An elaborate concert by the best and brightest of Saskatoon had the Queen tapping her feet

THE prairie town of Saskatoon is notable for two things. One is a machine that creates beams of light a million times brighter than the Sun. The other is Joni Mitchell.

On the third day of their Canadian tour, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were understandably bemused by their visit to the University of Saskatchewan to view the Canadian Light Source, a device that accelerates electrons so fast that even Dixons has not come up with a price for it yet.

Yet they were able to hum Mitchell’s biggest hit, even if they could not quite remember its title. Mitchell is an icon to rockers of a certain age. Her career as a singer-songwriter of such hits as Big Yellow Taxi have made her Saskatoon’s most honoured daughter. It was inevitable that a concert celebrating the centenary of Saskatchewan’s creation as a province of Canada in 1905 should climax with a medley of her songs , albeit sung by a tribute group — Mitchell rarely performs in public any more.

The final number, Both Sides Now, had the Queen and the Duke tapping their heels in recognition. Ms Mitchell, now a lady of certain years, was applauded warmly as she took a curtain call at the end of the performance. The Queen and the Duke rose from their seats in the royal box to congratulate her and the performers.

Aspersions have been cast as to whether the Queen knew the music of Eric Clapton, the blues guitarist, or Mick Hucknall, the lead singer with Simply Red, both guests at Buckingham Palace receptions. There is no doubt, however, that she knew the work of Mitchell.

Lynda Haverstock, Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan, who arranged the concert as part of her province’s centenary celebrations and who sat with the royal couple during last night’s performance, said afterwards: “Not only had the Queen heard of Joni Mitchell; as soon as the concert finished and they were making their way to the stage to meet the performers, she and the Duke were discussing between themselves the exact title of the song they both knew and could hum, but whose title they were struggling to remember. It was, of course, Both Sides Now.”

Ms Mitchell received a brief but knowing congratulation from the Queen as she passed down the line.

The Queen also had a brief word with Leslie Nielsen, the Saskatchewan-born comic actor who memorably wrestled with a lookalike monarch in the opening slapstick sequence of his film The Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad.

Mr Nielsen said: “We simply looked at each other. There was an exchange of hidden meaning — at least it was hidden from me, and it was definitely hidden from her.”

The show, staged in an arena in the suburbs of Saskatoon in front of an audience of 10,000 and broadcast live across Canada, was one of those elaborately choreographed middle-of-the-road occasions that neither offend nor excite anyone, despite the presence of many leading Saskatchewan performers of which the rest of the world has yet to hear.

Brent Butt, a Canadian stand-up comedian who compered the show, said after meeting the Queen: “When she came up on stage she didn’t lean in to me and say, ‘What was that all about, then?’ I take that as a good sign.”

Before the performance, Don Atchison, the Mayor of Saskatoon, presented the Queen of Canada with the keys to his city, an honour not accorded to any other members of the Royal Family who have passed his way. “It means she can get into the city even when nobody’s here,” he said.

There was a more serious side to the Queen’s engagements yesterday. She visited the training headquarters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Regina, the provincial capital, to meet relatives of the four officers killed by a gunman in northern Alberta this year.

During the subsequent visit to the Synchrotron, which researchers use to probe the structure of matter and which holds high promise for cancer treatment, the royal couple heard that the Canadian Government’s bacon had been saved in a confidence motion by the casting vote of the Speaker in the Ottawa Parliament.

A potential embarrassment to the royal tour had been avoided.