PREVIEW: VE Day We’ll meet again concert

For the first time in its 150- year history, the Royal Albert Hall in London  will be empty as it plays host to a special concert this Friday ( 8 May ) to mark the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day ( VE Day ).

A full-length concert with the Royal Philharmonic  Concert Orchestra and special guests was due to take the stage but was postponed until September. This half-hour replacement will feature Katherine Jenkins singing all the old World War II favourites including White Cliffs of Dover and a virtual duet with Dame Vera Lynn of We’ll Meet Again. You can watch it live here:

The hall will be eerily empty but it was thought fitting  to go ahead with a short tribute to the fallen men and women of the 1939-45 war. It’s also an opportunity to thank the armed forces for the work they have been doing alongside NHS workers and others during the pandemic crisis.

The concert, which will be streamed at 6pm on YouTube, will end with the rousing Jerusalem.

There were big plans originally to mark the anniversary , most now cancelled. Instead on Friday there will be :

At 11 am a national two-minute silence .

At 3pm we are all invited to take to our doorsteps to raise a glass, cheer and clap the war heroes.

At 9pm a pre-recorded message by The Queen will be broadcast at the same time of day as her father George VI  addressed the nation in 1945.

Brighton folk are being encouraged to put union flags in their windows and on their doorsteps to pay tribute and remembrance . Read more here: