Newspapers featured pages of crowds braving heavy rain to witness Sunday's spectacular flotilla on London's River Thames to mark Elizabeth's 60th year on the throne, and previewed Monday night's star-studded concert outside Buckingham Palace.

"Drip Drip Hooray!" said the Sun tabloid newspaper on its front page, featuring a smiling Elizabeth.

The Daily Mail said: "Ask the world to name three things which sum up Britain and you will get three answers: pageantry, rain and the Queen."

The bad weather notwithstanding, the festivities are a boost not only to the royal family but also to a population battered by recesssion, political scandal, unemployment and cuts in social spending.

Pop royalty including Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Elton John will entertain the 86-year-old monarch later on Monday, along with 10,000 ticket-holders who will watch the performances live on a circular stage.

Ska band Madness will sing 1980s hit "Our House" from the roof of the palace, and the BBC promised "one of the most spectacular shows ever staged in the UK".

Television viewer figures are expected to be large, after Sunday's flotilla attracted an average audience of 10.3 million, or 60 percent of viewers, the BBC said.

The jubilee concludes on Tuesday with a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral, a carriage procession along the Mall avenue, a Royal Air Force fly past and a farewell wave from the royal family to crowds gathered in front of Buckingham Palace.

The events have underlined a remarkable turnaround of support for the queen and her family in Britain, where Elizabeth is riding high in opinion polls and is seen as a symbol of service, stability and national unity.

Fifteen years ago, the death of Princess Diana left the monarchy looking shattered, outdated and even in danger of extinction, tarred by scandals, wrecked marriages and a queen who seemed hopelessly out of touch .

BEACONS

Take That frontman Gary Barlow was brought in to organise the pop concert, and has penned a song for the jubilee with musical impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The souvenir album "Sing", featuring acts from across the Commonwealth of mostly former British colonies, went straight to number one in the album charts on Sunday.

After the concert, a network of 4,000 beacons will be lit across Britain and the Commonwealth, leading into Tuesday, the final day of the extended holiday weekend.

Organisers said 1.2 millon people lined the banks of the Thames on Sunday to see more than 1,000 vessels escort the queen on her gilded royal barge along the River Thames.

Millions more Britons spilled onto streets bedecked in Union Jack bunting up and down the country for outdoor parties, although numbers were kept down by the rain.

Schoolgirl Lauren Edwards, 15, from London, painted her face red, white and blue and visited the Thames with friends.

"I've nearly lost my voice from cheering and shouting," she said.

"I was screaming when someone said William and Kate were going past," she added, referring to Elizabeth's grandson Prince William and his Kate, whose marriage last year helped boost the royal family's image.

Support is not universal however. Views range from indifference - about two million Britons travelled abroad to benefit from the extra days off - to outright opposition.

"Her achievement is just staying alive, doing little and saying less," Graham Smith, head of campaign group Republic, told Reuters.

His group estimates that the royal family, which officially sets taxpayers back between 30 million and 40 million pounds a year, in fact costs closer to 200 million pounds when security and travel are included.

Elizabeth is only the second monarch to mark 60 years on the throne, after her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria reached the milestone in 1897. She is also on course to become the longest-serving British sovereign in 2015.

The queen's reign began in 1952, when she was 25, and has spanned 12 prime ministers from Winston Churchill to David Cameron.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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