IT WAS the moment Chelsea Pensioner Colin Thackery moved the nation to tears and won Britain’s Got Talent.

Colin, 90, sang the Andrew Lloyd Webber song Love Changes Everything, with fellow army veterans from the Royal Hospital Chelsea providing a male backing choir.

Colin dedicated his performance to his wife Joan, who died in his arms in 2016 after losing her battle with breast cancer. When he left the stage he was told that even the technicians were crying.

Now Colin is coming to Southampton to take part in a concert commemorating the 75th anniversary of VE Day, which marked the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Described as the main VE Day in Hampshire, the concert will be held at the O2 Guildhall on Saturday, May 9.

It has been devised by the same team which organised the 2018 Festival of Remembrance, which was held at the Mayflower Theatre 100 years to day after the end of the First World War.

Colin will perform numbers from his new album, also called Love Changes Everything.

He will be accompanied by an orchestra and choir conducted by Alex Pope, who also conducted the Festival of Remembrance as well as the Southampton Celebration Proms at the Mayflower in 2017. Showcase Entertainment have teamed up with Clare Peppiatt from the Royal British Legion, which will receive the proceeds.

Mr Pope said: “The concert will feature performances by vocalists including Barbara Howells, Jeremy Edwards and Mehreen Shah, who will all perform repertoire reminiscent of wartime and the 1940s.

“We will have a large choir featuring members of Southampton Choral Society and a children’s choir featuring young people from across Hampshire.”

Colin and Joan were married for 66 years and music helped the former soldier cope in the bleak and empty months that followed her death. He said: “It was 1949 and I’d just come back from serving in Malaya. I was posted to County Durham where I met this pretty little brunette at a camp dance.

“We’d only been married about two weeks when I was sent to Korea. I didn’t see her for another two years.”

To purchase tickets call 023 8063 2601 or visit the venue website o2guildhallsouthampton.co.uk