The band promoted the record on their own jubilee boat trip along the Thames, which ended in their arrest, and the song was rereleased last year to mark the queen’s platinum jubilee. God Save the Queen was released in 1977, the year of the queen’s silver jubilee, and had a decidedly anti-royalist bent, comparing the monarchy to a “fascist regime” – which some have argued shows it is also difficult to find words that rhyme with “queen”.ĭespite being banned from BBC radio and television, the song reached No 2 in the charts, held off the top by Rod Stewart – though rumours have persisted ever since that the charts were manipulated to keep the song off No 1. Matlock, whose performance is listed on London City Hall’s programme of royal festivities this weekend, said he was now “passionately ambivalent” about the monarchy.

He added: “I’ll probably just sort of make it up as I go along, so if you want to find out what the new lyrics might be, you’d better come on down because it’ll probably be on the spur of the moment.”

“There’s not that many words that kind of rhyme nicely apart from bling, Ming.

“When you start changing one word, you’ve got to change them all,” he said.

The king playing with the queen