Brian May emulates his iconic 2002 Buckingham Palace guitar solo for a new charity single

[Cindra]

Brian May has emulated his iconic 2002 Buckingham Palace guitar solo for a new charity single with Kings Daughters.

The Queen guitarist performed an unforgettable guitar solo of ‘God Save The Queen’ during Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee celebrations 18 years ago, and he’s now replicated that moment as part of a new song designed to help people get through the coronavirus pandemic.

Brian has joined forced with female group Kings Daughters to record 'Get Up’, which sees the 72-year-old rocker take to the rooftop of his home in Kensington, West London, to play guitar as part of the music video.

He said it was evocative of 2002, when he played from the roof to start the Party at the Palace concert.

Speaking about the coronavirus lockdown, he said: “It’s tough and I think we deal with it, most of the time. Then we get odd moments when we really start to feel like caged animals and feel like there’s no hope. And that’s when you need a bit of music to pick you up.”

Brian - who has open spoken about his own mental health struggles - hopes ‘Get Up’ will help “heal” people who feel isolated as a result of new lockdown measures that are keeping people at home.

He added: “Music is a great healer. So I’m hoping that this song will be such a thing, you know it’ll actually pick people up when they’re on the brink.”

‘Get Up’ - which was also produced by Brian, and was released on Wednesday (15.04.20) - is a charity single, with 10 percent of each purchase going to mental health charity Mind.

The video also includes the King’s Daughters band members and lead singer Talia Dean - who co-wrote the song with May and who was a contestant on ‘The X Factor’ in 2017 - showcase a day in their lives under isolation.

And members of the public, including some NHS staff, have gotten involved in the video too, as clips can be seen of them doing the special dance move created for the song.