The ‘sprouts’ number introduces also the grandiose (and quite… pompier) entrance of a Paris firemen brigade. They are very similar to those we will see later on in a Russian pop music concert, precisely when rock music sweeps away the nostalgia for old times and tunes… Once again, certain stage tricks, whose symbolic function is very obvious, are employed in different kinds of shows.
Yet, from the top of the driving cabin, white spurts are launched around.
Here, of course, they just flatten the sand after so many horses trotted on it. Once the Queen’s guards leave the arena, 5 street sweepers, like one can see in any town, enter and clean the arena with powerful front and side brushes. Let us go back now to the Basel show to see what else a tattoo can offer to our analysis. No musical logic is pursued when the song is suddenly stopped to pass to an English piece that adequately accompanies the exit of the Band of the Life Guards. An English band follows with another Neapolitan song that it has to play to see off the Carabinieri band. Eventually, this jumble is seasoned with a female choir about which I do not have any information. Then, they switch to a medley of Neapolitan songs that includes also Domenico Modugno’s Nel blu dipinto di blu (a song that has nothing to do with Naples) and ends with the choir Va, pensiero from Verdi’s Nabucco. On top of that, a Carabinieri band on horses bursts in and walks around the arena playing the Italian anthem. After this medley, a girl wearing a uniform sings the title song of Agent 007 Skyfall that, as if this were not enough, four dancers interpret wearing a white fluttering dress. They play a piece from Verdi’s Aida and then other ‘riding’ melodies while the audience rhythmically claps its hands. Then, the horse guards of Queen Elizabeth II enter the scene along with a brass band. 56 The whole thing ends with pounding clapping. The Swiss-German commentator Heinz Margot says in English “It’s just for fun,” but Latin spectators would have remarked: “excusatio non petita.”. In the meanwhile, the band follows the Tonga group and plays a medley of film tunes: first Indiana Jones and, a few measures later, Star Wars, both badly performed. Among the most hilarious numbers there is certainly that by the Royal Corps of Musicians Tonga who enters the arena mimicking the action of rowing with real paddles.