Michael Allred
Screenwriter
Party at the Palace: The Queen's Concerts *** (out of *****)
Year of release: 2002
Directed by: Geoff Posner
Track listing;
1- God Save the Queen Performed by Brian May, Roger Taylor and Ray Cooper
2- Cup of Life & Livin' La Vida Loca Performed by Ricky Martin and Mis-Teeq
3- Don't Stop Movin' Performed by S Club 7
4- Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves Performed by Annie Lennox
5- You Can't Hurry Love Performed by Phil Collins and Roger Taylor
6- Dancing in the Street Performed by Atomic Kitten
7- I Heard It Through the Grapevine Performed by Will Young
8- Get Ready Performed by Blue
9- Baby Love Performed by Emma Bunton
10- Stop In the Name of Love Performed by Mis-Teeq
11- Sex Bomb Performed by Tom Jones
12- The Long and Winding Road Performed by The Corrs
13- Dancing in the Moonlight Performed by Toploader
14- Goldfinger Performed by Shirley Bassey
15- Everything I Do (I Do It For You) Performed by Bryan Adams
16- You Can Leave Your Hat On Performed by Tom Jones and Blue
17- Radio Ga Ga Performed by QUEEN
18- We Will Rock You Performed by QUEEN
19- We Are the Champions Performed by QUEEN + Will Young
20- Bohemian Rhapsody Performed by QUEEN + The cast of the "We Will Rock You" musical
21- If I Ruled the World Performed by Tony Bennett
22- Why Performed by Annie Lennox
23- Living Doll Performed by Cliff Richard
24- Move It Performed by Cliff Richard, S Club 7 and Brian May
25- Paranoid Performed by Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi
26- I Want Love Performed by Elton John
27- California Girls Performed by Brian Wilson
28- The Warmth of the Sun Performed by Brian Wilson and Eric Clapton
29- God Only Knows Performed by Brian Wilson and The Corrs
30- Good Vibrations Performed by Brian Wilson, Emma Bunton, Atomic Kitten and Cliff Richard
31- Layla Performed by Eric Clapton
32- Gimme Some Lovin' Performed by Steve Winwood
33- With A Little Help from My Friends Performed by Joe Cocker and Brian May
34- Lola Performed by Ray Davies
35- Handbags & Gladrags Performed by Rod Stewart
36- While My Guitar Gently Weeps Performed by Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney
37- All You Need Is Love Performed by Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker and Ladysmith Black Mambazo
38- Hey Jude Performed by Paul McCartney and everyone
This all star concert was held at Buckingham Palace in London, England to celebrate the Queen's golden jubilee (50 years as Queen of England) in June of 2002.
A companion CD was also released but this DVD greatly expands on the content.
The concert is presented in 1.78 anamorphic widescreen and the picture quality is very sharp and detailed. You won't find too many TV recordings that look this good.
The sound is a rather mundane stereo mix but is perfectly servicable.
The DVD has no extras to speak of other than a brief fireworks display. *Yawn* Would adding some interviews or backstage happenings been too difficult to add?
The show itself is a rather odd mix of rock legends and talentless UK pop stars of today, often seeing some of both perform together. Is anyone clamoring to see S Club 7 or "spice girl" Emma Bunton? No, I didn't think so.
What I didn't get was, if the jubilee concert was supposed to represent the best UK music/performers of the last 50 years then why 1) Were there non-UK singers 2) Were classic *American* songs performed (several of which by those pop groups dressing up like the US groups that originally did them.) Just odd.
Queen guitar legend Brian May kicked things off by playing "God Save the Queen" on top of Buckingham Palace itself! What a moment!
That was quickly followed by a lot of utter crap (Ricky Martin, isn't his time up yet?), Atomic Kitten (who?) Ok, if the jubilee organizers wanted some of the new UK artists there then shouldn't they have invited people who are known *outside* of the UK and that actually have some talent? They knew the DVD would get a worldwide release so why feature so many pop groups that are virtually unheard of outside England?
Will Young (winner of "Pop Idol", the UK version of "American Idol") did fine on "I Heard It Through the Grapvine". He has a decent voice, good looks but he's not much of a performer is he? He has no stage presence, work on that Mr. Young.
Queen were one of the few artists with a decent sized set list (and are the only reason this DVD is getting reviewed by me.) Drummer Roger Taylor sings a shortened version of "Radio Ga Ga" (which Phil Collins manages to ruin the drum beat to) and then Brian May takes over with the crowd pleasing "We Will Rock You". Speaking of which, the cast of the musical (of the same name) join Queen on stage at this point. Oddly enough, they are wearing their costumes from the show and end up looking extremely silly for this occasion.
Will Young comes back out to sing "We Are the Champions", he doesn't attempt to sing it like Freddie Mercury (smart move) and therefore comes off well. "Bohemian Rhapsody" ends their set and yes(!) even the opera section is done live. Musical cast members Tony Vincent, Sharon Clarke and the other female lead (forgot her name, sorry) share lead vocals. Vincent is absolutely WONDERFUL here (not to mention sexy as hell!)
Ozzy Osbourne goes nutty on "Paranoid" and Tony Iommi looks stylish as ever (but come on, Phil Collins should NOT be playing a Black Sabbath song.)
Elton John must be special as he gets to perform his lone track inside....he have allergies or something?
Brian Wilson is propped up on stage for 4 song set. He still has a warm voice but my word, does he look "out of it". His facial expression (yes, expression, singular) makes him seem confused the whole time....poor guy.
"Layla" just plain rocks, Eric Clapton is *on*. Then Steve Winwood comes out and mumbles his way through "Gimme Some Lovin". If you didn't know the lyrics to the song, I defy you to understand what he's saying.
"With A Little Help from My Friends" sees Joe Cocker do his usual spaz out routine, the song is saved by Brian May's guitar playing.
Paul McCartney comes out.....to bore me silly I think. He somehow manage to sing out of time on a friggin Beatles song ("While My Guitar Gently Weeps") and seems to merely go through the motions on the last two numbers. The entire cast of artists that night come out to sing along on "Hey Jude"....seeing May & Clapton together was awesome but poor Tom Jones, some idiot put Kermit the Frog on his shoulder (yes, Kermit was "singing" too) and he had to stand there looking like an ass.
Well, that's basically it. If you think I'm gonna waste my time talking about The Corrs or Atomic Kitten (who?), you'd be waaaayyyyy off.
Overall the show was saved by the legends of rock but one cannot justify a rating higher than *** with so many awful, teen pop groups ruining song after song (and a featureless DVD.) Thankfully you can skip right past the junk.
