Damon Albarn has revealed that he will feature on the song that Pulp have contributed to War Child’s ‘Help(2)’ album.
The star-studded album is set for release on March 6 via War Child Records, and will raise funds for young people whose lives have been affected by war and conflict. Visit here to pre-order.
The record comes following the original ‘Help’ record for War Child, which was released in 1995 and featured Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, Orbital, Portishead, Massive Attack, Suede, Sinéad O’Connor, Manic Street Preachers, The Boo Radleys and more.
This time around, huge names involved include Beabadoobee, Beck, Portishead‘s Beth Gibbons, Cameron Winter, Depeche Mode, Wolf Alice‘s Ellie Rowsell, English Teacher, Ezra Collective, Foals, Greentea Peng, Olivia Rodrigo, Sampha, The Last Dinner Party, Wet Leg, The Smiths‘ icon Johnny Marr, Young Fathers, and many more.
The first taster arrived at the start of the year when Arctic Monkeys shared the single ‘Opening Night’ – their first new music since 2022 – and earlier today (Thursday February 12), Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten and Kae Tempest shared the stirring new track ‘Flags’.
Now, Blur and Gorillaz icon Albarn has spoken about his contribution to the charity album, and revealed that he will also feature in a song that fellow Britpop giants, Pulp, have recorded for the LP.
Speaking to Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music 1, he revealed that ‘Flags’ was written by him after he was “trying to write more in a major key”, and came together before he “gave up again” on the idea.
“I tried, [and] one of the more successful outcomes was this sort of idea for a song called ‘Flags’,” he explained. “I didn’t want to develop it really, and then I was speaking with James [Ford, producer] and Toby [L, Transgressive Records co-founder]. And I thought, ‘well, I’ve got something if you’re interested that we could have a look at’.
“We just took it from there really, and then Grian got involved and then Kae got involved.”
Albarn also spoke to Wilkinson about what it was like to return for another War Child record, with Blur having featured on the original 1995 release alongside fellow Britpop giants and chart rivals, Oasis – the only time they would appear on the same record together.
“I look back and I don’t really understand what I was doing,” he said, discussing the song ‘Eine kleine Lift Musik’ they released for the record. “We did some sort of weird kind of obscure music. It’s like an instrumental. But I think that song was a song I just didn’t finish properly.
“Anyway, this time, I had a fantastic time. And actually wrote a song and we all wrote it together. It was really nice. And I think there was a real sense of musicians enjoying hanging out with each other. Which obviously I’m always an advocate of,” he added.
The 1995 record raised over £1.25million for the non-profit organisation, and was followed by other charity records, including 2002’s ‘1 Love’, 2003’s ‘Hope’, 2005’s ‘Help!: A Day in the Life’ and 2009’s ‘War Child Presents Heroes’.
As well as recording and producing ‘Flags’ for the ‘Help(2)’ album, Albarn is also set to feature as one of the voices in the choir for Pulp’s contribution to the record, he revealed in the Apple Music 1 interview.
Not yet released, the song in question is called ‘Begging For Change’, and the Blur icon confirmed that he will be one of the many famous faces who helped form the backing choir for the track.
“I was in Studio 2. Everyone was doing something everywhere,” he revealed. “I ended up in a choir for one of Pulp’s songs. It was nice. It was really nice. And just like lots of younger bands, you know. It was a good spirit.”
On top of that, it was also revealed earlier today that Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker returned the favour too, and was part of the choir that provided backing vocals for the newly-released ‘Flags’ – alongside The Libertines’ Carl Barat, Declan McKenna, English Teacher, Black Country, New Road, Nadia Kadek, and more.
Filmmaker and Academy Award Winner Jonathan Glazer also worked with Academy Films for art direction for ‘Help(2)’, handing the cameras over to children in order to see the world through their eyes. It includes footage of what they saw in the studios, as well as footage from those on the ground in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen and Sudan. Today, a new clip showing the recording of ‘Flags’ has been shared.
Alongside ‘Flags’, Chatten has also recorded something else for the War Child album, joining up with the rest of Fontaines D.C. to cover Sinead O’Connor’s 1990 protest song ‘Black Boys On Mopeds’ for the record.
Recently, producer James Ford also revealed that some artists refused to be involved in the LP as they thought it was “too political”.