold medallist Chris Hoy and BMXer Shanaze Reade (who fell off in her final, thereby showing the full range, from British excellence to plucky, heroic British failure).
  

• A soundtrack which includes the shipping forecast.

• David Beckham.

• The bus opening out like a flower.

• Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page doing 'Whole Lotta Love'.

I'm still unsure whether to be horrified or excited by this prospect. It's clearly going to be a bit naffer than 5,000 years of Chinese history, which was done so effectively in Beijing's opening ceremony. It looks very much like it will be done with a cheeky, British sense of humour, which will basically be the UK saying, "Look, we can't afford the forty billion that China has spent on the games. We're going to do it our own way, on the cheap, if that's okay with the rest of the world."

While all of this is going on in Beijing, there's a party in The Mall in London, where the Olympic spirit will be celebrated, appropriately enough, outside the home of Phil The Greek. Apparently, he and his German wife Liz won't be at home.

London has thirty screens up today to watch the closing ceremony and the gig on The Mall, in which the acts taking part, including Will Young, James Morrison and The Feeling will be doing sport-related songs. (Spandau Ballet's 'Gold', by any chance?) There's also rumoured to be a link to Notting Hill Carnival, where Heather Small will perform something. Hmm, I wonder which song that will be...

Labels: London, Olympics

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Synchronised swimming. I hadn't watched it for years until today's BBC Olympic coverage. It's clearly come on a long way in terms of ambition, gymnastics and theatricality, but two things stand out for a 'sport' which includes the words 'synchronised' and 'swimming' in its name.

1) Much of it isn't synchronised.
2) There's no swimming.

'Water dance' would be a more accurate name. Is it a sport? Should it be in the Olympics?

More importantly, given that we don't do it, please can it be replaced in the Olympics by snooker, darts and ballroom dancing? We're quite good at those and not many countries do the first two. Unfortunately, those pesky Russians have just won the synchronised swimming team event, giving them both of the available gold medals in synchro. This has taken them above Team GB in the medals table with 19 golds, pushing us down to fourth with 18. Pah!

(Photo (c) The Tribune, India)

Labels: Olympics, synchronised swimming

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Day two at the Olympics and the first medal for Team GB is a gold! Well done to Nicole Cooke (above) for winning the women's cycling road race, particularly as it looked like most of it was in the pouring rain! It's the first Olympic gold medal for Wales since 1972, when Richard Meade won a solo and a team gold in equestrian events; two of Great Britain's total of four golds for the whole 1972 games.

Labels: cycling, gold, Nicole Cooke, Olympics

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It's 08/08/08; the day the Chinese chose to start the Beijing Olympics as the number 8 is considered so lucky in China. So, at 8.08pm local time, the opening ceremony will start and drag on for about three and a half hours. I'll watch the highlights later.

We'll post today's golden videos tonight, probably while watching Dale's eviction from Big Brother. In the meantime, if you are on the dole or self-employed, enjoy the world's biggest firework display from Beijing later!

Wow! What an opening ceremony that was. I don't agree with the Olympics being in China, but as a spectacle this afternoon, that was amazing. It looked like they had spent the last seven years rehearsing.

Anyway, it's now time for our final couple of Olympic countdown videos. We're on a gold run Bob! This is also Olympic cliché alert time. If you see or hear Spandau Ballet's 'Gold' or Shed Seven's 'Going For Gold' used on any TV or radio coverage over the next sixteen days, let us know and we will name and shame the unimaginative culprits. Both great songs though, it can't be denied.


'Going For Gold' - Shed Seven




'Gold' - Spandau Ballet

Labels: Beijing, gold, Olympics, Shed Seven, Spandau Ballet

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The Olympics officially start tomorrow and our music-related countdown continues.

Since the dawn of time (1952), there have only been three top 75 hits called 'Silver'. The one that didn't make the top 40 was by a Canadian group called Moist. Let's not even go there.

Instead, here are both top 40 hits called 'Silver'. First, a number 15 hit from 2002 by Hundred Reasons, Then a hit from 1984 by Echo & The Bunnymen, which is much better, but only made number 30. There's no justice in the world. Which leads us nicely onto China. We'll be going for gold tomorrow, with no sign of Henry Kelly.

'Silver' - Hundred Reasons




'Silver' - Echo & The Bunnymen

Labels: Echo and The Bunnymen, Hundred Reasons, Olympics, silver

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I thought it would be a nice idea to post music videos based on bronze, silver and gold in these last three days before the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. (The games have started already in some sports, but we're not supposed to notice yet.)

However, this great plan has been scuppered already. Can you believe there has never been a top 40 hit single which includes the words 'bronze' or 'bronzed' in its title? (Why didn't Peter Andre ever release a song called Bronzed Adonis? Opportunity missed.) Nor has any artist with either of those words in their name ever had a top 40 hit.

There is a Bronze Records label, set up in 1971 and releasing music by acts including Osibisa, Manfred Mann, The Real Kids, Motörhead, The Damned, Girlschool and Hawkwind. It's also the label which scored a #19 hit in 1978 with this pop gem. There'll never be a better excuse...

'Mirrors' - Sally Oldfield



That wasn't really the point though, so instead of a bronze song, let's have one of the two hit songs to ever feature the word 'Olympic' in their title. Sadly, there is no YouTube footage of 'An Olympic Record' by The Barron Knights from October 1968; the month of the Mexico City Olympics, so here's the other one. This is one side of 808 State's number 10 hit from 1990 - not even an Olympic year - when it was paired with 'Cubik'. It's the only top 40 hit to be called 'Olympic'. Funnily enough, hearing it now, it sounds vaguely Chinese at the start, don't you think? It was released eleven years before Beijing was even chosen for 2008.

'Olympic' - 808 State

Labels: 808 State, Olympic, Olympics

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The next Olympics start in exactly one year. Hurrah! It's just a pity they're going to be in China...

Labels: 2008, Beijing, Olympics

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Sadly (for the whole country), this is just one that was sent in to the BBC website by someone called James Wren. The rubbish that we'll be seeing for the next five years is this piece of 'street art':



Anyone who thinks this is a man (on the left), wanking off another man who is crouching slightly, with a newspaper over his head - think George Michael visits Hampstead Heath - is clearly a sick pervert.

Labels: 2012, logo, London, Olympics

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