At 13:00, towns across the United Kingdom had bands play The Beatles hit "All You Need Is Love" before church bells were rung around the country.

The house band for the performance consisted of Phil Palmer (guitar), Pino Palladino (bass), Paul "Wix" Wickens (keyboards), Phil Collins (drums), Ray Cooper (percussion), Eric Robinson (saxophone), Sam Brown, Margo Buchanan and Claudia Fontaine (backing vocals) and the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen.

Between some acts were short comedy segments featuring Meera Syal, Nina Wadia, Ruby Wax, Kermit the Frog (performed by Steve Whitmire), and Barry Humphries (in characters as Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson).

The concert began with Brian May performing "God Save the Queen" on the roof of Buckingham Palace as a guitar solo with support from the orchestra onstage in the Garden far below.

[9][10] This sequence was filmed, including some upward photography of May in full "rock god" mode and shots of the crowd in the Garden below.

It has become an iconic moment and Brian May himself has said in interview that he hoped that he would strike the last chord at the same time as the orchestra in the gardens far below.

[11] Ozzy Osbourne said in the same interview that this was the greatest moment of his career and pronounced the Queen to be "a beautiful woman."

Prince Charles thanked his mother for her fifty years on the throne, famously beginning his speech with the words, "Your Majesty...

[16] 4 songs can be found on Phil Collins' 4 CD Boxset, Plays Well with Others, Layla by Eric Clapton, Why by Annie Lennox, (Everything I Do) I Do It for You by Bryan Adams and With a Little Help from My Friends by Joe Cocker.