Now to complicate things further enter the Bands of the Guards Division. The band has 49 members that are a permanent part of the Bands of the Guards. Then each Queen's Guard Division has special musicians they insert depending on which guard is changing. Most of the inserted musical guards play drums, but the Scots and Irish Guards have pipers who play bagpipes.
The Bands of the Guards only play on changing of the guards where the Queen is in residence. They can play any song they want but one. In 1920 the Band was playing a piece from a popular Operetta when a footman arrived with a message from King George V, addressed to the Director of Music. He excitedly read the note only to find that it said: “His Majesty does not know what the Band has just played but it is never to be played again.”
John told us a story about how the band played James Bond related songs after the opening of the 2012 Olympics in London, because there was a piece with the Queen and Daniel Craig.
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