The solo outdoor shows will be in front of 14,000 fans at a special all-seater lakeside arena on 10 and 11 July.

Sir Elton has played dates in the US without a backing band, performing some of his best-known songs alongside some he rarely plays now.

He's planning to create the same kind of show in the UK.

Simon Le Bon has eye operation

Pop star Simon Le Bon has had pioneering surgery on his eye to correct the short-sightedness he has suffered from since he was a teenager.

After the operation at the Alexandra Hospital, Manchester, he said: "It's improved my life by 100%. I've been able to throw away by glasses for the first time since I was a teenager and I can now see my audience when I'm on stage."

The Duran Duran leadman, now plans to pursue his passion for motorcycle racing, which he had to give up due to his poor eyesight.

Le Bon is also to officially open a state-of-the-art eye surgery centre in Manchester next Tuesday.

Ronan's boys set to top the charts

WestLife are outselling all other acts with their debut single Swear It Again, say midweek sales figures, and look certain to hit the number one spot.

The band, co-managed by Boyzone's Ronan Keating, have already made history in Ireland by notching up the biggest first week's sales for a debut.

"They have got the potential to go very far," says Keating.

"When I first heard them I couldn't believe their raw vocal talents and it was for this reason that I wanted to get involved."

Paxman criticises BBC governors

Jeremy Paxman has attacked the BBC's governors for drastic changes planned for Newsnight and the Six O'Clock News.

Changes are in the pipeline for both shows to meet the governors' demands for more regional coverage.

But according to the Independent newspaper, Paxman, who presents Newsnight, said the alterations are "the worst idea they could possible have come up with as a solution to a political problem."

Plans for both shows include opt outs to the national regions of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Actor Buddy Rogers dies

Buddy Rogers, husband of silent screen legend Mary Pickford, died on Wednesday aged 94.

Rogers made his screen debut in 1926 and went on to star in World War I picture Wings, which took Hollywood's top honour at the first Academy Awards ceremony in May 1929.

The actor was married to Mary Pickford from 1936 until her death in 1979. Although his wife's celebrity surpassed his own, Rogers had roles in films such as Young Eagles, This Way Please and Mexican Spitfire's Baby and remained active on screen through the '30s and early '40s.

Rogers, who remarried after Pickford's death in 1980, is survived by his wife, Beverly.

Jurassic Park creator going on the game

Michael Crichton is moving from movies, TV series and books into 3D computer games and aims to have his first ones released within a year.

Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park, Twister and ER, said: "I've noticed a lot of games feature large environments - big worlds, some puzzles - but limited interaction.

"Timeline is going to change this through fast-paced gameplay in a tight, complex and highly interactive world."

Douglas builds cinema at Wailing Wall

Actor Kirk Douglas is building a cinema within sight of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, due to be completed and screening its first films next year.

Douglas says the cinema "will be for Jews, Christians, Muslims. We all pray to the same God, we only take different paths".

He's producing a film about the story of the wall.

"When people see the wall, it is anti-climactic. I want this film to make it more meaningful," he said.

Troubled Aida musical set to resurface

Disney's musical Aida is to begin performances from November in Chicago after a troubled world premiere in Atlanta, Georgia last October,

Aida, with a pop-rock score by Tim Rice and Elton John, was hit by technical problems during its Atlanta run.

The show will open the newly restored Palace Theatre in Chicago.

The plan is to run there for nine weeks before transferring to Broadway.

Spielberg set to be "Taken" by aliens

Director Steven Spielberg is to produce Taken, a 20-hour TV mini-series about alien abduction which goes before the cameras sometime this summer.

No cast has been named but the series, budgeted at over $40m (£26m), is being made by Spielberg's DreamWorks studio for America's Sci-Fi Channel.

Sci-Fi's chairman Barry Diller says: "Steven has always had an interest in this subject."

He added that the series is about real abductions, not fakes and that "this will be a big story".

Jackie Kay wins first novel award

Writer Jackie Kay has won the 1998 Authors' Club First Novel Award for her book Trumpet.

The 37-year-old author and poet scooped the title for her novel about a jazz trumpeter, which also won the Guardian Fiction prize last year.

The award, which was founded in 1954, is for the most promising first novel by a British author and comes with prize money of £750.