Should we sing about the Queen, ie Long Live our gracious Queen, or should we sing about the country ,
I personally think we should sing about our country and not about a particular person .
Whot do you peasants tink ??? :thumbsup:

I know people who sing "long live the gracious team, send them victorious etc" at England football matches

i think in June we could all make an exception and sing that,

C'mon England lol :D

We should sing about the country .... Land of Hope and Glory would be my choice ... and the flag waving fits in soooo well.:D


the twiddly bits in Rule Britannia are toooooo difficult!!!:help:

Should we sing about the Queen, ie Long Live our gracious Queen, or should we sing about the country ,
I personally think we should sing about our country and not about a particular person .
Whot do you peasants tink ??? :thumbsup:

God Save the Queen is OK as the british National Anthem, for those who consider themselves to be british and on those occasions, such as the Olympics, involving a british team. I personally consider myself to be English, not british, and would prefer something different to be sung as the English National Anthem on occasions such as sporting events involving England.

Not sure about Land of Hope & Glory. I reckon that 'I Vow to Thee my Country' would be a far better choice. :thumbsup:

Land of hope and glory is good for me as well!

However- the US has got the right idea in its national anthem.
Now that my friends- is a national anthem to be proud of.

Even I well up when I hear it!

would prefer something different to be sung as the English National Anthem on occasions such as sporting events involving England.
Quite right. In the last ten years or so England fans have switched from the Union Jack to the Cross of St George. We now need to get the anthem changed as well. God save the Queen is sooo dreary.
Jerusalem is much more uplifting and should be the anthem of England.

Land of no hope and certainly no glory more like !!!!

Oh don't be so defeatist and downbeat phawley, it's not that bad here ...

Anthem singing needs to be uplifting ... I personally just love the Last Night of the Proms ... anyway it's got to be something rousing and easy to sing ... let's have a poll!! :D

God Save the Queen is OK as the british National Anthem, for those who consider themselves to be british and on those occasions, such as the Olympics, involving a british team. I personally consider myself to be English, not british, and would prefer something different to be sung as the English National Anthem on occasions such as sporting events involving England.

Not sure about Land of Hope & Glory. I reckon that 'I Vow to Thee my Country' would be a far better choice. :thumbsup:

God Save The Queen is nothing more than a hymn (anthem if you must) asking God to save the Queen while its singers know damned well that he/she won’t. When her time comes she’ll die like the rest of us.

As a matter of interest, the Commonwealth Games in Manchester stuck rigidly to Land Of Hope and Glory and only played the National Anthem on the night she arrived to close the event.

This year in Melbourne, every Gold Medal won by English Athletes brought the sounds of Land Of Hope and Glory once again.

On my Macintosh computer I have The World Book which, among other things, will, if you ask it to, play every national anthem in the world. Most of them are absolute garbage, and although I don’t have a musical ear I think only three in the entire world could be described as “stirring”. The American, the French and the German.

Ours is god-awful so Yes, my vote goes with Land Of Hope and Glory despite us no longer ‘ruling the waves’. Watch and listen to the BBC’s Last Of The Proms and you’ll see and hear what I mean.

It was one rumoured that it was also the choice of Winston Churchill.

Quite right. In the last ten years or so England fans have switched from the Union Jack to the Cross of St George. We now need to get the anthem changed as well. God save the Queen is sooo dreary.
Jerusalem is much more uplifting and should be the anthem of England.

I would have thought that Jerusalem would be a better anthem for Israel than the one they’ve got!

Jerusalem - by William Blake

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.



Seems to me that Blake was saying a big NO in the first half of the poem - the question mark puts emphasis on "did" and "was".

The music by Parry puts the empahsis on "Walk upon etc" and "Holy Lamb of God" in the first verse and "And was Jerusalem builded here" in the second verse.

My interpretation of the poem is that Blake didn't think everything in England was hunky dory, and we should try to change it - Parry's music appears to imply "Jerusalem" (an idealised world) had been built in England in "ancient times".

Obviously there are other interpretations.

Should we sing about the Queen, ie Long Live our gracious Queen, or should we sing about the country ,
I personally think we should sing about our country and not about a particular person .
Whot do you peasants tink ??? :thumbsup:
ye i agree with you, should be about our country :D

I never like the fact that the Scots/Welsh have their own anthem but we have the British one. It is about time when we play the English (Land of Hope & Glory) anthem when it somes to English type themes including the Engalnd football team.

Land Of Hope and Glory.
Definately.

Billy Connolly once did a stage show in which he discussed this very topic. He suggested the Theme Tune from The Archers would make a fantastic National Anthem because everyone knows it and it's light and bouncy; inspiring as it were.

There's nothing wrong with our current National Anthem as we do inhabit a "kingdom" and are therefore subjects of Her Majesty. But, in saying that, it is dreary and could do with a bit of life injecting into it...

Now the Theme Tune to Blue Peter would be ideal.

My only issue with the national anthem is that we put on the responsibility for our nations stability and the safety of the queen in gods hands :loopy:

Land of hope and glory is good for me as well!

However- the US has got the right idea in its national anthem.
Now that my friends- is a national anthem to be proud of.

Even I well up when I hear it!
The American anthem is about the defeat of the British army and Navy at Baltimore in 1814.
How can any one but an American be proud of it?
The best two anthems are the Marseillaise or the Internationalle, both dedicated to the people, and not some foreign royal family

I think the national anthem should be big balls by ac/dc.

I never like the fact that the Scots/Welsh have their own anthem but we have the British one. It is about time when we play the English (Land of Hope & Glory) anthem when it somes to English type themes including the Engalnd football team.

Well, afaik, Land of Hope & Glory IS England's national anthem or is it our CommonWealth anthem or is it the same thing :confused: I much prefer this to GStQ however a tune like the Italian's have (played when Ferrari win F1GP) sounds nicer, upbeat, etc though i don't know what the words are :)


God Save The Queen is the UK GB National Anthem and should only be used when applying to the whole nation.

Land of Hope and Glory,
Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee,
Who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider
Shall thy bounds be set,
God who made thee mighty,
Make thee mightier yet

Sounds worse than the current one. We need one that celebrates the spirit of the nation and doesn't mention god. LoHAG seems to extol expansionism of boundaries and would be more suited to Bush's USA:hihi: The mother of the free bit might be a problem though.

Any other ideas?

God Save the Queen is OK as the british National Anthem, for those who consider themselves to be british and on those occasions, such as the Olympics, involving a british team. I personally consider myself to be English, not british, and would prefer something different to be sung as the English National Anthem on occasions such as sporting events involving England.

Not sure about Land of Hope & Glory. I reckon that 'I Vow to Thee my Country' would be a far better choice. :thumbsup:

God Save the Queen is the English (& Northern Irish) anthem, not British -
- the Scottish have "Scotland the Brave"
- and the welsh have "O fluffy sheep are wonderful"

I always thought the Dambusters theme would make a great anthem, although you'd have "don't mention the war" diplomatic problems. Nice stirring tune, though. The words would come from one of our great poets.

'Jerusalem' I find really moving, and is quintessentially English.

My interpretation of the poem is that Blake didn't think everything in England was hunky dory, and we should try to change it - Parry's music appears to imply "Jerusalem" (an idealised world) had been built in England in "ancient times".

Obviously there are other interpretations.
I'd go along with the one you give.

Billy Connolly once did a stage show in which he discussed this very topic. He suggested the Theme Tune from The Archers would make a fantastic National Anthem because everyone knows it and it's light and bouncy; inspiring as it is.

Rum te tum te tum te tum

Rum te tum te tum te tum TUM

Billy was spot on:thumbsup:

God Save the Queen is the English (& Northern Irish) anthem, not British -
- the Scottish have "Scotland the Brave"
- and the welsh have "O fluffy sheep are wonderful"

er, no. Any self-respecting Scot will tell you the Scottish National Anthem is "The Flower of Scotland".

It is a beautiful, stirring ballad that makes you proud to be Scottish - whereas "Scotland the Brave" is just a bit embarrassing really.

StarSparkle

Rum te tum te tum te tum

Rum te tum te tum te tum TUM

Billy was spot on

Rum te tum te tum te tum

Rum te tiddle de ahhhhhhhhh!

We could change "God" to "We" as in "We the People" ...

WE who made thee mighty,
Will make thee mightier yet

and make it about US!

Land of Hope and Glory is such a tired and dreary song. What about "Rule Britannia"? It has a lively tune and has plenty of sabre rattling!

But wouldn't our "friends" who have recently joined us in this wonderful land of opportunity, free money and housing object to us having a national anthem?
Surely it would be seen as offensive to a number of touchy individuals and groups?
As I see it, this country's individuality and "Englishness" is being pared away day by day by the PC brigade for the likes of such people, so I would imagine that eventually we won't have a national anthem at all.
Oh , I would have either Rule Britannia or Land of Hope and Glory in favour of the dreary and very "past it" God save the Queen (or King)

Would it not be a better idea to issue a challenge to compose a NEW national anthem, with new music and words, instead of falling back on all the old ones, which mostly belong to the days of the long vanished empire in all it's jingoistic tub-thumping glory. At least that would give the Poet Laureate and the Master of the Queen's Music something to think about...whether they are up to the challenge is a different matter. We need something that suits us now. Australia, though still technically under the rule of the Queen, abandoned the British national anthem and took on a new one (an old one, though, with a good tune but not words I personally approve of). We do not need to forget our history, but need not be confined by it.