The musical climax of the evening was provided by Sir Paul McCartney, the most successful songwriter in British history, who had the crowd singing and swaying. Smiling widely as he sat playing the piano, the British singer performed two songs: The End and Hey Jude. Towards the end of the performance he stood up and clapped his hands in the air, encouraging the audience to sing-along. He asked the men to join in - and then asked the women to get involved, before the whole stadium sang together. Click here to watch highlights from the opening ceremony Crowd pleaser: The crowd inside the Olympic stadium were swaying and singing tonight as Sir Paul McCartney closed the Opening Ceremony
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The Arctic Monkeys played one of their early hits I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor
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UK Grime MC Dizzee Rascal took to the stage singing his hit song Bonkers
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Brit musician Emeli Sande sang the 1847 hymn Abide With Me
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Other artists played during the show included Muse, The Beatles, Sugababes, The Rolling Stones, Prodigy and The Sex Pistols
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Singer-songwriter Billy Bragg tweeted: 'Impressive though (the opening ceremony) in Beijing was, they didn’t have any great pop music to play, did they?'
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Universal Music: Album of the ceremony soundtrack would be on sale 'within moments' of the ceremony ending
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1,000 drummers beat out their rhythm across the stadium and 80 musicians, aged from seven to 17, captivated the crowd as they joined the London Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Nimrod by Edward Elgar
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Director Danny Boyle tweets 'Proud to be British'
The group performed @placeholder song Come Together as bikers with wings cycled around the stadium