Two months after a fundraising concert in aid of Help for Heroes was cancelled due to poor ticket sales, a new concert raising funds for the charity featuring Robbie Williams has sold half its tickets in the first week.

Beverley Knight was to headline the Concert for Heroes at Southend-on-Sea in June, which also featured The Illegal Eagles, X Factor singer Andy Abrahams and The Real Thing, but the gig, organised by independent supporters of the charity failed to attract  enough interest and all ticket sales were refunded.

In contrast, the new Heroes Concert has already sold half of its 60,000 tickets within the first week, has generated support from household names Bruce Forsyth, Michael Macintyre, Peter Kay and Jack Dee as presenters, and will be broadcast on the BBC. The Live Nation-organised event is now set to take place at Twickenham Stadium on 12 September and will act as “a statement of appreciation from the UK's entertainment community to our brave young service men and women,” said the organisers.

The sentiment will be felt at the event with special guests to include service personnel and the public are being asked to add to their support by purchasing one of 1,000 tickets via a dedicated ticket line to treat a member of the Armed Forces to the concert.

A spokesperson for Help for Heroes advised that every penny from ticket sales less the cost of running the concert would go to the charity and so their profits would depend both on the final ticket sales and the ability of the organisers to extract favours from service providers. With tickets selling from between £55 and £80, however, the charity stands to benefit from a sizable donation.

Joining headliner Robbie Williams will be X Factor winner Alexandra Burke, pop princess Pixie Lott, Plan B and The Saturdays.