Gary Barlow: On Her Majesty's Service

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Six months ago, Andrew Lloyd Webber

and I were given the honour of

writing a special song for the Queen

to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee.

This is the story

of the making of that song.

It would be really enjoyable

to have something

with these different sounds.

I know.

Our mission was to capture

the sounds

of the Queen's proudest achievement

- the Commonwealth.

I could listen to that for hours.

I set out to find musicians from

different cultures and backgrounds,

record them on their home turf

and blend them into one record.

Wow! This is great fun.

I want to be in your band!

I'd never done

anything like this before

and I wasn't even sure

it could be done.

A day to remember.

One I'll never forget.

'And my last stop would be

the most nerve-wracking...

'playing our record to the Queen.'

No pressure!

This is the Silver Jubilee, 1977,

a garden party for

the whole street in our back garden.

Both Nans are there.

Look, all the kids in the street.

Here we all are, celebrating.

Oh, there's me,

wanting to be noticed.

I mean, a lot of those people,

they're not people

we used to see every day...

everyone just invited everybody.

It brought everybody together.

Do you think? Yeah...

I mean, it's nice.

Is it weird?

Well, I think, I don't know

whether we need... it's very pretty.

Yeah, but we need a key word when

we don't like each other's ideas,

so you should say, "That sounds

great for the Platinum Jubilee,

"you should use

that for the Platinum Jubilee." OK?

Yes, OK.

So do you think I should save

that one for the Platinum Jubilee?

There's a touch

of the Platinum there.

Ah, OK!

So let's slow down a little touch.

Listen to...

OK, let me try this on top of it.

And keep it going.

Yeah, yeah, that's nice.

Ta da da-da...

We're telling everyone today

what we're doing.

We've been hiding it for so long.

..do dee-do.

I quite like that.

Yeah.

'This is letting the country know'

we've been commissioned to do this,

we're taking it seriously,

we're going on a journey,

and see you at the Jubilee.

So the reason you came in,

you're in charge of the official

single for the Diamond Jubilee.

You're going to write it together

and you embark upon Wednesday,

around the Commonwealth, looking for

musical influences and people

to take part in that story

and that journey, is that right?

Exactly. Who else has been involved

in the story so far?

I've heard rumours, whispers,

of Prince Charles being involved.

We're hoping to try

and get some guidance

from the family of the Queen

to try and help us make this thing

something she's going to enjoy.

Are you nervous? Is it

a great weight on the shoulders,

or another fantastic opportunity?

Great opportunity.

You look a bit more worried, Gary!

'This is quite big, so...'

It still puzzles me,

the whole idea of writing

a song for an event like this,

such an important day in the Queen's

life, and I want to get it right.

We're going to meet

the Prince of Wales today,

so I'm slightly nervous

and excited about that.

Young lad from Cheshire!

Your Highness!

Is there a Gary Barlow in here?

How are you?

I think I'm all right,

thank you very much.

Thank you for inviting us

to your house.

There's so much he's experienced

around the world, musically,

that I want to find out about.

Here we are, the Click Song,

let's see.

'Prince Charles was keen to play me

some of the world music

he'd heard on his travels.'

That's right. You see... unng...

you can't!

That's the mouth making that noise?

Yes, yes.

Amazing pictures.

If we can see a fraction of this...

There's a well known musician here.

That's me in disguise.

Much better shaven.

The difficulty sometimes is digging

out where these characters are

because they're not always

in the main street,

but then you find marvellous

things going on in little corners.

Yeah, well,

we need to travel, clearly.

These instruments are fascinating.

Aren't they wonderful?

Do you see, what IS that?

Actually, you must get these.

It would be really enjoyable

to have something with

these different sounds. I know.

For me, it's about picking

elements of this music,

pulling it out and adding it

to our record. Exactly.

Is it just one single?

It's one single.

But you could use all these people!

We could, actually.

We could make an ensemble,

a three-and-a-half minute ensemble.

Absolutely we could. Fantastic.

It's daunting,

but I like a challenge.

I'm going to go off travelling

and find these amazing musicians.

You're really good to do it.

Thank you, sir. The Queen will be

thrilled you've taken such trouble.

The Chris Evans

Breakfast Show - good morning!

'The order from the Palace said

"we want you to include

the Commonwealth".

'And so I'm actually going to go

round the world

'recording unique musicians

and adding them to this record,

and the very last thing...'

The Commonwealth is massive.

All right? Like, massive.

I mean, massive massive.

Antigua, Australia, Bahamas,

Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize.

No way on Earth we can get round

all of these countries.

Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, St Kitts

and Nevis. I got married in Nevis.

Without counting every one,

it looks like there's about 50.

The truth is it comes back

to the record.

We've got to remember

that's why we're going.

We're going to give this record

a feel that

the Commonwealth's on there.

We want it to sound rich

and, you know, full of personality.

There's musicians

all over the world

and we've just got to

dig them out.

We've got to dig them out

and find them.

So with just a simple piano version

of the melody

that Andrew and I have written,

it's time to hit the road.

I've got to write some lyrics

and find musicians

around the Commonwealth who can

put their own stamp on this record.

I'm starting my journey near the

equator in East Africa, in Kenya.

And there's a very special reason

why I've chosen to start here.

I'm at the safari lodge,

Treetops, at the very spot where

a young Princess Elizabeth spent

the night on February 5th, 1952.

Whilst here, she learned her father

had died, and she had become Queen.

I can't imagine being 25

and given this responsibility.

What a task, what a job.

What an undertaking

for such a young person.

I thought today would be

a brilliant time

to really start bashing

the lyric around.

I've taken with me

from my session with Andrew

the lyric Sing.

And I thought I'd soak up

the environment here

and the historic nature of this site

and see if it brought up

any new ideas.

Sing it louder

Sing it louder

Sing it

Sing it

Sing it louder.

'I couldn't think of anything

more perfect, really, '

that we're starting to write

the lyric of the song right here

in this historic place

where the Queen found out

she was going to be the Queen.

With the lyrics in place,

it's time to start recording.

I'm off to see an African

children's choir at a remote school

two hours' drive from Nairobi.

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