Stewart among remembrance line-up (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Stewart among remembrance line-up

5:22am Saturday 10th November 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

Rod Stewart and Alexandra Burke will perform for the Queen at the Festival of Remembrance in honour of Britain's war dead.

The televised event, staged at the Royal Albert Hall in London, will include a performance by the Military Wives choir whose members all have partners who have served in Afghanistan.

The festival comes the day before the Queen, Prime Minister David Cameron and other national figures gather at the Cenotaph in Whitehall for the Remembrance Sunday ceremony.

Other royal guests at the event will include the Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of York, the Princess Royal and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Prince Michael of Kent.

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will be absent as they are in Australia and New Zealand on a Jubilee tour, while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will also not be present tonight, but are expected tomorrow.

The evening will be hosted by BBC broadcaster Huw Edwards.

Other performers expected to take to the stage include singer Russell Watson, the Overtones, Amore and former X Factor contestant Jonjo Kerr.

The Queen will lay a wreath on Sunday in memory of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in what is the focal point of the country's Remembrance Sunday ceremonies.

The Royal British Legion stages Saturday night's festival, which includes the traditional two-minute silence as poppy petals fall from the roof of the Royal Albert Hall, each representing a life lost in war.

The event, which will have an audience of veterans and their families, is expected to be a moving tribute to the country's fallen.