There was something of a party atmosphere around the BBC Fringe venue on the evening of the 12th. The closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games was soon to get underway and the crowd was full of enthusiastic former sceptics who’d been won over during the sporting fortnight and were here to acknowledge that there was indeed life outside of the Fringe. However, this wasn’t quite how the night started as even by half seven, the scheduled start time of the pre-show warm up festival favourite The Horne Section, the place was pretty empty. It did mean I got a seat, which turned out to be a very rare commodity once the band finally got going and the punters were drawn in off the Edinburgh streets.
In fact my largest gripe of the whole evening was the fact that The Horne Section didn’t get going until 20:02, a whole 32 minutes late. However what they lacked in punctuality they certainly made up for in every other area. It was pure delight to see such supremely talented musicians having so much fun whilst playing and as ever they were led by the excellent Alex Horne who gave a textbook performance in crowd warming, having them waving, singing, dancing and laughing within minutes. Their set was split either side of an act from German comedian Otto Kuhnle, whose slapstick broom and ping pong ball routines went down a treat. His sports song was perhaps less amusing, but the audience were in no mood to have spirits dampened and sang along enthusiastically when participation was required.
The Horne Section continued with a few more musically and lyrically amusing numbers, concluding with a mock national anthem and a medley of rousing British music with the perfect balance of national pride and cynicism. With the start of the Closing Ceremony attention shifted to the big screen and the crowd were in a jubilant mood singing and cheering during the very first song of the show and then throughout, a sure sign that Alex Horne et al had done their job well. The positivity continued throughout threatened only by a couple of potential problems, the first of which was the infamous Scottish weather. When the temperature did drop quite significantly BBC staff handed out blankets to shivering spectators. The second issue was the volume of the audio which was inconsistent during the show. This reached a climax when the audience could no longer hear the ecstatically greeted Eric Idle rendition of ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ and turned to chanting and jeering. However the problem was soon rectified and within seconds everyone was back to joining in with a good old sing-song.
Overall it was a fantastic evening with a very special atmosphere fitting for a unique occasion. It was a real joy to see a crowd so enthused and united and many people were singing down the streets as they dispersed. What a night.
