Opening Night will appear on HELP(2), a charity compilation out in March which also features Olivia Rodrigo, Depeche Mode, Pulp and more
Arctic Monkeys have released Opening Night, their first new song since 2022 album The Car, with proceeds benefiting the charity War Child.
Opening Night is taken from HELP(2), a sequel to War Child’s 1995 album Help, which brought together A-list music names to raise £1.2m for children affected by conflict, including Radiohead, Blur, Sinéad O’Connor and the Smokin’ Mojo Filters (a supergroup of Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller).
The new compilation, released on 6 March, is similarly star-studded. As well as alumni from the 1995 album – Portishead’s Beth Gibbons and Blur’s Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon – and legends such as Pulp, Beck and Depeche Mode, there are a host of successful younger musicians including Olivia Rodrigo, Fontaines DC, Cameron Winter, Wet Leg and Sampha.
Oscar-nominated film-maker Jonathan Glazer also contributed to the project, working with children in war zones across Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen and Sudan to create their own films, and recruiting children in the UK to document the making of the project.
