Although the star of the show will be the Olympic Flame arriving in London for the first time in more than 50 years on June 26, London will welcome its arrival by staging one of the biggest star-studded free concerts the city has ever seen.
Stars such as Rod Stewart, James Brown, ex-Spice Girl Emma Burton, and Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne will perform in front of more than 70,000 people expected on The Mall.
One hundred and forty torchbearers ranging from sport stars to “extraordinary ordinary” people will guide the torch through 11 London boroughs.
The flame’s carriers during its journey will include buses, boats and taxis as well as the more conventional joggers.
Its progress will be shown to the people gathered there via giant screens.
The climax comes when Britain’s greatest Olympian, Sir Steve Redgrave, runs the final leg of the relay, brining the flame into The Mall and lighting the cauldron.
Free tickets are available to everyone.
Meanwhile, Derek Wyatt, the Labour MP who has just taken over as chairman of the All-Party Olympic Group in Parliament, wants the government to appoint a Minister for the Olympics.
He said London’s bid to stage the Olympics is in the same position that the Commonwealth Games in Manchester was a year before the Games were due to be held. Manchester was short of money and it seemed the Games might collapse.
When a Minister in charge of the Manchester Games was appointed he persuaded the Treasury to release the money that saved the Games and helped make it a success, said Wyatt.
Wyatt said that appointing a fully-fledged Cabinet Minister solely responsible for the Olympics would help London catch up in the 2012 race for the Summer Games.
Wyatt is to be briefed by bid officials next week about how far London is behind Paris and Madrid, the two cities The Telegraph reports are the front-runners in a race which also features New York and Moscow.
