Royalty Magazine has teamed up with Royalsilverjubilee to bring a unique moment of royal history to our worldwide family of readers! You can enter our prize draw by sending your email, name, address and contact details to prizedraw@royalty-magazine.com and you will be entered into our prize draw to receive a copy of The Secret Lost Recording.
The First Prize Winner will receive the Limited Edition Box Set worth £350. The set contains two 180gm luxury vinyl albums (original and remastered) plus a CD. One vinyl album is a copy of the original as supplied to the Queen Mother in 1977 and the other is the remastered vinyl album with new artwork, order of service, certification document and history and facts of the recording. Another Five Winners will receive the CD recording worth £35.
The Story of the Lost Secret Recording
In January 1977 the Queen Mother made a very unusual request. The request was to secretly record the church service of her daughter Queen Elizabeth II’s 25th Anniversary of her Accession to the throne on 6th February 1977. The service was to be held at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park and led by Reverend Anthony Harbottle with the blessing read by Bishop Michael Mann. The Royal Chapel of All Saints, a Grade II listed church, was built in 1825 and is also known as Queen Victoria’s chapel. It is designated a Royal Peculiar, serving as an informal parish church for the inhabitants and staff of the Windsor Great Park. Services at the chapel are often attended by members of the Royal Family and the Queen regularly worships at the church for reasons of privacy.
From this recording of the service the Queen Mother requested that 120 vinyl records be produced which she would give to all the attendees of the church service, which included the immediate Royal Family, close friends and staff. The request was for this recording to be done discreetly as the Queen Mother was planning this as a surprise for her daughter.
The recording was duly made on a modified 15ips TEAC quarter inch 4 track tape machine located in the vestry using wireless microphone technology. This recording was subsequently mixed at Pinewood studios situated in Iver, Buckinghamshire. The master tape and sleeve artwork were delivered to Maurice Oberstein then CEO of CBS Records UK, who mastered and pressed the album and printed the sleeve. The completed 120 vinyl records were duly delivered to the Queen Mother. Over the years of time the 4 track recording was damaged by water and the stereo master tape, we think, sits somewhere in the Sony UK archives. Despite the help and assistance of Sony UK we have to date, been unable to locate this tape. However, technology advances, and it has now been possible to remaster this recording to an acceptable quality so that this historical recording of this monumental personal event can now be released to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on the 6th February 2022.
The very special limited edition box set contains 2 180gm luxury vinyl albums (original and remastered) plus a CD. One vinyl album is a copy of the original as supplied to the Queen Mother in 1977 and the other is the remastered vinyl album with new artwork, order of service, certification document and history and facts of the recording. We hope you enjoy owning and listening to this previously, publicly unheard recording. The playing of which, allows you to share a personal and private moment with the Royal Family. An investment that will be worth even more in the future because of their rarity.
A copy of this recording has been donated to the The Royal Archives at Windsor Castle and 100% of all Artists Royalties will be donated to The Royal Collection Trust. If you would like to purchase The Lost Secret Recording go to www.royalsilverjubilee.com and receive a 20% saving with your readers discount code ‘ROY20’.
