Touches You

One of my all time favorites.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

In 1992 the Queen gave her famous annus horribilis speech which outlined the horrid events of 1992. Anyway, a lot can change in a decade, and the 2002 Jubilee celebrations were much better for the Queen, and we get Party at the Palace which had a mixture of musicians performing for a huge crowd. 2002 was definitely a good year for Her Majesty.Interestingly, when I asked a friend if he watched Party at the Palace, he said (and he's British) that it was a waste of public money. He's probably right. But still, it was great seeing S Club 7 perform, and at the end of their performance they bid farewell to Paul Cattermole. One humorous moment was at the end, when the musicians lined up for the Queen to greet them. As she started approaching Ozzie Osbourne, you could hear a chuckle building up in the crowd of 12,000, and then the laughter hit its peak when the Queen avoided eye contact with Ozzie and didn't bother to converse with him!!!!!! Poor Ozzie.

Whether or not you enjoy the performances on this DVD (I liked some, disliked others), it's a wonderful document of how pop and rock music became part of the UK establishment. Particularly illustrative of this process are, I think: [1] Brian May's hilariously bloated pomp-rock rendition of "God Save The Queen" from the ramparts of Buckingham Palace, complete with massive symphonic-size orchestra and a final cadenza milking both an interrupted cadence on bVI and repeated V-I "classical" cadences; [2] the appearance of what seems like a sheepishly grateful rather than uncomfortably anarchic Ozzie Osbourne; [3] Sir Paul McCartney's embarrassing churning out of "Hey Jude" as an audience-participation singalong, complete with the knight's predictably "spontaneous" "yeah" and "one more time" interjections. At least Ray Davis (Kinks) seems to retain an impish edge in "Lola" and there is something sadly moving about Brian Wilson's almost zombie-like performance: times, moods and attitudes that once were but are no more.

I watched this live from a pub in my local town and it struck me that most of the people in there thought the new singers of today were crap and couldn't sing their way out of a wet paper bag. It starts off in spectacular style with Brian May giving the national anthem a right old pasting on the guitar from the roof of Buckingham palace. From then on it's a bit of a roller coaster, sort of like up and down but thankfully mostly up. Certainly on DVD you do have the option of selecting which performers you wish to listen to which is a blessing because most of the new ones are rubbish. Best bits... definitely the start, good old Brian. Shirley Bassey, still got the voice. Eric Clapton, say no more. Sir Paul McCartney, as good as ever and Sir Cliff Richard, never a dull song sung. If you like good music, good atmosphere and a unique setting then get to see this or better still buy it on DVD.