Our music history

The HELP album

Help is the probably the most legendary charity album of all time, and the one that all others have been compared to since.

Recorded in just 24 hours, the album captured the Britpop zeitgeist perfectly - with tracks from Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, The Stone Roses, Portishead, The Manics and Massive Attack. Plus contributions from Paul McCartney and Paul Weller.

From midnight on Monday Sept 4th 1995, 20 artists and bands entered studios from Wales to Malaga to record their tracks.

Brian Eno started mastering the tracks on Tuesday and by Wednesday finished copies of the album (with artwork by John Squire) were ready for distribution. By Friday over 300,000 copies had been delivered to record shops throughout the country. On the Saturday alone the album sold enough copies to reach number one.

The record went on to raise a staggering £1.25m that was put to work in Sarajevo almost immediately. Read more about the album and how its proceeds were spent here.

At the Q Awards in November 1995, Tony Blair presented our Help album with a specially-created award.

"This is a remarkable album," he said. "At a time when there was a danger of the West turning its back on the war in Bosnia, it helped put it back in the headlines and reactivate public interest. It helped us be aware of our responsibilities to other people."

In 1996 the BRITS created a special BRIT award for War Child - the Freddie Mercury Award - in recognition of the HELP Album's achievement in bringing the cream of UK music together in an ambitious project to change the lives of thousands of children in Bosnia.

1 Love

Oasis, Prodigy, Sugababes, Starsailor, and a host of mostly UK acts come together for NME's new album project to benefit War Child.

Hope

The Daily Mirror helped launch the Hope album to run alongside our 2003 Iraq Appeal.

This exclusive album included performances by acts including Travis, New Order, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and George Michael. It raised £30,000 for our projects in Iraq.

We launched the first charity music download website - www.warchildmusic,com - weeks before iTunes UK launch and packed with exclusive tracks. It hosted the Arctic Monkeys first download, and was the only place to access Radiohead’s back catalogue online.

Passport back to the Bars

In March of 2004, War Child’s ‘Passport Back To the Bars’ saw 22 of the UK's greatest artists played at the 5 Barfly venues across the UK. These artists included Amy Winehouse, Elbow, The Cure,Pet Shop Boys, Supergrass, Super Furry Animals, The Darkness, Travis, The Cure, Pet Shop Boys, Ash, Starsailor, David Gray, Badly Drawn Boy, plus many more...

Help! A Day in the Life

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the original Help album, an equally ambitious project united a new crop of musical talent under the War Child banner. Coldplay, Razorlight, Keane, the Manics, Elbow and Radiohead were just some of the artists who took up the challenge.

We asked 20 recording artists to donate one day and one track for our 'Help! A Day in the Life' album. All 20 tracks were recorded on 9th September 2005 and the album was on sale online within 24 hours. It became the fastest recorded and downloaded album in history - with over 300 tracks sold every minute.

If you didn’t know it already, Feeder are big War Child supporters. Over the years, they've given us music for our our download store (an amazing cover of REM’'s ‘Everybody Hurts’) and helped our fundraising by playing live shows.

In 2006 we also took them to the Democratic Republic of Congo to see for themselves the difference War Child cash is making.

Army of You 2007

We launched the first of our annual 'Army of You' gigs which showcase the hottest new musical talent around.

"Army of You" started at Camden's Koko, with the Noisettes headlining the evening. Supporting them were Late of the Pier, Metronomy and Friendly Fires, with Rakes and Filthy Dukes manning the wheels of steel.

The Night Sky

In 2007 Keane wrote the single 'The Night Sky' for War Child - the lyrics and video are based on the life stories of some of the children we work with in war zones.

Director Corin Hardy visited a school with us and helped the students create the animated video for the track.

In November 2007 Keane put on two huge gigs to raise funds for War Child's work with children affected by conflict in Iraq. With the help of the Pet Shop Boys, Guillemots, Lily Allen, Brendan Benson, Peter Kay, The Magic Numbers, Milburn, Findlay Brown and Teddy Thompson, they helped us raise a massive £120,000.

Army of You 2008

From Koko to London's Scala in 2008, and another class lineup of emerging talent.

Heroes

Our biggest and most ambitious album yet. War Child worked with the ultimate living legends in music and asking them to select their personal favourite track from all those they have recorded...and then nominate the current recording artist they would most trust to record a new version of that track.

Legends supporting the album include: Sir Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen...

And modern artists recording include: Duffy, Elbow, Lily Allen, Beck, The Kooks, Rufus Wainwright...

The album went straight in to the top ten compilation charts and raised in excess of £200,000 for our vital work.

Brits Aftershow Party 2009

Wednesday 18th February 2009, the night War Child made music history.

To celebrate our 15th anniversary and the launch of our 'Heroes' album, War Child hosted an exclusive gig. The Killers and Coldplay were to play to 2,000 fans and War Child supporters at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire.

What we got was far beyond anyones expectations...

Both were headline acts but The Killers kicked things off, followed by Chris and the boys. Amazingly, there was even more to come.

How do you top the 2 biggest rock bands in the world? The crowd were about to find out. "This is going to be the best encore you'll ever see" declared Chris Martin...

...Ladies and Gentleman, Mr Gary Barlow! The Take That frontman took to the stage for a rendition of 'Back For Good' with Chris Martin - backed by Coldplay. If that was good, the final encore was epic.

From nowhere Bono joined Gary, Chris and The Killers for a rendition of their anthem 'All These Things That I've Done'. The next three minutes were the stuff of rock folklore.

A few grainy mobile phone videos on YouTube captured the moment but not the electric buzz of the occasion. It really was one of those rare 'I was there when...' experiences.

Army of You 2009

2009 saw our Army of You gig head west to the Tabernacle, Ladbroke Grove, with a roster boasting the talents of Crystal Fighters, We Have Band, The Phenominal Handclap Band and War Child's old friends, The Filthy Dukes.

I Got Soul

Our BRITS supergroup inspired us to pass the War Child baton to a newer generation of artists. In October 2009 we released our first ever single - 'I Got Soul'

It was recorded by the 'Young Soul Rebels' - an urban music supergroup consisting of N-dubz, Tinchy Stryder, Chipmunk, Pixie Lott, VV Brown, Ironik, Kid British, Bashy, Frankmusik, Mpho, Egypt, McLean and the London Community Gospel Choir.

The track is a reworking of The Killers' track 'All These Things That I've Done' and was inspired by Bono.

The chorus 'I Got Soul but I'm not a Soldier' is a rallying cry to the War Child cause and our work supporting ex-child soldiers in Uganda and D.R. Congo.

The idea for the 'I Got Soul' project came about after our legendary post-Brits gig. The day after the gig, Bono told Radio One: "That chant, 'I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier', has a whole new meaning when there is a War Child banner behind your head."

The track was mixed by Fraser T Smith and the limited edition T-shirts were designed by iconic British designer Henry Holland.

We were honoured to be awarded the 2009 BeMOBO award for our ongoing commitment to children suffering from the most brutal effects of war in the worlds harshest war zones, and the outstanding results we've achieved through music and music therapy since our inception in 1993.

Brits Aftershow Party 2010

Kasabian were joined onstage by The Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding in a wonderfully surreal finale to our post-Brits gig in the early hours of Feb 17th 2010.

The band sped straight from picking up the Best British Group Award at the Brits to Shepherd's Bush to headline our gig at the O2 Empire.

Earlier in the evening Heaven 17 joined La Roux on stage for a rendition ot 'Temptation' and Zane Low and Calvin Harris had both whipped the 2,000 crowd to a state of frenzy.

In 2010 we took Army of You to Cargo in Shoreditch. The Invisible, O children, Friendly Fires and Disco 3000 were among the artists supplied the music indoors, whilst Beans on Toast and Cheetahs provided the courtyard tunes to accompany the snags from the BBQ.

The Pub Landlord's Southbank Jukebox

In July the Peoples Publican Al Murray curated a night of best of British entertainment featuring comedy from the Pub Landlord himself as well as Jason Manford and Rob Deering.

The music came courtsey of two uniquely and classically English pop acts - Madness and Plan B - one of the most legendary acts the UK has ever produced, and our hottest current chart-topping star.

12x12 @ Red Bull Music Academy

12 of the most legendary music producers in music history spun their classic tracks for 12 minutes each at the Scala for our 12x12 event in association with Red Bull. Classic tunes spun by 12 of the most iconic dance and hip hop producers of all time.

BRITS Aftershow Party 2011

In 2011 our BRITS moved from Shepherd's Bush to the O2.

Following The Bees and The Temper Trap, Mark Ronson was joined onstage by special guests Boy George, Katy B and Ms Dynamite.

BRITS Aftershow Party 2012

In 2012 we rescheduled our BRITS party so it took place before the Awards Ceremony.

It was headlined by Ed Sheeran with support from Dry The River

We were also proud to add Blur boys Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon to the lineup.

Their set included the first ever performance of a brand new track 'Under The Westway'

Our huge thanks also to Fatoumata Diawara and to Ed Sheeran's special guests Labrinth, Example, Mikill Pane and Wretch 32 for making it such a memorable night at the o2 Shepherd's Bush Empire.

With help from Red Bull Studios in April we brought dance music icons Leftfield and their friends to Brixton for an epic night of live music.

Paul and Neil were joined by Afrika Baambaata, Booka Shade, James Zabiela, M.A.N.D.Y, Jemmy and Tempo Tantrum.

Our Army of You gig came back with a bang after a year off in 2011. The brilliant Spector and Tribes took to the stage in Islington Assembly Hall, and were accompanied on the bill by Stevie Neale and a DJ set from Orlando Boom.