Ric Birch unleashes on Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony

RIC Birch — the ringmaster behind the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games — has unleashed on the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

RIC Birch has dished out a scathing review of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

The ringmaster behind the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the Brisbane 1982 Commonwealth Games likened this year’s event to a school concert, saying he would have done things very differently if he were in charge.

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“What I have been told makes it sound like a school concert and given the role of Schoolies Week in the Gold Coast, perhaps that was the idea,” he told The Courier-Mail.

Ric Birch, who was the executive producer for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, said he would have done things very differently for this year’s Commonwealth Games ceremony.

He said the only thing viewers retained from the opener was the woman who revealed her bare bottom in a wardrobe slip-up.

“The Opening Ceremony is now remembered best for a bottom mooning the viewers, so the only way the closing ceremony could top that would be to have a topless moment.”

The Brisbane dancer, 19-year-old Georgia Lear, addressed the memorable incident with a pun-laden Instagram post.

She wrote: “Last night I was feeling really BUMMED ... BUTT that’s all BEHIND me now! I hope you all had a CRACKing good time watching the ceremony. Don’t forget the camera adds 5kg, yes it was me!”

Georgia Lear addressed her flashing moment on Instagram.

The Opening Ceremony copped its fair share of criticism since last week, including claims artists were offered only $2000 to perform a song.

Earlier this week, Brisbane pop band Sheppard publicly attacked the ceremony’s music director Katie Noonan, after she posted a photo of herself crying over the ceremony backlash.

“There has been some horrible media suggesting my musical direction of the Comm Games opening ceremony was driven by ego rather than good — and for me that is the ultimate insult,” Noonan wrote on Facebook. “I feel so deeply sad as my own interests were never the goal. An awesome musical soundtrack that reflected us as a mighty world class and proud mob of integrity was my only goal. Onwards and upwards.”

A Facebook post from musician Katie Noonan.

“Karma is a b**ch,” Sheppard frontman George Sheppard wrote on Facebook in response. “My heart is breaking and tears are running down my face, so I’ll just take a selfie and post it on Facebook. Pure narcissism. Maybe Katie might learn to be a bit more sensitive about how she uses her position of power in the music industry, but playing the victim card is not a good sign.”

His sister and bandmate Amy added: “In my experience, this woman has been nothing but mean and nasty. A shame because I used to look up to her as an artist.”

Greg Sheppard criticised the ceremony.

Mr Sheppard later told news.com.au the band was offered an “honorarium fee” — with organisers telling their agent both the “exposure” and “fun” involved would be added incentive.

“We all felt like they were ripping off artists, so we declined,” he said. “It would have been great to play, but at the end of the day this is our job and we would have lost money. I’m sure the organisers were paid properly, so why not the featured artists?”

The band was offered $6000 in total — with the proposed fee for the five-piece expected to cover days of work which would include rehearsals, prerecording the song and performing at the ceremony. Sheppard said taking part would have cost the band more in crew fees and logistics — and organisers weren’t willing to cover the extra charges.

READ MORE: Measly fee Comm Games organised offered big-name band

Michael Chugg, one of Australia’s top tour promoters, wrote on Facebook that the ceremony was a “huge scam” and a “f***ing disgrace”.

“Why were all the great Oz classic songs missing, cause they offered $2k a song and everyone went no way and where were all the current hot acts? No one could afford to get there at their own cost and do multiple rehearsals at $5-6000, a huge scam.”

He also wrote: “The UK company that produced the opening and were preferred to highly experienced Australian teams, were paid millions, not much of this stayed in Australia, a total f..... disgrace.

“We were never going to spend four days rehearsing, driving from Brisbane to the Gold Coast every day and play for $6000 and spend 25k to do it. Like most others we chose to say no and what we and others were offered for song use was insulting.”

Originally published as Ric Birch unleashes on Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony