Soul icon Brown buried today

Late soul legend James Brown is to be buried in his hometown of Augusta, Georgia today.

Thousands of fans are expected to gather at the James Brown Arena and on the streets outside to listen to the funeral over a public address system.

The service will be the third memorial event in as many days for the star.

Yesterday around 300 relatives and close friends attended a 90-minute ceremony at a church in North Augusta, South Carolina, and on Thursday Brown's body was carried in a gold coffin through the streets of Harlem on a horse-drawn carriage to New York's Apollo Theatre.

Brown died unexpectedly of heart failure on Christmas Day in Atlanta, Georgia while hospitalised for pneumonia. He was 73.