My Story: London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony (Part 3)

This follows...
http://travelhappinesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-story-london-2012-olympic-opening_29.html


With time running out until the big day, our rehearsals became more frequent. We were at the stadium for long days and did four days straight between Wednesday 18th and Saturday 21st July, the Saturday being our first full dress rehearsal. While there was a lot of hanging around, my friends and I never complained, we knew what an amazing experience this would be. It was always nice to have a sit down in the middle of the magnificent stadium if we got the chance...but only when it wasn't raining. 

A lot of the things we worked on as drummers were coming down the stairs in time with each other, avoiding the 'traffic' with the workers humping large bits of scenery and turf and our standing positions toward the end of the piece. One day I was particularly excited as my group were instructed to drum from the Tor - the large grass mound. Alas, that was the only day I got on there. We also got to see parts of the other scenes in the ceremony, I remember us drummers giving the dancers a standing ovation after seeing some of their scene. Support for the other groups was amazing, everybody clapped and cheered each other through the rehearsals, and onto the big nights.

Final Week: Monday 23rd, Wednesday 25th, Friday 27th July 

There was a great deal of excitement in the final week, particularly watching the audience arrive in the park and start taking their seats. We had to get to the stadium early and there was a lot of hanging around.

Before & After:

  













For all three performances, due to being furthest away, my group had a call time of 8.15pm, just as the pre show was starting. With our sticks and straps we headed to the 'drum' compound, collected our bins and headed to our entrance, just above the lower seating on the podium level. 

Team 49!

And then it was showtime!


The following pics were taken by my wife who attended the Wednesday dress rehearsal. 

Laura and Mum 25/7/12

Here are some more from a different perspective - in the stands above my pitch position.

Look carefully I am the bald guy at the back of the drummers.

And then onto the night itself. We had a lovely surprise on the way in when we were given one of the official opening ceremony programmes which had our names in it and many of our faces.

For our Industrial revolution scene we were so well drilled it seemed to go like a dream. I loved returning back up the stairs we descended to applause and some high fives. As with the other nights, it was a quick change into our marshalling gear and ready to do the athletes parade. the big difference on the night however was that we had never done this with athletes or to a full house. Steve Boyd, our mass choreography leader came out with some classic instructions on the night including "Can you get the Australians off the Water wheel - IT'S HOLLOW"  

While 200 of the drummers accompanied the entrance of the teams with their beats, the rest of us were spread all over the stage, creating the lovely shapes you saw on TV and spent most of the time dancing away and doing our special moves like 'The Bolt', the 'Freddie' (Mercury) and the 'Travolta'!

Then there was the small matter of The Arctic Monkeys, speeches, the opening of the games by the Queen, the lighting of the cauldron, Sir Paul McCartney and of course thousands of fireworks. 

   










The whole process from audition to opening ceremony was brilliant and something I will remember for the rest of my life. 

The final photos are the best I could find and show I WAS THERE! 

Taken on Monday dress rehearsal by my friend Caroline - quite unbelievable that I would end up in front of her! 

I am top right!

Here I am fifth from left.

the bald head shows my second marshalling position - facing the Queen 

Here I am in my first marshalling position.

and Closing Ceremony:

http://travelhappinesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/my-story-london-2012-olympics-closing.html

My Story: London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony (Part 2)

This follows: 
http://travelhappinesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-story-london-2012-olympic-opening.html

After the euphoria of receiving the news that I would be performing in the opening ceremony I checked the e-mail attachments and discovered that group 51C would also be involved in the Closing Ceremony. "Wow" I thought. 
The e-mail contained our rehearsal timetable with the first one being back at Three Mills on 24th May. 

Four months later the day arrived. Upon arriving at 3 Mills I was looking out for a few people I'd met on twitter, Neil, Amy and Craig but it was Charlotte, from my second audition that I saw first. I jumped into the queue with her.
Danny Boyle was at our first rehearsal and in smaller groups he took us through the model of 'green and pleasant land' and showed a 15 minute pre-production video of what the Industrial Revolution scene might look like. To be honest, although it was a very scratchy video with bits of raw footage linked with CGI, it took most peoples breath away. It was then that we knew that Brunel would play a large part, that 7 chimneys would come up from the ground, that we would probably have positions which would mean interaction with the audience and that the fallen would be honoured within the piece.

We also learned the main phrase that we would be drumming - "PLAY THE DRUM, SO YOUR MUM, CAN SEE, YOU ON TV". We did a number of exercises including walking on the spot to a click track and trying to get the rhythm.

Two days later we had a rehearsal at a new venue called 1:1 in Dagenham (left). This was a large piece of land which had formally been part of the Ford car works and was large enough to set up 2 Olympic stadium sized areas either side of what looked like a circus tent. This rehearsal was for our other job on opening ceremony night - we were to be marshals for the athletes parade. This was very exciting because it meant that we would be there all night and be there for the parade and the cauldron being lit. For the first few rehearsals in Dagenham we learned some dance moves and what a flipper does (imagine a pinball machine - just like that but it helps feed athletes into the correct areas on stage).

In the remaining two rehearsals at Three Mills we became more familiar with the music to accompany our scene, written by Underworld. We also got to know Rick Smith (with me - right) from Underworld and his warmth and humour very well. We were introduced to our 'drums' which were a range of plastic/metal buckets and larger black bins. I managed to get the large bass bin and my sticks had tennis balls at the top. Initially I didn't think these would be our actual instruments for the night but as time moved on...I realised they were.
This is an official London 2012 video of rehearsals at Three Mills.

While at 3 Mills some of us also got fitted for their opening ceremony costumes. I preferred my industrial revolution outfit (left) to the marshal one (right) but I didn't think that one was too bad either.
From 9th June we were at Dagenham where we were given headphones, we started to use radios and our drums were brought over.


At this point the 1000 of us were also split into 50 teams of 20 so it was time to meet some new people. I was in group 49.
Tuesday 19th June was a significant day - it was our first time in the Olympic Stadium. 

I loved it and not just because from now we got a lunch/dinner bag. With the exception of two final days at 1:1 Dagenham, all our rehearsals took place in the stadium where we tried all manner of walking down the steps, walking out of the Voms (large entrance/exit onto the field of play). Sometimes we drummed and sometimes we practised the marshalling.

With Amy and Charlotte

Marshalling Practice

The final picture is taken from 'Wet Thursday' where it didn't stop raining. Thankfully it was also the night we first saw the amazing lighting on all the seats and I couldn't resist taking the photo below.

Next up: Part 3 - Dress rehearsals and THE BIG NIGHT
http://travelhappinesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-story-london-2012-olympic-opening_30.html

My Story: London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony (Part 1)

If you saw the Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday (27th July) night, I was one of the drummers in the spectacular Industrial Revolution 'Pandemonium' sequence which turned England's green and pleasant land into a dark 'satanic' landscape.

In fact from this...

..to this!

This was the culmination of months of rehearsals, blood sweat and tears. Well, actually no blood from me (although some of the cast did hurt themselves in rehearsals) but plenty of sweat and I'll admit a couple of tears here and there when we got to the final week and started to see how this great spectacle would work out including the parts that would tug at a few heart strings.

My story started in September 2011 when I read that drummers were needed for the opening ceremony of the Olympics. I am a drummer and have been playing since I was 16. In my new found 'freedom' of self employment I decided to apply and on 15th September received the date for my first audition - 5th November. I remember being particularly excited about the audition but also secretive - the last thing I wanted to do was to tell people I applied and then didn't get it. The audition was also a generic audition so hopeful dancers, actors and drummers would be thrust together competing for places. We knew that not everyone would be successful and I didn't know whether I would be a drummer. My target was to be involved in the opening ceremony in some way. 
I arrived at Three Mills studio in Bromley-by-Bow, East London pretty early, 7.45am for a 8.30 start but I wasn't the first, there were plenty of other eager beavers out there. That said, I received the 002 number.

Once the first hundred were seated we were asked to move to the rear of the studio and were introduced to Steve Boyd, an incredibly likeable bearded American who talked us through the floor grid where we were standing. For mass choreography, people need to know their place. We did some exercises designed to get us to find certain grid points and we were charged with teaching the next hundred through the door. When we had our quota of 200 - it was time to crack on. We went through a number of exercises which involved walking in time in lines, learning routines and even dancing. Toward the end, we lined up in front of 'judges' performing a routine. Before my go, I practised furiously on the side concentrating on my moves and telling myself how important this next minute could be in terms of winning the spot to be involved in a once in a lifetime experience. 
I thought I did ok and then right before leaving we were asked if we were drummers or roller skaters etc. I joined the drummer line, gave my name, told them I'd been playing for 22 years, went home and waited.      

The wait was less than 10 hours! On the same day I received a congratulatory e-mail inviting me back to Three Mills on 20th November for a 'role specific' audition but with no further details. On the 19th, I received another e-mail confirming this was for drumming. 

The drumming audition involved us moving around different rooms, listening to click tracks and banging buckets or using our mouths to create beats with the click track being dropped out of audio for moments which was designed to see if we could keep time. At times drummers were split into groups from very experienced to very inexperienced and by the end of it I felt I had done really well. It was also nice to hear the people around me say they missed me when I had moved because I had been helping them. On the way out of the final room I saw Danny Boyle and I shamelessly 'broke rank', walked over to him, shook his hand and told him it was great to meet him. His response was one of surprise as he thanked me for my time. What a guy! 


The last activity was a group photo for a chosen few. As I was picked I hoped this was a good sign and that I might have made the cut. While we were being organised Steve Boyd was laughing to himself saying "you don't know what this is for but it's gonna blow your minds on 27th July".

I can now reveal that the photo became the print for the placard bearing ladies leading the teams out. The photo on the right shows my friend Charlotte find her face on the dress. Unfortunately my mug was not on the final dress. Boo.

So that was the audition process. I would need to wait until January to find out whether I had been selected. 

And then on 16th January 2012 it arrived - my e-mail (below).

Next: 
Part 2 - First Rehearsals 

http://travelhappinesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-story-london-2012-olympic-opening_29.html
Part 3 - Final Rehearsals and the big night
http://travelhappinesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-story-london-2012-olympic-opening_30.html