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LONDON - Two lads are having a party on Sunday night, in honour of their mother, and they've asked a few friends along to sing.
It won't be an intimate affair.
One of the friends is Sir Elton John, and the song they want is "Candle in the
Wind" - which he performed with altered lyrics 10 years ago at the funeral of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
Back then the House of Windsor was different, more rigidly formal.
The Queen infamously refused to go against decorum and fly the Union flag over Buckingham Palace after the Princess's death, even as the mountains of floral tributes at the gates grew higher.
But on Saturday local time Princes William and Harry took a walk in the pouring rain around the stadium in north London where 60,000 people are expected to join the party.
And instead of being fussed over by a courtier, as their father often is, the eldest, William, heir to the throne, let his open-necked blue shirt get drenched as he walked around the stadium holding an umbrella for the soul singer Joss Stone.
He looked as if he thought nothing of it, but then William has gone even further than Diana in breaking royal formalities.
And Stone is an attractive young woman.
He has made no secret of his liking for those, and neither has his brother.
Both have been determined to lead the lives of "normal" red-blooded young men.
They are not normal though, as the bill for tonight's performance proves.
Few others could persuade Rod Stewart, Take That, Tom Jones, Duran Duran and Lily Allen to play at what is essentially a birthday party.
The Princess would have been 46 today, but she was killed alongside her boyfriend Dodi Fayed in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
The performers were all favourites of their mother or play music the Princes think she would have liked.
In between the pop, there will be a performance by the English National Ballet, of which Diana was a patron.
The concert will raise money for several charities, including Centrepoint, for the homeless, and Sentebale which helps orphan children in Africa.
A private family memorial service will be held next month to mark the 10th anniversary of her death.
Prince William said: "We were so lucky to have her as our mother and there's not a day that goes past when we don't think about her and miss her influence because she was a massive example to both of us."
Prince Harry said: "She had the public side and then she had the private side, and the private side was very small in comparison to the public side.
But the memories that we have of her, we're very lucky to have because they're private between us."
- INDEPENDENT
