Buckingham Palace Becomes Council Flats For Jubilee Concert

Something subversive is happening here. 80’s band Madness serenaded the Queen from the rooftop of Buckingham Palace in a showstopper which saw a 1950’s block of council flats projected onto the facade of the grand 18th century building. They than went on to project a row of Muswell Hill, red brick terrace houses and several interior shots, unravelled on the iconic architecture, as they played the tune ‘Our House’.The effect was pure art.

All of this took place during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert. Staged in the stunning surroundings of the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, the BBC and Gary Barlow brought together a fun packed cabaret from the world of music. The concert included classic hits and one-off collaborations from artists including Shirley Bassey, Jools Holland, Jessie J, JLS, Elton John, Tom Jones, Lang Lang, Annie Lennox, Madness, Paul McCartney, and Cliff Richard.  The unique concert stage was designed by Mark Fisher.  The stage and roof create a radiating crown around the Memorial, with the action focussed down The Mall. 

The concert was viewed by 20,000 ballot winners seated on stands around the Memorial, and by 40,000 standing public down the mall. Up to 500,000 watched the show on video screens in nearby parks.  The concert made full use of the historic backdrop with spectacular lighting and projection effects. As for the stage it was designed by the well known rock architect Mark Fisher, who has worked with, among others, Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones. As well as the music and the stage set, there was an extravagant lighting and digital display which  was projected on to the facade of Buckingham Palace.“We have done a high-tech laser mapping of the whole of the facade of the Palace,” says the organisers. “All the contours of the front of the Palace were digitally mapped and we executed  some pretty imaginative things with the technology to fully exploit this amazing backdrop which is the perfect projection screen.“We used 30 projectors of the highest power so it was a thing of beauty to remember in years to come.”

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