Help for Heroes Concert – Twickenham

Whilst sad that it meant I would miss the opportunity to see the fabulous fireworks at the Thames Festival which I usually attend, I booked tickets to go along to the concert at Twickenham last Sunday because as well as adoring Robbie Williams I think that the Help for Heroes charity is fabulous (although it's a shame that we need a charity to look after our injured service men and women).

Anyway, we got to the stadium around 5pm and it was packed – the crowd estimates were 60,000. Everyone was in a really good mood – even though the queues for the loos and food and drink stalls were interminable.

Our host for the evening got straight into generating some audience participation as we were put through our paces for the later live coverage on BBC. As the concert started there was a helicopter overhead and lots of military musicians doing their thing to whip the crowd into a joyous frenzy – Alesha Dixon sang “Drummer Boy” as those military musicians did their thing.

Bruce Forsyth, in full evening wear, did his “Nice to see you, to see you nice'” line and a little tap dance and then Sir Tom Jones belted out “Everyday” before doing his famous “Green, green grass of home”. Every now and again, we were shown a video of how soldiers had suffered the most appalling injuries and then overcame their disabilities to go on to lead fulfilling lives and achieve awesome things – whether in terms of sports or fund raising or their military careers. We were urged to text a £5 donation - by the end of the evening they’d raised around £25,000.

In addition to all the well known music stars, the evening was peppered with short appearances from comedians – some who came to make us laugh, others to remind us about the reason for the concert and to encourage us to contribute to the charity. Jason Manford was one who focused on the cause and alerted us to the fact that one in four homeless are ex-servicemen.

Then my daughter practically exploded with happiness as Plan B and then The Saturdays took to the stage – the nearby blokes look pretty chuffed too. Great sets. We missed a bit of James Blunt (who’d seen active service in Afghanistan) while we did a drinks and burger run but saw Cat Deeley and The Wanted. We were impressed to see that Prince Harry was in the audience too.

'The bad boys are always catching my eye....' - Alexandra Burke got all 60,000 on their feet, dancing and clapping before singing her new song “Start without you” which was pretty catchy. And whilst my daughter had said that she really didn’t like opera, she enjoyed Katherine Jenkins’ mesmerising singing as Spelbound did lots of acrobatic feats on the stage with her.

Peter Kay pretended to play pan pipes while the crowd sang “Angels” – warming up for Robbie’s appearance. Then Michael McIntyre appeared to be really, really happy to be at Twickenham and kicked a rugby ball as the crowd spontaneously sang 'Swing low, sweet chariot' for him. Then the stage exploded as Enrique Inglesias strutted his Spanish stuff.

Finally, after another short break, Robbie came on stage. He sang “Feel” and was then joined on stage for that amazing reunion with Gary Barlow when they sang “Shame”. A final singalong to “Angels” and it was 1030 and time to go home. Never has five hours passed so quickly and pleasantly.

So many singers, performers and comedians. To pay tribute to and raise funds for all those folk who give so very much for all of us. It was a truly great event.