Thanks for your comment, that's a great idea. We tried to get a guide for this but we were late to the party on that one. Our guide the day before also does a Changing of the Guard tour. He explained that he does not take people to the palace but rather brings them to a spot on The Mall to watch the procession instead. That was good advice from Nick the local tour guide.
There are 5 regiments of foot guards with the bearskin hats, they were changing over with a none guards regiment, the ones with the peaked caps. Quite often non guards regiments from Britain or the Commonwealth will stand guard, sometimes it'll be the Royal Navy or Royal Air Force. It's very hard to tell what regiments are present, but some of the band members are from the Irish Guards, they've got the blue plume or flash on the right hand side of their bearskin. The guys with no plume on either side of the bearskin are from the Scots Guard, formed in 1642, I'm not certain what the non Guards regiment is, but it looks like the Royal Anglian Regiment. They do carry live ammunition if there is a security alert or heightened terrorist threat. The "flags" you saw are called the regimental Colours, with each yellow stripe bearing the name of their battle honours, As with a US serviceman and the Stars and Stripes, each soldier will defend the Colours with his life. These are not show ponies, all the Foot Guards regiments Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish or Welsh have done multiple tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. The guys on horses are one of the two Horse guards regiments, again not just for show, these are called the Life Guards, together with the "Blues and Royals" on deployment they are light armoured reconnaissance regiments, in fact a Corporal of Horse (Sergeant) no such rank as Sergeant in the House Hold Cavalry, stands at number 4 in the list of long range sniper shots, the only man in the top ten not in Special Forces, and not using a .50 cal rifle, he had a .338. The bands are playing to entertain the crowds, and will often play film tunes like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark or the James Bond theme. They will play military marches at the Trooping the Colour ceremony for the Monarchs birthday. In fact if you want to hear them play The Star Spangled Banner, have a look at the Changing of the Guard the day after 9/11, when the late Queen requested they play it to comfort the large number of US citizens stranded in London. This is the first time in history another nations anthem has been played without the head of that nation being present.
Thank you for sharing all that, we think all of that is awesome. The show tune aspect, and the complete covering up of the actual changing of the Guard happening behind them, takes away from the ceremony. It lowers the seriousness of it and turns into just entertainment. Several have mentioned the National Anthem playing, to which we think is very cool and all in line with the seriousness of both who is participating and what is actually happening. We wanted to see the changing of the Guard, the precision, the exactness, the flow and instead we got entertainment. Watching the servicemen change over, is the entertainment. You can't take it seriously when Abba and Mama Mia are playing. Thank you again for sharing all those details, they are helpful.
I watched most of your London videos today and although you were complimentary about a lot of what you saw you were also disrespectful in relation to a number of our traditions. You’re very obviously not fans of things Royal and I’m afraid that describing the changing of the guard as a song and dance show was just rude.
Thanks for watching our videos. We really did love our time in London. I'm curious if you would answer an honest question? What does Mama Mia and Billy Joel have to do with the Changing of the Guard? We would have loved to watch the ceremony and tradition around that, but we know Mama Mia and Billy Joel have nothing to do with that. They aren't even British.
Absolutely agree, have watched their videos and commented on another about their disrespect. They call our military parades "a song and dance" but yet the American military march like theyve got something stuck between their arse cheeks. Dreadful disrespect from these foreign people.
Music is played to help soldiers keep time while marching and to make it enjoyable for everyone. Yes, we have a vast repertoire of military music but playing it all the time would be a bit boring after a while. It's a compliment when other music is played by the best bands in the world. Shame you couldn't appreciate it or give it the respect it deserved. These are dedicated front line soldiers who train long and hard and what you call a dance are highly complex manoeuvres which are admired by people all over the world. They have no reason to explain or justify themselves to tourists.
Music is international, the changing of the guards is simply military and is not done for the tourists. You will find that they tend to play relatively modern music while the guards go through the changeover. You could book a place at Windsor Castle to watch the guard change there along with modern incidental music.
They often play music thays not traditional for the crowds and most enjoy it , they are all serving military who have to perfom public duties at some point in there military career . You should look up when the played star spangled banner after 9/ 11 at the bequest of the late queen .
Thanks so much for sharing your honest experience for Change of Guard! It definitely doesn't sound like a "must do" in front of the palace! We will have to do the standing on the Mall that your tour guide pointed out in the Palaces and Parliament tour. But, I may have to use one of our days in London to see The Cursed Child - it sounds like that 5 hours is actually worth it. Thanks again for a wonderful video!
The changing of the guard and the other cards doted around, horse guards parade and windor castle, is more ceromony that protection, you will always see alot of police around, with their fire arms, this is for safety, also the gurds do not have live amo in there guns, Its a tradition thats has been going for 100's years, , what might be better for you to look at, is the online video about the guards, to yourself they look the same, but they are not, there are little differences in there uniforms and head dress, another great honest video, and edit
I would have loved context and more information. The very non British music and the bands blocking anything happening was so frustrating for us, as we want the details on what is going on and why. The no ammo thing is interesting but since they are not the ones really defending the area so that makes sense.
Personally I'd stay clear of the Cotswold area.Nothing to see but chocolate box cottages owned by commuters from London.If you like that,then fair enough.Dover,fine but other than some cliffs the only main thing of interest for history buffs is Dover Castle.If you want history I would recommend York,but get a guided tour.Also maybe Bristol or any of the major cities of the North i.e Manchester,Leeds.This is the birthplace of the industrial revolution and IMHO has more of an impact on world history than just about any other area in the world. If you're into architecture,then a trip up to Scotland to visit Glasgow is a treat as incredible municipal buildings and history abound. For stunning coastlines there are no better than either the North coast from Whitby down to Hull and the North Wales coast. If you like to walk(hike) then try the Yorkshire Dales.Beautiful rolling countryside with nice little pubs and tea shops scattered about. There are lots of areas.London is great for a visit but it's only a fraction of what you can see.Plus generally things are cheaper up North and the locals friendlier.
@SteveJenney thank you for the suggestions. We love to hike and so the Yorkshire Dales sounds amazing. Manchester and Leeds would be so intriguing. Time to start planning.
I suggest you should have got a guide to provide you with some context of what’s going on.
Thanks for your comment, that's a great idea. We tried to get a guide for this but we were late to the party on that one. Our guide the day before also does a Changing of the Guard tour. He explained that he does not take people to the palace but rather brings them to a spot on The Mall to watch the procession instead. That was good advice from Nick the local tour guide.
There are 5 regiments of foot guards with the bearskin hats, they were changing over with a none guards regiment, the ones with the peaked caps. Quite often non guards regiments from Britain or the Commonwealth will stand guard, sometimes it'll be the Royal Navy or Royal Air Force. It's very hard to tell what regiments are present, but some of the band members are from the Irish Guards, they've got the blue plume or flash on the right hand side of their bearskin. The guys with no plume on either side of the bearskin are from the Scots Guard, formed in 1642, I'm not certain what the non Guards regiment is, but it looks like the Royal Anglian Regiment. They do carry live ammunition if there is a security alert or heightened terrorist threat. The "flags" you saw are called the regimental Colours, with each yellow stripe bearing the name of their battle honours, As with a US serviceman and the Stars and Stripes, each soldier will defend the Colours with his life. These are not show ponies, all the Foot Guards regiments Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish or Welsh have done multiple tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. The guys on horses are one of the two Horse guards regiments, again not just for show, these are called the Life Guards, together with the "Blues and Royals" on deployment they are light armoured reconnaissance regiments, in fact a Corporal of Horse (Sergeant) no such rank as Sergeant in the House Hold Cavalry, stands at number 4 in the list of long range sniper shots, the only man in the top ten not in Special Forces, and not using a .50 cal rifle, he had a .338. The bands are playing to entertain the crowds, and will often play film tunes like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark or the James Bond theme. They will play military marches at the Trooping the Colour ceremony for the Monarchs birthday. In fact if you want to hear them play The Star Spangled Banner, have a look at the Changing of the Guard the day after 9/11, when the late Queen requested they play it to comfort the large number of US citizens stranded in London. This is the first time in history another nations anthem has been played without the head of that nation being present.
Thank you for sharing all that, we think all of that is awesome. The show tune aspect, and the complete covering up of the actual changing of the Guard happening behind them, takes away from the ceremony. It lowers the seriousness of it and turns into just entertainment. Several have mentioned the National Anthem playing, to which we think is very cool and all in line with the seriousness of both who is participating and what is actually happening. We wanted to see the changing of the Guard, the precision, the exactness, the flow and instead we got entertainment. Watching the servicemen change over, is the entertainment. You can't take it seriously when Abba and Mama Mia are playing. Thank you again for sharing all those details, they are helpful.
I watched most of your London videos today and although you were complimentary about a lot of what you saw you were also disrespectful in relation to a number of our traditions. You’re very obviously not fans of things Royal and I’m afraid that describing the changing of the guard as a song and dance show was just rude.
Thanks for watching our videos. We really did love our time in London. I'm curious if you would answer an honest question? What does Mama Mia and Billy Joel have to do with the Changing of the Guard? We would have loved to watch the ceremony and tradition around that, but we know Mama Mia and Billy Joel have nothing to do with that. They aren't even British.
@@callatimeout6077 This is the same changing of the guard that played your national anthem the day after 9/11.
Absolutely agree, have watched their videos and commented on another about their disrespect.
They call our military parades "a song and dance" but yet the American military march like theyve got something stuck between their arse cheeks.
Dreadful disrespect from these foreign people.
Music is played to help soldiers keep time while marching and to make it enjoyable for everyone. Yes, we have a vast repertoire of military music but playing it all the time would be a bit boring after a while. It's a compliment when other music is played by the best bands in the world. Shame you couldn't appreciate it or give it the respect it deserved. These are dedicated front line soldiers who train long and hard and what you call a dance are highly complex manoeuvres which are admired by people all over the world. They have no reason to explain or justify themselves to tourists.
@@lesley585 couldn't have said it better!
Music is international, the changing of the guards is simply military and is not done for the tourists. You will find that they tend to play relatively modern music while the guards go through the changeover. You could book a place at Windsor Castle to watch the guard change there along with modern incidental music.
They often play music thays not traditional for the crowds and most enjoy it , they are all serving military who have to perfom public duties at some point in there military career . You should look up when the played star spangled banner after 9/ 11 at the bequest of the late queen .
Thanks so much for sharing your honest experience for Change of Guard! It definitely doesn't sound like a "must do" in front of the palace! We will have to do the standing on the Mall that your tour guide pointed out in the Palaces and Parliament tour. But, I may have to use one of our days in London to see The Cursed Child - it sounds like that 5 hours is actually worth it. Thanks again for a wonderful video!
The changing of the guard and the other cards doted around, horse guards parade and windor castle, is more ceromony that protection, you will always see alot of police around, with their fire arms, this is for safety, also the gurds do not have live amo in there guns, Its a tradition thats has been going for 100's years, , what might be better for you to look at, is the online video about the guards, to yourself they look the same, but they are not, there are little differences
in there uniforms and head dress, another great honest video, and edit
I would have loved context and more information. The very non British music and the bands blocking anything happening was so frustrating for us, as we want the details on what is going on and why. The no ammo thing is interesting but since they are not the ones really defending the area so that makes sense.
You need to get out of London.Unless you go off the beaten track it's a Disney land tourist shit show.
Yes, we do! Where would you suggest we visit next? We love history, so we want to see the Cliffs of Dover, and the Cotswolds.
Personally I'd stay clear of the Cotswold area.Nothing to see but chocolate box cottages owned by commuters from London.If you like that,then fair enough.Dover,fine but other than some cliffs the only main thing of interest for history buffs is Dover Castle.If you want history I would recommend York,but get a guided tour.Also maybe Bristol or any of the major cities of the North i.e Manchester,Leeds.This is the birthplace of the industrial revolution and IMHO has more of an impact on world history than just about any other area in the world.
If you're into architecture,then a trip up to Scotland to visit Glasgow is a treat as incredible municipal buildings and history abound.
For stunning coastlines there are no better than either the North coast from Whitby down to Hull and the North Wales coast.
If you like to walk(hike) then try the Yorkshire Dales.Beautiful rolling countryside with nice little pubs and tea shops scattered about.
There are lots of areas.London is great for a visit but it's only a fraction of what you can see.Plus generally things are cheaper up North and the locals friendlier.
@SteveJenney thank you for the suggestions. We love to hike and so the Yorkshire Dales sounds amazing. Manchester and Leeds would be so intriguing. Time to start planning.