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Gigs & Festivals
Olympics closing ceremony summary: Ed Sheeran to duet with Pink Floyd drummer, Spice Girls rehearsals rumoured
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 3 August 2012
Keen foliage fan Ed Sheeran has said he’ll share a stage with Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason (and potentially “someone else”) as part of ‘A Symphony Of Music’, the closing ceremony to this year’s Olympic Games. Though as Pink Floyd reps are keen to point out (in the press statement they sent several times yesterday, just to be safe): “The band is NOT performing at the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games”. OK, OK.
Sheeran broke the semi-exclusive news that he’ll be performing with a Pink Floyder live on-air via Australia’s NovaFM, saying: “I’m playing the closing ceremony – which I think is kinda cool, right? A lot of people think that I’m doing a song with The Who but I’m not – I’m doing a song with Pink Floyd, doing ‘Wish You Were Here'”.
Asked if he’d be collaborating with the full Pink Floyd line-up, he said: “No, because they don’t get on. Nick Mason’s on the drums, and I think they’re trying to get someone else. But I think they’ve got Stephane Grappelli to do some sort of violin stuff”.
So to re-cap; that’s Ed Sheeran, singing Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’, accompanied on drums by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, and with violin virtuoso Stephane Grappelli doing “some sort of violin stuff” on the side. Oh, and “someone else” may or may not be there too. You heard it here second.
And with that, it’s on to the far less official ‘news’ that the Spice Girls have been glimpsed in London rehearsing for the very same Olympics Closing Ceremony as will feature Ed, Nick, Stephane and “someone else”.
The Sunday Mirror’s celebrity gossip columnist Dean Piper (a reliable witness, if ever there was one), tweeted that he’d seen the reunion first hand, writing: “So the Spice Girls are all together rehearsing for the Olympics RIGHT NOW in London. #itsonbitches”.
He then added: “Pretty bloody exciting! #spicegirls. I’d like a Spice medley!!! No idea what they’re singing…”
So, yeah. It’s on (BBC 1, from 9pm on 12 Aug), bitches.
UPDATE 12:52 3 Aug 2012: A reader has noted that the task of getting other members of Pink Floyd involved in Ed Sheeran’s performance is not as difficult as convincing Stephane Grappelli to “do some sort of violin stuff”, as he died in 1997.
