Queen meets the stars - but doesn't recognise them all

With A-list celebrities, awards, and more dames than a pantomime season, the world of showbusiness turned out last night to play its part in the Queen's golden jubilee roadshow.

Only Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were absent from the list of expected guests at one of the largest assemblies of the British art world, to mark 50 years of the Queen's reign.

About 600 people met at the Royal Academy of Arts in central London for the reception, with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. The gathering included 12 dames, among them Vera Lynn, Beryl Bainbridge and Shirley Bassey. Other guests included Darcey Bussell, Lord Attenborough, Sir David Attenborough, Sir Michael Gambon, Sir Simon Rattle, Peter Blake, David Hockney, Lord Bragg and Jasper Conran.

Mick Hucknall, of Simply Red, said: "The thing about my generation is that I can meet the Queen and the Sex Pistols – in fact, the first record I bought was 'God Save The Queen' by the Sex Pistols."

Huge-selling musician he may be, but the Queen still had to ask who he was. She had done the same several years ago at a Windsor Castle reception. Her husband also last night failed to recognise him.

"I've presented the Duke of Edinburgh Awards for two years now and the old fellow still doesn't have a clue who I am," said Hucknall.

To mark her reign, the Queen presented five Golden Jubilee Awards, each worth £10,000, to promising newcomers in the visual arts, drama, dance, music and directing. Buckingham Palace said she had contributed to the awards.

The Queen also formally opened the new Annenberg Courtyard at Burlington House, the home of the Academy, and switched on fountains that were choreographed to Handel's Water Music. The artist Peter Blake painted a portrait of the Queen, from a photograph by Lord Lichfield, for the occasion.