Bands Race To Finish Help: A Day In The Life

Right now, 20 of the biggest bands in the country are scrambling to finish the recording of Help: A Day In The Life, which will be the world’s fastest-ever released album.

From Gorillaz to Radiohead, from The Go! Team to Antony And The Johnsons, the bands have had since noon yesterday to record and mix a track each. The results will be available for download at 2pm BST.

It was ten years ago, slap-bang in the middle of the Britpop
craziness, that the original Help album was released. Back then Blur,
Oasis, The Stone Roses, Massive Attack and several other bands recorded
a track in a day, which was available on CD five days later. The CD
raised £1.25 million for War Child.

But now, what with all this technology, the tracks recorded for
Help: A Day In The Life will be made available for download two hours
after the bands finish up their songs. Each track will cost 99p, with a
CD following on September 26th.

All the profits from Help: A Day In The Life will go to War Child, a
network of independent organisations that help children affected by war.

At this very moment, bands are putting the finishing touches to
their tunes all around the world: Gorillaz are in Hong Kong, Kaiser
Chiefs are in Berlin and The Manic Street Preachers are recording in
their studio in Wales.

As for the music soon to be on offer, Mercury Music Prize winners
Antony And The Johnsons will be recording a cover of Happy Xmas (War Is
Over) with Boy George, and The Manic Street Preachers are offering
Leviathan - "the punkiest thing we’ve done in years" according to Nicky
Wire.

Kaiser Chiefs are recording a cover of I Heard It Through The
Grapevine and, um, Keane are covering Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. But
we’ll suppress our hatred for both Keane and Elton John just this once.
It’s for a good cause, after all.

The best thing is that all the tracks are available for download
individually, which means we can happily download all the songs by
bands we like, and ignore Razorlight and Damien Rice. Result!

The full tracklisting for Help: A Day In The Life is…

Antony and the Johnsons and Boy George - Happy Xmas (War is Over)

Belle & Sebastian - The Eighth Station of the Cross Kebab House

Bloc Party - The Present

The Coral (produced by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley) - 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

The Manic Street Preachers - Leviathan

Maximo Park - Wasteland

Mylo - to be confirmed

Radiohead - I Want None of It

Razorlight - Kirby’s House

Tinariwen - to be confirmed

The Zutons - Hello Conscience

Music stars start War Child race - BBC

[story by Stuart Heritage]