It was collaborative in every sense of the word. “They were in the studio for two days,” recalls War Child’s head of music, Rich Clarke. “First day, Damon decided he’d really like to incorporate a children’s choir. The A&R team hastily found two children’s choirs and they took the second day to record it. Then on the second day he decided it would be amazing to have an adult choir as well. The call went out, and we had all of Pulp come in, and all of English Teacher. Carl Barât, Marika Hackman, Declan McKenna, Let’s Eat Grandma. Everyone mucked in.”

Money raised from HELP(2) will go to War Child’s work in 14 counties, where they partner with local organisations to provide emergency support, protection and care, education and community support during and in the aftermath of conflict. It also offers a sunny moment in otherwise unrelenting realities.

“For last few years, taking the Ukraine conflict as a starting point, the news has been saturated with violence,” says Rich Clarke. “We didn’t think there’d be war in Europe again, possibly in our lifetimes. The situation in Gaza. Sudan is finally making it into the news and that’s the largest humanitarian crisis in the world right now. There’s a feeling of helplessness, generally. This felt like a positive project people could lean into.” It’s certainly necessary: around 520 million children are affected by conflict, roughly double the number thirty years ago.

HELP(2) visuals were led by Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Glazer and frequent collaborator Mica Levi, and the album artwork is now visible across London on poster and billboard sites donated by BUILDHOLLYWOOD and UNCLE. “I’m going to cycle down Camden Road on the way home, take a pic, pop it on my Instagram,” says Clarke. “Doing it as a billboard is a real ‘wow, it’s real!’ moment. That’s the picture you send your mum, isn’t it? It hits harder than forwarding the PDF file.”

What is it about bringing together artists, for special recording sessions, that works so well for War Child?

There’s heritage and trust. The creative lynchpin of everything is producer James Ford, and this record is a reflection of the collective spirit of the music industry. James is in a current battle with leukaemia, which he came down with a couple of months after agreeing to do this. The original idea was very different – working very closely with each and every artist in the studio but that wasn’t possible. He did the production remotely and a lot of other producers, engineers and mixers stepped up and filled in: David Wrench, Marta Salongi, Catherine Marks. It was a collective spirit, for James and for the cause.

The Arctic Monkeys track ‘Opening Night’ had eight million streams within a few days of release. What else can you tell us about the music?

We had a real coup getting Cameron Winter at a point when Geese have gone absolutely stratospheric. There’s a Depeche Mode cover of a track called ‘Universal Soldier’ which is a folk song Donovan made famous. They’ve done a full Depeche industrial makeover of it and it punches quite hard.

What are the musical links between HELP from 1995 and HELP (2)?

There’s a narrative that weaves through from then to now. Beth Gibbons comes back and does a cover of Velvet Underground’s ‘Sunday Morning’. Graham Coxon plays guitar on the Olivia Rodrigo track and he’s on English Teachers’ track. Damon Albarn’s back. Pulp weren’t on the original, but the original was nominated for the Mercury Prize the year after it was released. Pulp won, for Different Class, but they said HELP should have won and donated the prize money to War Child.

Another link between then and now is the role of billboards in spreading the word…

Billboards are consumed the same way as ’95 – it’s what you see from the top deck of the bus – but it’s used differently. Back then you’d tell your mates when you got to work but now it’ll be straight up on whatever platforms people use. I love some of the creativity you see around billboards, like when they go beyond the frame or become an art piece. It’s always nice to see something you don’t expect. There aren’t that many nice surprises in life now, so it’s good to see something that makes you stop and look. So, I hope people stop and look and scan the QR code.

The idea behind the visual world of the album is ‘by children, for children’. How did that work in the studio?

We will always represent children in a dignified and empowering way and we would never use imagery that shows injury or trauma. The scene on the album cover captures a moment of transcendence and escape for the boy running through the water. It does show that brutality of war but there are moments of incredible lightness that celebrate childhood. It’s unbridled happiness: the joy, the light, everything. The cover and creative direction for the project was by Academy Award Winner Jonathan Glazer. Academy Films built on that, giving eight- and nine-year-old children handheld cameras, to film the artists recording. You can see what’s happening in the studio through the eyes of a child.

How did this work with the children who contributed remotely?

We worked with Academy Films to get crews out to Gaza, Yemen and Sudan, where handheld cameras were given out to children. They filmed their peers just being children. They run, jump, play, climb, laugh, fall over, drop the camera. It’s deeply moving, but positive and empowering. It humanises conflict; it’s not far away or distant. Childhood is universal.

Are there any plans to record artists from conflict zones?

It’s something we’ve explored in the past. We’ve worked with musicians around Kinshasa in the DRC and there’s been a talk of a musical exchange with our programmes in Jordan and Lebanon. There’s a desire to do it but we just haven’t found the right way. A lot of musicians here are from backgrounds in the conflict countries we work in, so we’re always really keen to link that up; to tell that story, to shine a light. We’re in 14 countries and only a few are on the news agenda.

It’s easy to imagine that charity sits in a different place to culture. I think that’s a false binary. Is this something that War Child thinks about?

The first seeds of change often come from culture: art, theatre, music. That’s the first form of protest often, the first form of reaction. Culture and charity seek change, serve a purpose, and to make a difference.

Are there challenges in being vocal and active about conflict even when you’re just focusing on children’s experience?

Yes. It is and it isn’t. Like every charitable organisation, we’re politically neutral. There are challenges with some of the more politicised conflicts. Ultimately children are always the innocent victims of war. War is waged for many different reasons and different agendas and we do our best to navigate it. 

The track list for HELP in 1995 wasn’t printed on the inlay because there wasn’t time between recording and release. What else has gone down in your organisational history about that time?

The challenge and the excitement of getting in there and laying down in a single day. Two of the artists were The Stone Roses and Stereo MCs – I think it took them five years and eight years respectively to make their second albums. In 1995 the logistical piece was massive: to record it in the day and have it in the shops five days later. There are stories of private jets, tapes missing ferries – somehow it all got together. It went to print on the artwork before Eno who mastered the album had finished sequencing. There’s no track list on the vinyl this time either, for a similar reason. There was an artwork production deadline – but it’s also an homage to the original. We put a sticker on the front this time.