JUST TAKE IT ALL
It has been delighting fans for almost 40 years but Led Zeppelin's rock classic "Whole Lotta Love" has been deemed too racy by Olympics organisers.
The Led Zeppelin song 'Whole Lotta Love' will be performed as the centrepiece of an eight-minute £2.5million British segment at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing today.;
However, after choosing the song, organisers decided that some of the lyrics would have to be omitted or re-written amid concerns that they could cause offence.
They asked the band's guitarist Jimmy Page to record a new version of the song to be performed on top of a special red double-decker bus accompanied by Leona Lewis, winner of the ITV reality television show The X Factor, with David Beckham looking on.
In the original, recorded in 1969, frontman Robert Plant sings, "I'm gonna give you every inch of my love".
However, in the version that will be sung today, Lewis changes the words to "every bit" of my love.
The band also agreed to a request from organisers to drop the third verse, which includes similar sexual innuendoes, to fit in to the eight-minute performance.
With an estimated two billion around the world expected to tune in for the closing ceremony, the British segment will throw the spotlight firmly on preparations for the London Games in four years time.
Celebrations are being planned at 30 sites across Britain to celebrate the handover.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather in the Mall as the skies above Buckingham Palace are turned the colours of the Union Flag by the Red Arrows display team.
The events, seven time-zones apart, will focus the eyes of the world on Britain's Olympic efforts at the end of the most success Games for 100 years.
In contrast to the Beijing organisers, who have been accused of creating a Games lacking in fun and Olympic spirit, London's creative team say they want the show to reflect Britain's deep cultural heritage and party spirit.
As the Beijing mayor Guo Jinlong passes the flag to Boris Johnson, the Greenwich pips will herald the start of the London section of the show followed quickly by a rendition of the national anthem - including, unusually, its second verse, performed by 25 children from the National Youth Theatre.
A London bus will then be driven into the arena, chased by Britain's Olympic gold medal winning cyclists Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton.
The top section of the vehicle will open up like a "lotus flower" to reveal a stage from which elevated platforms will lift Lewis and Page.
A further platform will rise up to reveal former England captain Beckham, flanked by a violinist and a cellist dressed in Britain's official Olympic kit.
Beckham, who featured in England's disappointing 2-2 draw against the Czech Republic at Wembley on Wednesday night, will then kick a football into a crowd of athletes in the centre of the arena.
(Daily Telegraph)
MissyMouse
Hmmmm....
It all seems nice and jolly and happy but.....I think I'll stay at home and watch it on the telly