From the start to the very finish the Olympics was absolutely excellent. London should be so proud…. But my respect lies within Gary Barlow of Take That the most. This man and his family have just lost their baby but he still comes out and sings? 100% respect …

I thought the supermodels part was a tad bizarre.

What…and Boris’s embarrassing dancing doesn’t get a mention here?! Cringeworthy stuff! Well done to GB for staging a fantastic event in general, can’t even begin to tell you how fun its been around town for the last two weeks….and I was seriously pessimistic about the whole thing right before it started. My voice is still gone from Thursday after Katie’s win, and being in Hyde Park on Saturday night didn’t help matters. Great success for London, proud to say that I live there. :)

Man of the closing ceremony has to be Gary Barlow . Respect for him after what he has been through !
As for Jessie J ruining that queen song – pathetic ! ! ! It needed a strong voice !
And Russell Brand miming , he was also pathetic ! ! !
The rest were excellent ! !
Well done

So with all their money, the Spice Girls invested in motorised zimmer frames…

Watched it in a pub in Germany last night, really brilliant, thanks Great Britain for some great memories.

Where oh where were the Rolling Stones!

Liam Gallagher, Russell brand, George Michael, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell.. Christ, it’s a good job they don’t do drug tests for the closing ceremony.

Jessie j is torturous. Brian may and the seven seas of rhye was amazing until she ruined the set.

Thought imagine was the best bit of the show

Russell Brand should have been shot for his attempt at ‘singing’ ‘I Am The Walrus’. As for Jessie J? Just awful. Dire. It’s telling that two men who have been dead for years got the biggest reaction from the audience.

Opening ceremony of Olympics amazing !! Events were brilliant. Katie Taylor super and a legend <3. Closing ceremony excellent. Roll on the Paralympics. London and GB. Be very proud you all done a fantastic job especially the volunteers <3. From a Dublin fan. THANK YOU. X

Jessie J done in 5 minutes what the IRA could never do – kill queen.

I never thought I’d say it but I couldn’t wait for the spice girls to come out and brighten things up a bit, and they really did fair play to them! Well done London for an amazing show!

Scary Spice has some chassis on her :)

After the brilliance of the opening ceremony, I found this a bit of a disappointment. It was far too long and quite disjointed at times.
There were some great moments: Imagine with Lennon; the wonderful Eric Idle and, though I never thought I’d say it, I guess the Spice Girl reunion….
Didn’t really get the Russell Brand bit and found Jessie J a strange choice to do the vocals for Queen.
Surely as George Michael was there anyway he could have been persuaded?
It would have been far better than his shameless attempt to use the ceremony to launch his new single.
Unfortunately I went to bed before Take That who I believe were great as always!!

why can people see only the bad or not to their standards…. last nights show… was excellent … for you people who are blinded by your own excellence
… enjoy and stop hating and being critical ….. and don’t go to bed early and missed more great entermaintment …

I would like to correct this article. I was one of the dancers and performers who made John Lennon’s head in the ceremony. There were 160 of us carrying 101 pieces to form the huge jigsaw puzzle. It took countless rehearsals to get it right. We are all volunteers, NOT CHILDREN, and we didn’t just appear from his head for the fun of it, as you article states. We came from the outside voms, danced with the pieces (they were very heavy I might just add, and that took a lot of skill and strength) and then put Lennon’s face together, held the jigsaw together, released our balloons, and then began to filter out. I can safely say that for all 160 of us it was the most amazing experience ever and we are very proud to have been involved and in such an iconic part of the Olympics Closing Ceremony of London 2012.

I have to agree with the general consensus . Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I feel that after all the feats of athletic brilliance , the superb organisational efforts and the support of the British nation for the event , their own and international athletes , it was it was ill-fitting that the flames should be extinguished by this turnip fart of a ceremony . I found it incoherent , drawn out and lacking in emotion or sentiment . The real winner was the stadium with the light shows and fireworks buffering the anti-theatre going on within . Bravo Danny Boyle Bravo GB and all the athletes especially our own who reinvigorated a national pride

The tribute to Freddy Mercury was great, because they just showed him on a screen doing what he did best. By comparison the tribute to John Lennon was cringe inducing. Imagine doesn’t need a child choir or sign language to be poignant, and don’t even start me on the styrofoam head! To paraphrase a great Woody Allen line: If John Lennon came back and saw what was going on in his name, he’d never stop throwing up. I genuinely believe he would have hated it. Take That were fantastic, and for me the show would have been better if it had ended there.

It was a very camp affair.

That show was at least 2 hours too long

Have to admit that George Michael was in a class of his own. It is indeed hard to believe that in the UK at the moment there are no mega stars to follow in his footsteps. Okay the likes of Jessie J, Tinie Tempah and Taio Cruz who also appeared may come from a different stable of music but with regards to talent these guys will not last the test of time. As for Russell Brand he was an embarrassment and should not have been included in the line up.
Maybe they should have brought in The Script or U2 but of course they could not because they are Irish and they were selling the UK Brand. Over all the London Olympics were a major success and credit should be given to the organisers of the whole event. It is so easy to be critical of minor things like Russell Brand. Nothing is ever perfect.

When the surreal becomes mainstream it stops being interesting and becomes contrived self concious and dull. Lasts nights show was incredibly bloated and over cooked. Botox Britain may have been the theme.

Was there an ounce of meaning, culture or artistic value to any of it? did it improve humanity ? Gratuitous self gratification, like tossing your self off on the top of the Eiffel tower. No I don’t mean jumping off.

I thought a surprisingly large proportion of it had its roots firmly stuck in the 1960’s.

Still I liked the hats with the bulbs on top. Now where did that come from?

Pretty awful stuff with a few average moments. I felt the production was pretty bad, very incoherent and Gallagher’s dreadful rendition of “wonder wall” was appalling, sounded like he was in need of a toilet and urgently. Eric Idle was brilliant, George Michael admittedly brilliant live as always. WTF was Brand doing there and why, why, why the spice girls. I felt sorry for the fantastic Elbow, trying to belt out one of their classics on what was a badly timed set, surely they could have had back ground music while the athletes made their way into the stadium. A big let down generally.

It was as camp as a row of tents!some contrast to the opening ceremony,which was brilliant!

Am I the only one who spotted all the Freemasonic elements: lorries covered in black & white checkerboard, flaming phoenixes, a pyramid made from 303 blocks etc. etc.

Think the spice girls past their sell by date!