Duran Duran to headline London 2012 Olympics concert as music fans hit out on Twitter
By Louise Eccles
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In their 1980s heyday, news of a Duran Duran concert was guaranteed to prompt an outbreak of screaming fans.
Twenty-five years is a long time, however, and so when it was announced yesterday that the band will be the headline act at a major Olympics concert, the reflex was rather more subdued.
Indeed, the initial public reaction seemed to be bewilderment that a band with just two top ten hits in the past two decades had been chosen to showcase the best of British music to the world.
Hey day: Duran Duran band members Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor topped the charts in the 1980s and early 1990s
Music legends: Duran Duran with their award for Outstanding Contribution to Music after the 2004 Brit Awards
Novelist and former NME writer Tony Parsons wrote on Twitter: ‘Duran Duran to headline Olympic gig. Who is running the 1500 metres – Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett?’
Another writer, referring to Roy Hodgson being approached to manage the England football team, tweeted: ‘Duran Duran to headline the Olympic gig and a manager whose last title was in 1988 gets the England job. What next? Leg-warmers & Rubik’s cubes?’
Another joked: ‘At least if they’d chosen Spandau Ballet we’d be guaranteed one Gold.’ Others mocked Olympic organisers, who last month reportedly tried to book The Who drummer Keith Moon for the closing ceremony of the Games, even though he had been dead for nearly 34 years.
Novelist Tony Parsons was one of many on Twitter to poke fun at the decision to pick Duran Duran to headline
‘Lazy’: Telegraph music writer Lucy Jones criticised the lineup as ‘lazy and predictable’
The Poke’s Twitter feed referenced Duran Duran’s lack of hot records in recent years
Music Royalty: Princess Diana meeting members of Duran Duran at the premiere of James Bond film ‘A View To A Kill’ in Leicester Square in 1985
Eighties style: Duran Duran band mates Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor sport blazers and hair quiffs
One wrote: ‘I’m guessing Duran Duran must have got the call last minute when the London 2012 organisers found out Keith Moon wasn’t available.’
In a concert designed to showcase the ‘Best of British’, Duran Duran will join Snow Patrol, from Northern Ireland, Stereophonics, representing Wales and Paolo Nutini, for Scotland.
The BT London Live celebration concert, in Hyde Park in West London on July 27, will run alongside the opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in East London, footage from which will be broadcast live on giant screens between performances.
Out of date?: Duran Duran pose for a picture as they celebrate 30 years in the music industry
On stage: Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon performs at the concert in memory of Diana Princess of Wales on July 1, 2007, on what would have been her 46th birthday
Headliners: Duran Duran will perform at the BT London Live gig that will coincide with the Olympics opening ceremony
Tickets for the concert will go on sale to BT customers on Thursday at 9am before going on general sale on Friday.
Duran Duran were formed in Birmingham in 1978 and have gone through several line-ups but now consist of lead singer Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes on keyboards, bass guitarist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor.
They went on to sell more than 100million records, with hits including Rio, Hungry Like The Wolf, The Reflex, Wild Boys and Girls On Film.
Now: Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor in a recent promotion photo
Then: From left to right, Roger Taylor, John Taylor, Andy Taylor, Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes, wearing an interesting ensemble of clothing at the height of their popularity
THE OLYMPICS GIG LINE-UP
Blur’s Damon Albarn
The ‘Best of British’ concert will be held on 27 July to coincide with the Olympics opening ceremony.
Duran Duran have been picked to front the BT London Live gig to be held in Hyde Park.
They will join Snow Patrol, representing Northern Ireland, Stereophonics, representing Wales and Paolo Nutini, for Scotland.
The Olympics opening ceremony be broadcast on big screens in the park between performances.
Tickets for the opening ceremony celebration concert show go on sale on May 3 at 9am to BT customers before going on general sale on May 4.
Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets, east London, will broadcast the opening ceremony free to the public on two giant screens.
Another concert marking the end of the Olympics will be headlined by Blur on August 12 in Hyde Park and will also include performances from New Order and The Specials.
London 2012 Olympics: Surface-to-air missiles on top of flats as part of huge security operation
By Daily Mail Reporter
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Ground-to-air missiles are to be sited on the roof of a block of flats near the Olympic site as part of a huge security operation to protect the Games.
The Army will station soldiers and high-velocity surface-to-air missiles on the residential block in East London to ward off airborne terror threats.
Residents in the private, gated flats in Bow have received a leaflet warning them that a team of ten soldiers and police will be placed at the building – home to 700 people – for the duration of this summer’s Games.
Warning: High-velocity surface-to-air missiles will be stationed on the residential block in East London to ward off airborne terror threats
Protection: Defence Secretary Philip Hammond saw some of the Rapier System ground-to-air missile launchers during a visit to RAF Waddington near Lincoln, earlier this year
It follows an announcement by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond in November that missiles might be used to safeguard the Olympic site.
Last night, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the missiles would be deployed within the next few days. They describe them as ‘a useful deterrent’.
Resident Brian Whelan, a journalist, said the MoD leaflet says the missiles will be fired only as a last resort.
He said: ‘They are going to have a test run next week, putting high-velocity missiles on the roof just above our apartment. They’re stationing police and military in the tower of the building for two months.
‘It’s a private, gated community with an old watch tower which is now a lift shaft.
Target: Security agencies fear the Olympic site in Stratford, east London, will be targeted by terrorists and are preparing for a range of difference scenarios
‘We have an MoD leaflet saying the building is the only suitable place in the area. It says there will be ten officers plus police present 24/7. I’m not sure if they are going to live in the building. We have a gym and a pool and people have seen them there so it makes you think it will be some sort of Army base – it’s not ideal.
‘The property management company which runs the place put up posters and gave out the leaflets today.
‘The general tone was, “Great news, aren’t we lucky”, but that’s not normal, it’s not something people should have put on them.
‘I’ve looked these up [the missiles] and I don’t think they’re the kind of thing you can fire over a highly populated area like Tower Hamlets, think of the debris.’
Mr Whelan said the leaflet poses a series of questions residents might ask, such as: ‘Will this make me a target for terrorists?’
The 28-year-old said: ‘But the answer on it is that we will be safer with it here.
‘From the few people I’ve spoken to, and the security we have here, they’re not happy about it. I don’t think it needs to be here at all.’
Categories: News Tags: 2012, flats, Huge, London, missiles, Olympics, Operation, Part, Security, Surfacetoair
BBC will have more staff than Team GB athletes at the Olympics as they plan to squeeze 33 hours of TV out of every day of the games
- 800 staff including 139 presenters will provide round-the-clock coverage
By Paul Revoir
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When our athletes march out into the Olympic stadium in July, they will be one of the largest British squads ever at the Games.
Apart from the BBC’s team that is.
The army of Corporation staff being sent to broadcast at London 2012 easily outnumbers the competitors on Team GB.
Team GB: There’ll be more BBC employees than British athletes at the Olympics
In fact 765 BBC staff will be at the sporting spectacular, compared with the 550 athletes on the British team.
They plan to provide round-the-clock coverage, broadcasting more than 33 hours of action across various channels every day.
Coverage: BBC 2012 boss Roger Mosey
The staffing levels mark a 55 per cent increase on the number sent to cover the Beijing Olympics four years ago, when 493 staff recorded all the drama and glory.
Nearly a quarter of the BBC’s sports staff in Salford – around 175 people – will be sent to London for the Games, with the broadcaster paying for their accommodation.
The corporation has defended staffing levels for the Games, pointing out it will be showing 2,500 hours of live sport across TV, radio and online, including daily live TV broadcasts on BBC1, BBC2 and BBC3.
Roger Mosey, the BBC’s Director of London 2012, said the corporation would have 24 live high-definition channels covering every event and the first-ever 3D broadcasts of the Olympics.
There will also be coverage across Radio 5 Live, including a temporary digital radio service dedicated to the Games.
Writing on his blog, Mr Mosey claimed the increase in staff was inevitable because of the ‘massive increase in output’, with four times as many TV channels involved compared with the Beijing Games.
Mr Mosey pointed to the American broadcaster NBC which had sent more than 2,800 staff to previous Olympics and reports that Sky Sports used 380 staff as host broadcaster for last year’s Champions League final at Wembley.
Busy schedule: Presenters Clare Balding and Steve Cram will be part of the BBC team providing round-the-clock coverage
He also dismissed measuring the number of BBC staff against British competitors.
He said: ‘There’s also the very strange argument that it’s a problem if the BBC staffing levels are greater than the size of Team GB – as if a Team GB of 1,000 people would then make it OK for us to have 999.
‘In fact, we have to cover all the nations taking part in the Olympics; and our teams are driven by the scale of the overall coverage, not the number of British athletes competing.’
Pundit: US Olympic champion Michael Johnson is expected to join the BBC team
The BBC boss added: ‘At every stage of the BBC 2012 operation, we’ve been conscious of the need to run as efficient an operation as we can do and to spend our budget wisely.
‘But equally we know that British audiences expect us to cover these Games well, and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment for this country where the broadcasting will be required to live up to the event.’
Categories: News Tags: athletes, Every, games, Hours, More, Olympics, Plan, squeeze, staff, Team, than, they
London 2012 Olympics: Waitrose and M&S told to boost security over fears of bombs in delivery lorries
By Russell Myers
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Waitrose and Marks & Spencer are among hundreds of firms told to step up security at their warehouses to stop terrorists planting a bomb in lorries entering the Olympic Park.
The move is part of a £1 billion security operation – the biggest in post-war Britain – aimed at thwarting any planned attacks during this summer’s Games in London.
Firms will enforce extra checks at depots up and down the country to monitor vehicles being loaded with goods for delivery to the Westfield Stratford City mall in East London.
The close proximity of Westfield Stratford City mall to the main Olympic venues has led security advisers to contact every business that would need to make deliveries
The vast £1.45 billion shopping centre is on the east side of the Olympic park – less than 500 yards from the main Olympic stadium and just yards from the multi-million-pound basketball and aquatics centre.
The 1.9 million sq ft site is also home to 300 shops and 50 bars and restaurants.
The close proximity to the main Olympic venues, which are expecting up to ten million visitors, has led security advisers from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic And Paralympic Games (LOCOG) to contact every business that would need to make deliveries.
A source said: ‘Over the past few months all the companies have had to beef up security.
‘The threat of someone planting a bomb on a lorry headed for the Olympic park is very real.’
Westfield Stratford City Mall is less than 500 yards from the main Olympic stadium
Waitrose has been forced to increase security at the firm’s depot in Aylesford, Kent, by installing more than a third more CCTV cameras around the site.
David Jones, supply chain director at Waitrose, said: ‘We understand the need for the additional measures set out by LOCOG and we’re more than happy to put these in place.’
Categories: News Tags: 2012, bombs, Boost, delivery, fears, London, lorries, Olympics, over, Security, told, Waitrose
Clegg calls on Miliband to rein in Len McCluskey after union boss¿s Olympics threat
- Deputy PM brands the comments ‘appalling’
- ‘Red Len’ McCluskey’s threat to the Games branded ‘unpatriotic’ by No 10
- Labour leader says action targeted against Olympics is ‘totally unacceptable and wrong’
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:37 PM on 29th February 2012
Leaders of all three main political parties have rounded on firebrand union boss Len McCluskey after he called on the public to disrupt the Olympics.
Nick Clegg demanded Labour leader Ed Miliband ‘rein in’ the Unite union chief, following his comments urging civil disobedience during the summer Games as a way of defending public services from Government cuts.
Mr McCluskey, whose union has given more than £5million to Labour since the election in 2010, said Unite would stage illegal protests if necessary.
The Deputy Prime Minister said he believed people would be ‘gobsmacked’ and ‘appalled’ by Mr McCluskey’s declaration.
Disruption: ‘Red Len’ McCluskey threatened a year of industrial strife and said Unite would be prepared to break the law ‘to defend our basic rights’
‘I just think people will be gobsmacked, appalled, that someone thinks that at a time when we are finally hosting one of the greatest events in the world, he is calling for civil disobedience,’ he told ITV Daybreak.
‘I know he is the sort of paymaster of the Labour Party but I hope Ed Miliband will rein him in.’
Rebuke: Nick Clegg said the public would be ‘gobsmacked’ and ‘appalled’ by Mr McCluskey’s comments
His comments were followed up with a statement from Dowing Street, which called Mr McCluskey ‘unpatriotic’.
Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokesman said: ‘The Olympics are a great opportunity for this country to show everything that is great about the United Kingdom and advertise ourselves to the world.
‘It is completely unacceptable and unpatriotic what he is proposing.
‘Most people in this country, including members of that union, think the Olympics is a great occasion for the country and wouldn’t want to see anything happen that would disrupt it in any way.’
And Mr Miliband said: ‘Any threat to the Olympics is totally unacceptable and wrong.
‘This is a celebration for the whole country and must not be disrupted.’
Unite union boss ‘Red Len’ McCluskey said he would step up the trade union campaign against public cost-cutting.
His comments were attacked as ‘naked self-interest’ by union ‘dinosaurs’.
Mr McCluskey said action during the Games would bring his ‘grievances to the attention of as many people as possible’.
‘Chaos’: Mr McCluskey said action during the Olympics would bring his ‘grievances to the attention of as many people as possible’
Unions are furious that the Government has asked public-sector workers to share the burdens of those in the private sector by paying more into their gold-plated pensions.
He said: ‘The attacks being launched on public-sector workers are so deep and ideological that the idea the world should arrive in London and have these wonderful Olympic Games as though everything is nice and rosy in the garden is unthinkable.
‘The unions, and the general community, have got every right to be out protesting.
‘If the Olympics provide us with an opportunity, then that’s exactly one that we should be looking at. I’m calling upon the general public to engage in civil disobedience.’
Threatening a year of employment strife, Mr McCluskey said: ‘It won’t be short term. It will drag on and on. There will be an examination of different forms of industrial action. I think it will also involve single-day actions, but it will embrace protests, civil disobedience.’
Asked if Unite would mount illegal strikes to oppose changes in employment conditions, he added: ‘If we need to break the law to defend our basic human rights – right of association – then we will.’
Mr McCluskey also criticised Labour leader Ed Miliband and shadow chancellor Ed Balls, who have outlined plans to back a pay freeze for public-sector workers and say they wouldn’t be able to reverse all the Coalition’s cuts.
He called the move an ‘extraordinary mistake’ and a ‘stupid own goal’.
Countdown: The Olympic rings mounted on a barge pass under Tower Bridge as London counts down to the games
Condemning his threat to disrupt the Olympics, Tory chairman Sayeeda Warsi said: ‘This is an appalling display of naked self-interest. It is disgraceful for a union boss to be calling for mass disruption when the eyes of the world will be on Britain.’
Urging Mr Miliband to bring the union leader to heel, she added: ‘Ed Miliband must urgently order his union cronies to rule out disrupting the Olympics.’
Tory MP Matthew Hancock said: ‘The Games will be a chance to showcase our country at her finest. We must not let these union dinosaurs have their way.’
A Labour spokesman said: ‘The Olympics will be time of national celebration. There should be no disruption.’
