Sir Cliff to mark turning 70 with a quiet curry

Veteran pop star Sir Cliff Richard will celebrate his 70th birthday today with a private party and a day off from performing.

The Peter Pan of pop is in the middle of a series of birthday gigs at the Royal Albert Hall in London but will not appear tonight.

He said: "For the 70th, even when it comes to a birthday party, I'm not going to have a big party on the day. I'm going to have a quiet night and what I'm going to do is I've got one of my sisters who lives quite close is going to come over with my niece, my nephew and another niece, and a baby, and her husband, and we're going to have an Indian curry."

Sir Cliff will play three more concerts at the venue, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.

The singer was born Harry Webb in Lucknow, India, on 14 October, 1940, seven years before his family moved to Britain after Indian independence.