Hello, Would You Like to Play for the Queen?

Mere days before a mammoth pop concert on the lawn of Buckingham Palace, the man in charge of music, composer Michael Kamen, stood in a London studio anchored to his cell phone, corralling legendary musicians for the event.

He’s organized quite a lineup for Monday’s Party at the Palace, part of the queen’s Jubilee celebration of Elizabeth II’s 50 years on the throne. The “house band,” he said, will feature Eric Clapton on guitar, Phil Collins on drums and percussionist Ray Cooper. Kamen had tapped Joe Cocker to sing “With a Little Help From My Friends,” Clapton to sing a duet with Brian Wilson, and join Paul McCartney on George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” It was getting late, but Kamen still had to speak with Bryan Adams.

It was Friday evening, and Kamen had just returned to the studio after a three-hour rehearsal with the Royal Academy of Music. Orchestra players were moved to tears, Kamen said, while rehearsing Annie Lennox’s song “Why,” which the singer will perform at the concert. He was playing a newly finished recording of the concert’s anthem written by Tim Rice titled (what else?) “Jubilee” and seemed to be impressed. “I’ve just listened to a far-out thing!” he said.

Kamen, known for his film scores and his work as keyboardist for Pink Floyd, was chosen as the event’s musical director by George Martin. The native New Yorker said he’s still buzzing with the honor. “I’m still clutching my head saying: ‘Oh my God! This is really happening!’”

Cristina Bornstein and Anthony Gill stood by the Nordstrom makeup counter at the Grove, one of many stops on their West Coast tour. Theirs was not the frivolous ambition of longer lashes, but rather a New Age search for a better life through color.

Their book, “Tony & Tina Color Energy: How Color Can Transform Your Life,” (Simon & Schuster, 2002) offers a palette of advice as the authors outline the colors that correspond to the seven chakras--”energy centers” of the body.

The book comes with a standard disclaimer, “The authors make no medical claims regarding the effectiveness of the exercises set forth within this book,” and confidently suggests a range of color exercises, such as imagining yourself doused in a purple shower, to combat everything from colds to depression.

For depression, they suggest wearing yellow and orange, colors that “help you get in touch with joy and laughter.”

As they explain on their Web site, their color work is “a conceptual art project with the intention of expanding the use and understanding of vibrational remedies. That is to say, the way the electromagnetic vibrations of color, aroma and sound affect the human energy system.”

In other words? “I talk a lot about green,” Bornstein said. “It helps you relax.” And red, Bornstein explained, signifies “being part of the tribe.” It was no coincidence, she said, that designers, post Sept. 11, went for red in their collections. In terms of fashion, black “is a social mask. It doesn’t say anything about you,” she said.

Colors can heal, Gill said. “You don’t need years of therapy.... When there’s a dysfunction, deal with the energy.”

“The rainbow is so accessible,” Bornstein added.

Their self-help book nearly didn’t make it to bookstores. As their agent was closing the deal with the publisher, the couple’s chakras were clashing. Eventually, they broke up but managed to keep intact their business partnership, which, in addition to the book includes the Tony & Tina makeup line. Not only is there hope in a bottle, there’s therapy.

Women and some men buy cosmetics to look better. But, the two say, what customers are really looking for is to feel better. “We want to give something beyond the cosmetic,” Bornstein said.

“Makeup artists are healers,” Gill said. “They do therapy. This,” he said, “is real retail therapy.”

City of Angles runs Tuesday through Friday. E-mail angles@latimes.com

Quote/Unquote

“Many of you are probably wondering,” Ted Koppel told students at Brandeis University last week, “‘Is that his real hair?’ Well, believe me, with the money they pay me at ABC, I could afford a lot better-looking rug than this,” he said, according to the Daily News Tribune of suburban Boston.