Keep rocking and rolling, Mandela

The term 'living legend' can appear trite in these days of marketing hyperbole, yet it is never more appropriate when applied to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. His suffering for 27 years in a white South African jail for holding anti-apartheid views is well known. His eventual release from jail, the first all-South Africa free elections, and his rise to be the first black South African president are well recorded.

Significant among the many protests at the continued incarceration of Mandela was the 1988 Free Nelson Mandela Concert in Wembley, England. So it is as a gesture of warmth and recognition that Mandela agreed to a 46664 (his prison number) concert in London yesterday, with the funds collected being donated to HIV/Aids charities, to record his 90th birthday, which occurs next month, on July 18.

The concert is being broadcast around the world, so in unison with so many others, we wish him a happy birthday.