Chewing the fatPlease keep all off topic conversations here. This forum can get heated. There are two rules, Personal insults will not be tollerated and keep it clean!
Location: From Bury,Manchester To Jimboomba, Brisbane
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Im learning it ,id say i know 80% of it ,Zak singsit every week in school so he soon corrects me if i get a bit wrong,lol, need to learn it quick for my citizenship test!!
Cal x
I know more of Advance Australia Fair than I did the English national anthem, and I feel more pride singing it...probably because most of the people around you singing it seem to put more effort and be prouder of it than I ever experienced in England.
Unless you mean the one we sing with even more gusto....
We're the pride of South Australia
We're the mighty Adelaide Crows
We're courageous, stronger, faster
And respected by our foes
Admiration of the nation
Our determination shows
We're the pride of South Australia
We're the mighty Adelaide Crows
etc etc. (I'm only ever really good for the first verse of anything...I put it down to my incipient senility!
Do you know all the words to your National Anthem??? No cheating!
No I don't and the children are not taught it and I think the reason is because the UK has become so flipping PC that to sing the National Anthem could be seen as being racist and could offend ethnic minorities in schools and workplaces. (I kid you not!)
I know the Welsh anthem, we learnt it at school and I've attended plenty of rugby internationals and know quite a bit of Flower of Scotland too. Both always bring tears to my eyes!
Like "Rule, *********" the National Anthem of Great Britain "God Save the King / Queen " was composed by Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778) and first sung in 1745 during the Jacobite invasion of England. It was performed after the staging of Ben Jonson's play The Alchemist at the Theatre Royal, London.
In an attempt to restore the Scottish House of Stuart to the throne Jacobite forces, under the leadership of Charles Edward Stuart, also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender, invaded England in 1745. They managed to defeat George II's army at Prestonpans. Bonnie Prince Charlie was proclaimed king in the market square of Preston and eventually reached the city of Derby.
The invasion constituted a serious threat to the monarchy at that time and this explains why the words of the National Anthem have the form of a prayer of petition for the safety and well-being of the monarch. The Jacobites were later defeated at Culloden 16th April 1746.
The invasion of England also explains the following anti-Scottish words that had also been inserted into the song:
Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,
May by thy mighty aid,
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush and like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush,
God save the King.
Marshall Wade, referred to in the above lines, was an officer in the army sent to halt the advance of the Jacobite troops in the north. The lines were appropriately omitted when the song was adopted as the British National Anthem.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and Glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!
O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
Oh, save us all!
Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign;
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen!
Not in this land alone,
But be God's mercies known,
From shore to shore!
Lord make the nations see,
That men should brothers be,
And form one family,
The wide world over
From every latent foe,
From the assassins blow,
God save the Queen!
O'er her thine arm extend,
For Britain's sake defend,
Our mother, prince, and friend,
God save the Queen!
