Prince William and Prince Harry are organising a memorial service and a charity pop concert to mark the tenth anniversary of their mother’s death.

The Concert for Diana will be held at the new Wembley Stadium on July 1, which would have been the 46th birthday of Diana, Princess of Wales. It will be, the princes said yesterday, “the best birthday present” their mother could have wished for.

The line-up reflects the musical tastes of the Princess and her sons. It includes the Eighties group Duran Duran, Sir Elton John, the singer Joss Stone, the rap star Pharrell Williams and the English National Ballet. There will also be a medley of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s greatest hits.

The memorial service, to be held on August 31, the day the Princess died, will bring together the Spencers, the Windsors and the princes’ stepmother, the Duchess of Cornwall. The venue has not yet been decided.

Announcing their plans in a televised interview, the princes insisted that the concert will be upbeat and celebratory, while the church service will bring together both sides of the estranged family. Prince Harry, 22, said: “The service is going to include both sides of the family, our mother’s side and our father’s side — everyone getting together.”

Prince William, 24, said: “The idea is we wanted to get artists that our mother really loved, and then artists that both Harry and I enjoy, and in the middle with the ballet and Andrew Lloyd Webber — obviously she loved her dancing and her musicals.

“So with that you’ve got a sort of something different, it’s not just any old concert. It’s going to be different and it’s going to be interesting.

“We both want to make sure, first and foremost, the evening is for her. It’s to remember her and to commemorate her life and celebrate it.

“So therefore the church service alone isn’t enough. We wanted to have this big concert with, you know, full of energy, full of the sort of fun and happiness which I know she would have wanted.

“And on her birthday as well, it’s got to be the best birthday present she ever had.”

The announcement comes two days before the publication of a report by Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington into the car crash that killed their mother and Dodi Fayed in Paris.

The princes hope the report will put an end to the conspiracy theories surrounding their deaths. The concert will raise money for their mother’s five main charities and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, and those of which the princes are patrons, the young people’s charities, Sentebale and Centrepoint.

The princes hope that it will have similar success to that of the 1985 Live Aid concert that their mother and father attended. Prince William added: “If it works, it will be brilliant.” His brother said: “If it doesn’t then you won’t see us for a very long time.”

Gary Farrow, Sir Elton John’s publicist, would not say if the singer will perform Candle in the Wind or its adapted version that he sang at the Princess’s funeral. Both events will be televised. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will not be at the concert. “It’s more likely to be those of the princes’ generation,” a spokesman said.

Concert tickets will cost £45 and go on sale today.

Top of the royal pops

• Princess Diana’s favourite band was Duran Duran. She met Simon Le Bon and the rest of the group, above, in 1985
  
  
• At the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in 1985, Diana and Prince Charles were joined in the Royal Box by Bob Geldof, David Bowie and Queen
  
  
• The Princess owned albums by Dire Straits, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and Chris de Burgh
  
  
• She danced with John Travolta at the White House and Wayne Sleep at the Royal Opera House
  
  
• Prince Charles is a fan of Leonard Cohen, the Canadian songwriter: “He’s remarkable. I mean the orchestration is fantastic and he has this incredibly sort of laid-back gravelly voice. It’s terrific stuff”
  
  
• Prince Harry reportedly used to play techno music in his Highgrove den so loudly that it disturbed his father as he worked upstairs
  
  
• Prince William, who described his brother’s musical tastes as “pretty shocking”, is said to enjoy classical music, although he admitted to liking some of the same groups as Harry

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