I am preparing the manuscript of my music and memory book (My World Music) for my publishers (Riversmeet) , and am adding a chapter on the War Child HELP album which was released 30 years ago. As I do so I am struck by how powerful it was; the quality of the music, the dedication of its artists and the strength of its message - that the war was being challenged by musicians while the politicians and corporate media looked the other way.
Decades later we have a much larger genocide taking place in Palestine and, although there are musicians actively working to expose current war crimes, (step forward Brian Eno and Roger Waters) where is the 2025 HELP album?
In August 1995 I was asked to speak at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in support of the victims of the Bosnian war. Other speakers included Michael Foot and Brian Eno. I said: “I would like to speak on behalf of the young people of Bosnia. They are like young people everywhere. They take pleasure in music …They have the anger of youth and they can love like only youth can love. The young die when they are the ones who should live …In this war, it is the child who is killed because it is the child who plays in the street when the shell explodes.”
Tony Crean of Go Discs!, the record company that represented Paul Weller, happened to be walking through Trafalgar square and heard me. He later recalled. ‘Shit, I’ve spent the last couple of years of my life thinking about pop music and not realising what was going on under my nose’.
Andy Macdonald, the head of Go Discs! recalls that Tony ‘came into the office like a man possessed. He said, “Boss, I’ve been watching what’s happening in Bosnia. It’s fucking outrageous. We’ve got to do something.” '
And they did. A few days later my War Child co-founder, Bill Leeson, and I were invited to meet Tony and Andy in a Notting Hill restaurant. They told us of their plan to release the HELP album. It was to be recorded in studios on Monday, September 4th, 1995 and be in the shops five days later.
HELP sold over 70,000 copies on the day of its release, becoming the fastest-selling album in British music history. The artists waived royalties and it raised more than £1.5 million. Brian Eno produced the album and was responsible for making sure the recordings were ready for pressing in time for the Saturday release. Racing against the clock, he said of the experience, ‘Tapes were appearing from everywhere, me trying to keep some mental track of it… Enjoyable panic, but I went into Hitler mode in the last few minutes.’
The tracks included Oasis and friends with ‘Fade Away’, The Boo Radleys and ‘Oh Brother’, The Stone Roses (Love Spreads), Radiohead (Lucky), Orbital (Adnan), Portishead (Morning Air), Massive Attack (Fake the Aroma), Suede (Shipbuilding), The Charlatans vs The Chemical Brothers (Time for Living), Stereo MCs (Sweetest Truth), Sinéad O’Connor (Ode to Billy Joe), The Levellers (Searchlight), Manic Street Preachers, (Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head), Terrorvision (Tom Petty Loves Veruca Salt), The One World Orchestra (The Magnificent), Planet 4 Folk Quartet (Message for Crommie), Terry Hall and Salad (Dream a Little Dream of Me), Neneh Cherry and Trout (1,2,2,3,4,5), Blur (Eine Kleine Lift Music), The Smoking Mojo Filters with Paul Weller, Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, Steve Craddock , Damon Minchella. Steve White and Carleen Anderson with ‘Come Together’.
Paul Weller recalls that ‘I had to self-medicate because I was so nervous, so I was a fucking mess by the end of it. But Macca was great, man. He was really fucking cool.’Noel Gallagher remembers that, ‘As the tape started, it suddenly dawned on me that I’d never played 'Come Together' before. “What key’s it in?’ I asked. ‘I was fucking winging it.’
Listening to HELP 30 years later I am astounded with the entire album and don’t want to place one track above another. But if pushed it has to be Terry Hall and Salad ( Merijene van der Vlugt) with ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’. Terry Hall referred to his love of the Mamas and the Papas recording and deciding that ‘this is the one’. Of the studio recording session carried out over eight hours he says ‘There was a string section, two dogs roaming around, babies, press and a video crew. It seemed like the whole world was listening to me improvising some harmonies. I always say it was the highlight of our career. It meant the world to us.’
The income from the album was used to provide artificial limbs for wounded children, food and clothing to orphanages, the purchase of a refrigerated truck to supply insulin, funding for school meals in central Bosnia, support for a mobile medical clinic, the supply of premature baby units , as well as baby milk, contraceptives and even funding for mine clearance programmes. Linda McCartney supplied 22 tonnes of her veggie burgers which were delivered to three Bosnian cities. Help monies were also used towards the running of the War Child bakery and to expand the charity’s music programmes.
Tony Crean said, ‘we did something with real quality, it’s had an impact that’s lasted. If you chuck a big enough stone in the pond, some ripple will hit something and make a difference.’
Decades later and with another, bigger genocide taking place in Palestine, we need to chuck a fucking boulder into that pond and make a difference.
You can view the 1995 HELP album on YouTube and the Channel 4 TV documentary on the making of the album.You can then donate to Medical Aid for Palestine and if you are in the music business help lift that rock.
David Wilson, co-founder War Child
