Rock group Bon Jovi have said their upcoming show in Manhattan will be a celebration of the resilience of New Yorkers after 11 September.

The free concert on Thursday, which also acts as a curtain raiser to the new football season in the US, will see the band playing in Times Square and Giants' Stadium in New York.

The group's latest album, Bounce, was inspired in part by the events of last September.

Singer Jon Bon Jovi, who lives in the town of Middleton, New Jersey, said he saw the smoke rising from the World Trade Center from a local beach.

"When I was a kid, the Army and Marines would call, wanting me to enlist," he told the New York Daily News.

"I used to jokingly say, 'the day they invade Asbury Park, give me a call'... here I am 22 years later and I felt like they'd arrived."

Meanwhile comedian Jerry Lewis, hosting his 37th national telethon over the weekend to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), paid tribute to the International Association Of Fire Fighters on the show.

Lewis is hosting his annual telethon in Hollywood

"We do it tonight because it is absolutely necessary," Lewis told the audience in Hollywood, in reference to the heavy loss of life at the World Trade Center.

The president of the firefighters union, Harold Schaitberger appeared with Lewis to talk about the fund-raising efforts his group undertook on behalf of firefighters killed in the attacks.

"One of the very first calls I received that day from outside the fire service was Jerry Lewis," said Schaitberger, adding that the organisation was committed to making its largest ever pledge to the telethon.

Singer Partti Labelle is among those to have performed on the 21-hour show.

Lewis also launched a stinging attack on the perpetrators of the US attacks, branding them "filthy Mideastern cowards".