AP PHOTOS: A rockin' Olympics closing ceremony

The Associated Press, Sunday, August 12, 2012, 4:47pm (PDT)

London bid farewell to the 2012 Summer Games during a raucous closing ceremony Sunday, with help from the reunited Spice Girls, a Monty Python anthem and a swarm of other performers who had 80,000 fans at Olympic Stadium cheering and singing.

The ceremony had something for everyone, from tween girls to 1960s hippies. The face of John Lennon appeared on the stadium floor, assembled by 101 fragments of sculpture, and just as quickly gave way to George Michael, Fatboy Slim and Annie Lennox. Ray Davies of The Kinks sang "Waterloo Sunset" early on, and The Who performed "My Generation" in the final minutes.

"We lit the flame, and we lit up the world," said London organizing committee chief Sebastian Coe, just before the games were declared over. "When our time came, Britain, we did it right."

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Here is a gallery of photos from the closing ceremony.