COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

The Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony dazzled a peak audience of 7.5 million viewers on Channel 4 last night.



Coldplay, Rihanna and Jay-Z were the musical acts who helped draw London 2012's summer of sport to a close in a 'Festival of Flame' concert.

Viewing numbers peaked with 7.5m (a 25% share) during the actual ceremony and an average audience of 5.6m watched the broadcast across the whole evening, including the warm-up shows.

The figures were not as high as the Opening Ceremony, but they did provide the channel's second biggest peak audience of the Games.

It also helped Channel 4 beat its rival channels in the 9pm timeslot, pulling more viewers than George Gently, ITV1's The Scapegoat and Dragons' Den.

Stars from the Olympics and Paralympics will take part in an Athletes Parade across London this afternoon, which will air live on BBC One from 1.25pm and on Channel 4 from 12.50pm.

Belles of Three Spires perform at Paralympics final day



A women's barbershop choir from Coventry has performed at the Olympic Park on the closing day of the Paralympic Games.

The Belles of Three Spires, which has 40 singers aged between 22 and 70, sung at the park's bandstand on Sunday.

They were one of only three acts chosen for the Last Bandstanding event.

They also joined acts around the country simultaneously singing the Coldplay hit Viva La Vida.

Chris Kinsella, who sings in the chorus, has said: "We're absolutely over the moon, we were absolutely stunned when we found out.

"It's all happened so quickly, we sent off a video of our performances and a few days later we found out we'd been chosen."

'Icing on cake'

A panel of music industry experts chose three winners from 1,000 entries.

Conductor Charles Hazlewood, who was part of the panel, said the Belles had been chosen for their "warmth, technical control and silky braiding of harmony".

The other winners were the Abergavenny Borough Band and Dhol2Dhol, a traditional Indian drum ensemble from London.

The Belles sang on the steps of Coventry cathedral when the Olympic torch relay passed through the city in July.

Bass singer Elaine Kendall has said performing at the Olympic Park would be "the icing on the cake".

She said: "We're allowed to roam the park and sing in different places too, so I'm looking forward to seeing the velodrome, the swimming centre and the Olympic Stadium."

The group was formed in Coventry in 1989 by the wives of the Sounds of Three Spires Men's Barbershop Chorus.