Britain’s top bands start recording 'Help: A Day In The Life'

A host of Britain’s top bands will head into the studio today to record 'HELP: A DAY IN THE LIFE' for the WAR CHILD charity, in a bid to record the fastest album ever released.

Groups including Radiohead, Gorillaz, Manic Street Preachers, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, Manic Street Preachers, and Elbow will start recording new tracks from midday today which will be available for download from lunchtime tomorrow (September 9).

The event marks the ten year anniversary of the first ’Help’ album, which featured Blur, Oasis, Radiohead and Suede and raised more than £1.25m for children caught up in the Bosnian war.

The bands will be in studios across the world with Gorillaz laying down their track in Hong Kong, recording in Wales.

The album will also feature various cover versions with ’s ’I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, ’s ’Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’.

After recording, the artists will send their songs to a studio in London to be available to download tomorrow at 99p per track.

’Help: A Day In The Life’ will be released on CD through Independiente on September 26.

As previously reported on NME.COM, War Child boss Mark Waddington said of the project: “As a music fan, I know what the original ’Help’ album meant and as the present CEO of War Child I know what it achieved. It was my intention that any new album we made in 2005 should match up to the feats of the past. That’s why we have set ourselves the challenge of remaking history and releasing the fastest album ever… again! It’s a tall order but we feel with the support of amazing artists we can make it happen and help a new generation of children affected by war.”

All of the money raised by the new record will be used by War Child to provide both material and psychological support and rehabilitation to children on the edge of conflict and post-conflict societies.

The ’Help: A Day In The Life’ tracklisting will run:
Antony and the Johnsons – ‘Happy Xmas (War is Over)’
Belle & Sebastian – ‘The Eighth Station of the Cross Kebab House’
Bloc Party – ‘The Present’
The Coral – ‘It Was Nothing’
Damien Rice – ‘Crosseyed Bear’
Elbow – ‘Snowball’
Emmanuel Jal – ‘Gua’
The Go! Team – ‘Phantom Broadcast’
Gorillaz – ‘Hong Kong’
Hard-Fi – ‘Help Me Please’
Kaiser Chiefs – ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’
Keane and Faultline – ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’
The Magic Numbers – ‘Gone Are the Days’
Manic Street Preachers – ‘Leviathan’
Maximo Park – ‘Wasteland’
Mylo - TBC
Radiohead – ‘I Want None of It’
Razorlight – ‘Kirby's House’
Tinariwen - TBC
The Zutons – ‘Hello Conscience’