Primal Scream & REM...

...lend songs to Darfur appeal album

By Ciar Byrne, Media Correspondent

Some of the biggest names in music, including REM, Primal Scream and David Gray, have joined forces with Oxfam to raise money for the crisis in Sudan.

Oxfam has followed in the footsteps of ventures such as Band Aid and War Child to produce a charity album.

Songs For Sudan features 14 tracks, including exclusive songs from Badly Drawn Boy, Jet and Ash.

"Men, women and children are still dying every day in Sudan," said Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy.

"People like us might not have the power to stop the violence there, but at least we can try and help people who are affected by it."

The artists have all agreed to forgo royalties from the £7.99 album, of which £5 will go directly to Oxfam's Sudan appeal.

To save production costs, the album will only be available via a music download from www.bignoisemusic.com.

Each album purchased will pay for clean drinking water for 15 people.

Oxfam is already helping a quarter of a million people in refugee camps in Darfur, western Sudan, where fighting has led millions of people to flee their homes, and in neighbouring Chad.

The charity's focus is on providing clean water and sanitation and hygiene training. Conditions in Chad, where more refugees are still arriving, are steadily deteriorating and there is a real threat of a cholera outbreak.

"The album arose from a conversation between Oxfam and different artists about what they could do to have an impact on the situation," said a spokesman for the charity.

"The idea was quite simple. It was to try to do something that will enable other people to do something for Sudan," he added. The project was turned around in less than a month, in a rapid reaction to the scale of the disaster.

The UN estimates that up to 50,000 people have died since the conflict began in Darfur in February 2003, when rebel forces took up arms in protest against alleged discrimination by the Khartoum government.

Oxfam's Sudan appeal has already raised £4m in public donations - one of the charity's most successful appeals ever.

In 1995, the War Child charity raised £1.25m for children in war-torn former Yugoslavia when it released the Help album, featuring tracks by acts including Radiohead, the Stone Roses, Blur and Oasis.

SONGS FOR SUDAN

* Decent Days and Nights - The Futureheads
* Starcrossed (Acoustic) - Ash
* The Lifting (Live) - REM
* Come Together (BBG Mix) - Primal Scream
* All over this town - the Upper Room
* Bashment Boogie - Roots Manuva
* Club Foot (jagz kooner remix edit) - Kasabian
* Shrimp - Mr. Scruff
* I want 2 - Ty
* Promised Land - Paddy Casey
* Cigarettes and Cola - Jet
* All Comes True - Tom Baxter
* Ballad of Easy Rider - Kathryn Williams
* Static in The City - Hope of the States
* Everything Will Be Alright Tomorrow - Faithless
* Baltimore (Randy Newman cover at 2003 V Festival) - David Gray
* Slow Jam - Four Tet
* Celebrate - Badly Drawn Boy

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