Changing the Guard
Changing the Guard - for my new YT friend - Lillywhite Trombonist for Royal Coldwater Guard - whom ONE met after Breaking the Coldstream 'Thriller' Vid (currently 10k YouViews - search Nichopoulooza or use [::] search engine for Coldwater Guard, Thriller) - He's Promised Exclusive CG Video of current Tour (matches Royal Middle Stripe of Household Guards Hanger - see photo)
From May to July 2009 inclusive, Changing the Guard will take place daily at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
Changing the Guard or Guard Mounting is the process involving a new guard exchanging duty with the old guard.
The Guard which mounts at Buckingham Palace is called The Queen’s Guard and is divided into two Detachments: the Buckingham Palace Detachment (which is responsible for guarding Buckingham Palace), and the St. James’s Palace Detachment, (which guards St. James’s Palace). These guard duties are normally provided by a battalion of the Household Division and occasionally by other infantry battalions or other units.When Guardsmen are on duty, the soldiers are drawn from one of the five regiments of Foot Guards in the British Army: the Scots Guards, the Irish Guards, the Welsh Guards, the Grenadier Guards and the Coldstream Guards.
The five Regiments may be recognised as follows:
Regiment
Grouping of buttons
on scarlet tunicCollar badge
Plume on bearskin cap
Grenadier Guards
Singly
Grenade
White, worn on left side
Coldstream Guards
Twos
Garter Star
Red, worn on right side
Scots Guards
Threes
Thistle
No plume
Irish Guards
Fours
Shamrock
Blue, worn on right side
Welsh Guards
Fives
Leek
Green and white, worn on left side
The Queen’s Guard is commanded by a Captain (who usually holds the rank of Major), and each Detachment is commanded by a Lieutenant. The Colour of the Battalion providing the Guard is carried by a Second Lieutenant (who is known as the Ensign).
The handover is accompanied by a Guards band. The music played ranges from traditional military marches to songs from films and musicals and even familiar pop songs.
When The Queen is in residence, there are four sentries at the front of the building. When she is away there are two.
The Queen's Guard usually consists of Foot Guards in their full-dress uniform of red tunics and bearskins. If they have operational commitments, other infantry units take part instead.
Units from Commonwealth realms occasionally take turn in Guard Mounting. In May 1998, Canadian soldiers from Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry mounted guard at Buckingham Palace for the first time since the Coronation in 1953.
Household Troops have guarded the Sovereign and the Royal Palaces since 1660. Until 1689, the Sovereign lived mainly at the Palace of Whitehall and was guarded there by Household Cavalry.
In 1689, the court moved to St James's Palace, which was guarded by the Foot Guards. When Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace in 1837, the Queen's Guard remained at St James's Palace, with a detachment guarding Buckingham Palace, as it still does today.
At Buckingham Palace, Guard Mounting takes place at 11.30am. It is held daily from May to July, and on alternate dates throughout the rest of the year.
Buckingham Palace is not the only place to see Guard Mounting.
At Windsor Castle, the ceremony takes place at 11.00 am. For most of the year Guard Mounting takes place on alternate dates, but it is held daily (except Sundays) from April to July.At Horse Guards Arch, Changing the Guard takes place daily at 11.00 am (10.00 am on Sundays) and lasts about half an hour; it is normally held on Horse Guards Parade by the arch of Horse Guards Building.
There is no Guard Mounting in very wet weather.[REMEMBER THAT, LADIES]
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Tosches displays not only a historian’s love for the eras he writes about, but a gossip columnist’s passion for irreverence and shock. That makes this book and its companion (Unsung Heroes of Rock & Roll) completely essential reads for anyone who loves popular twentieth century music. And, it blows the lid off country’s origins in a way guaranteed to outrage country’s often-times “holier-than-thou” patrons. Obscure names, obscure songs, obscure facts all mesh to create a living, breathing historical time-capsule that speaks as much about the era the music was recorded in as the music itself. And the writing is dry yet never condescending, witty yet never demeaning, sincere yet unafraid to point out “the truth” no matter how ugly and undignified it may be. But you’ll learn to love the heroes that pepper this book for the pioneers they were. And, when the last page is read, you’ll come back to it again and again. Part of the pleasure of reading a great book is rereading it and learning much more than you did the last time you read it. . . Tosches manages that feat thanks to an unflinching eye for detail and a poet’s way with words.
Tosches is an entertaining and skillful writer and the premise of this book is an important and timely one. Country music has been diluted, softened and stripped of what once made it great and is now in the hands of the pallid “new country” gang of cheeseballs. Tosches saw this coming way back in the mid-70s, resented it and wrote this book. Unfortunately Country is full of misconceptions, omissions and serious factual errors. Yes, country music did have a dark side but it’s always had a family and religious side as well and even in its earliest stages could cross over into sentimental and mawkish pap. This didn’t start in the 50’s as Tosches insists but was present in the music of the Carter Family and Jimmy Rogers (Tosches barely mentions either) who between them invented the genre. Their music embraced both sides of the coin as did every great country artist who ever lived including Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. (Tosches unfairly savages Cash in this book for his lightweight songs which is odd because in an article written 15 years later, Tosches praises him to the skies although Cash had written no groundbreaking tunes in the intervening years) Tosches makes much of how the British murder ballad tradition disappeared completely from early country music, ignoring (or perhaps being unaware of) songs like Banks of the Ohio or Knoxville Girl–both of which were major country hits in the 30s and 50s respectively and are both taken directly from the murder ballad tradition as are many, many other country songs. His chapter on the development of the dobro and steel guitar is potentially interesting but is full of major errors. Tosches seems unaware of the major differences between dobro, slide guitar, steel guitar, pedal steel guitar and so on and at times it sounds like he thinks they’re all the same instrument with only minor alterations. For example, he doesn’t mention the difference in the number of strings between dobro and pedal steel nor the very different tunings used. This would be acceptable if the discussion were brief but considering the space he devotes to the topic, these omissions are glaring. It would be a bit like saying that the piano is just a big harpsichord. At one point he strongly disagrees with musicologists who claim that many country guitarists were influenced by jazz guitarists. He claims that the guitarist from Milton Brown’s band couldn’t have been influenced by Django Reinhardt because–he says–Reinhardt’s records didn’t reach the states until the late 30’s. Wrong, Nick. Try 1933. Eddie Lang, who had a huge influence on country guitarists is never mentioned nor is Charlie Christian whose work was the source of the style of every gutiarist who played with Bob Wills. But the most unforgiveable mistake is his insistence that Maybelle Carter’s guitar playing had as much influence on country music as “Rudy Vallee. ” Read the history of the Carter Family, “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” and the many testimonials from the greatest country guitarists ever recorded who all say that their primary influence was Mother Maybelle. This is so evident simply by listening to classic country music rhythm guitar playing that one wonders if Tosches has actually heard any. Also, Tosches can’t resist proving to us once again that he is a scholar of Greek and Roman literature and history and his references to this subject are sometimes laughably incongruous, clearly designed to convince us that his scholary credentials are unimpeachable. Usually these tedious asides have nothing to do with the subject at hand. Still, Tosches is a good writer, full of irreverence and wit and great turns of phrase. This is a fun book to read and Tosches makes a few good points. But if you want to read truly well researched books on country music, forget this and pick up Bill Malone’s Country Music USA and Rich Kienzle’s excellent book Southwest Shuffle, a fantastically researched book which says more about the real roots of “New Country” in one chapter than Tosches says in this entire poorly realized mess of a book.
In a reader review of Tosches’ book on Emmett Miller, whose real origins are in the imaginary chapters of the first edition of this book, this book belongs in every home. The writing is this book alone is worth the price. He’s a vigorous wise ass and elegant literary dynamo. If you just read the writing, and dont give a hoot about country music, you will enjoy yourself. So much of music writing is devoled to haigiagraphy and confirming ignorant common places, whereas Tosches is concerned with the dirty nasty truth, and the wild side of things. You aren’t going to learn that Roy Acuff who appointed himself a great country music icon, decades after he had had a hit, began his work in music with a group called “the Bang Boys” that specialized in X rated songs. His description of a Jerry Lee Lewis recording session sometimes in the 1970s is really masterful and still rings in my mind 20 years after I first read it. Likewise, you will love Tosches’ description of the dark end of Spade Cooley. Cooley torutured and murdered his wife because Cooley believed she had banged Roy Rodgers–and Cooley got into show business a double for Roy Rogers in the movies! There is so much uncovered about the real origins of rock and roll. No one can live without the first book that wasn’t afraid to let you know that Hank Williams was bald! If you don’t have this book in your house, buy it, or move in with someone who’s got it! Dont forget his great book on Jerry Lee Lewis, Hellfire. This man knows how to write!