The coolest thing we did in London was watching part of Changing the Guard or Guard Mounting. I grew up listening to my Dad's records of the Scots guards and Coldstream guards, so I was extra-excited to learn that we would get to hear the band play, and we ended up in the perfect location for it--right outside Wellington Barracks where the new guard assembles and marches over to the Palace. We got there around 11am, in time to see them being inspected (see Alice's post) and start to play. Shortly after the inspection of the band is complete (while the foot soldiers with automatic rifles are still being inspected), the band forms into a circle and starts to play.
Here is a short video of their first number--a medley containing among other things, "I Love a Parade", the theme from "Bonnie and Clyde", and "St. Louis Woman". I suppose this is one of those band-specific arrangements (shades of the Duke marching band playing "Disturbia").
(For best viewing, click the "watch on YouTube" button in the lower right, then on YouTube, click in the lower right to select 1080p HD.)
After a couple more tunes, the head guy (with the big scepter) walks over from the Barracks, takes over from the guy conducting the warm up, they march into assembly, wait until the appointed hour (11:30), and this is the most impressive result:
We were so close I had to make sure my lens hood didn't brush the guys marching past. Very cool, with all the visceral excitement from hearing the drum so close and so loud that you feel it in your chest cavity. And I geekily love the video quality from my Canon 60D with the killer 17-55 EF-S lens Gerty gave me. And I got to spend a weekend in London with my two favorite women:
No comments:
Post a Comment