BALKANS BENEFIT

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS, Monkey Mafia's Jon Carter and Leftfield's Paul Daley play a special benefit show for the Kosovan refugees at London King's Cross Scala Club on April 15.

There'll be a minimum donation of #5 on the door and all proceeds will be given to the Disasters Emergency Committee representing agencies in Kosovo and the Balkans.

The benefit is the brainchild of Scala boss Sean McLuskey's wife, Katie Tomashevski of Monopoly PR.

She told NME: "I'm kind of a sensitive person and when I kept watching the news I kept crying. You can't help feeling for the plight of the people caught up in this war.

"One minute they're drinking cups of tea and then they're running for miles. I just thought we should do something."

The night will run from 7pm to 2am and will also feature sets from Radio 1 DJ Mary-Anne Hobbs, Xfm's Claire Sturgess, Howie B, Barry Ashworth, Richard Norris, Dirty Beatniks and others.

All DJs are giving their services free of charge.

The Scala is at 275 Pentonville Road, London N1.

Meanwhile, War Child, the charity that raised funds to help the children of nearby Bosnia during the conflict there in 1995 are currently planning an effort to help young victims of the conflict of Kosovo.

Four years ago, the charity asked The Chemical Brothers, Radiohead, Oasis, Suede, The Stone Roses, The Charlatans, Paul Weller, Blur, Manic Street Preachers, Terrorvision and Portishead to record tracks for the highly successful 'Help' CD.

Full details of the new campaign will be revealed in NME in the next couple of weeks.