Teenager Tom English was bunking off school in Oxford today (Wednesday) to queue up for Live 8 tickets -- after begging his parents for permission.

The 13-year-old Cheney School pupil managed to persuade his parents to let him skip lessons so he could spend the day queuing for two of the thousands of extra tickets going on sale for the concert in London's Hyde Park on Saturday.

Tom English The music fanatic arrived outside the New Theatre in George Street at 5.30am and was one of the first in the queue for the free tickets which were being given out at 3pm. By 10.45am there were about 60 people in the queue.

He said: "I'm looking forward to seeing Pink Floyd and The Killers -- it's going to be big.

"I read about the extra tickets in the Oxford Mail and begged my parents to let me come down here.

"Mum said 'you'd better ask dad' and dad said 'ask your mum' but in the end they agreed."

Tom's dad Richard English, 51, of Warneford Road, east Oxford, said he allowed his son to queue for tickets as he is campaigning manager for Oxfam and is helping to coordinate the Live 8 event.

The Oxford-based charity is at the forefront of raising awareness of poverty in Africa as part of the Make Poverty History campaign.

Mr English, who is travelling to Edinburgh at the weekend for a 100,000-strong rally, in advance of the G8 world leaders' summit, added: "This will be a formative event in Tom's life and if he has to miss one day of school to be part of this, then it is probably a sacrifice worth making. I hope this will enable Tom to realise that he is not just a citizen of Oxford but a global citizen with responsibilities for people across the globe."

Mrs English, 52, a librarian at Oxford's St Gregory the Great School, added: "We value education very much, but Tom really wanted to go and in the end we both agreed. We will be contacting the school to let them know."

Tom said he would give the second ticket to his sister Lily, 15, but his mother, a veteran of Rolling Stones concerts in Hyde Park, is also keen to go.

The London event, one of eight taking place this weekend, will feature Coldplay, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Keane and UB40.

Brendan Cull, 46, of Pitts Road, Headington Quarry, took the day off work as an accountant to queue up for his son James, 16, who attends Cokethorpe School, near Witney.

"He didn't manage to get tickets for Glastonbury and was devastated, so this should cheer him up," Mr Cull said.

"He might offer the second ticket to his girlfriend, but if he offered it to me I would love to go along. My sister went to Live Aid 20 years ago and she has dined off the stories ever since."

Lucy Johnston, 24, from Bedford, was near the front of the queue, after arriving at 6.30am.

She said: "We were going to go to London to try to get one of the extra tickets, but we thought we would have a better chance here."

Lorna Buck, 17, from Radley, near Abingdon, arrived at 6am and added: "I really want to see Joss Stone -- it will be a great day."

The free tickets will give fans access to Hyde Park to see the concert live on giant screens.

Doors at the theatre are open until 7.30pm and will reopen tomorrow at 10am.

There were 150,000 tickets originally allocated through a text messaging competition and the Oxford tickets were part of an additional allocation of 55,000.