Crowded House release Help Is Coming in aid of refugee crisis

Crowded House have teamed up with Save The Children to help Europe's refugee crises. 

The Australian rock band have re-released their "forgotten" 1999 single Help Is Coming, with all proceeds (including from Apple and Universal) going to Save The Children's refugee crisis relief efforts. 

The song is available on iTunes and as a limited edition 7" single, which features the previously unreleased b-side Anthem with new artwork by Crowded House’s bass player Nick Seymour. It is available to pre-order now from The Vinyl Factory.

Watch a new short film for the track, directed by Mat Whitecross and introduced by Benedict Cumberbatch, below: 

Journalist Pete Paphides, who is behind the release with fellow broadcaster Caitlin Moran, said: "I started imagining my family in a similar situation, and almost without me realising it, a song I hadn't heard for several years started playing in my head. Help Is Coming was recorded by Crowded House over 20 years ago, but it evokes with uncanny empathy the howling uncertainty faced by thousands of families arriving in Europe for the first time.

"The following day, I contacted friends at The Vinyl Factory – a label that owns the old EMI pressing plant in Hayes – with a view to manufacturing a seven-inch single with all the proceeds going to Save The Children. They responded immediately, offering to waive all their manufacturing costs."

Crowded House frontman Neil Finn added: “I am continually amazed and grateful for the mysterious pathways that songs can travel. You never know where they are going to turn up and when they will reveal their true nature. First recorded in 1995, quietly released in 1999 "Help Is Coming" has had a long journey to find a good home.

"It was always a song about refugees even if at the time I was thinking about the immigrants setting off on ships from Europe to America, looking for a better life for their families in America. The words of the poem inscripted on the Statue of Liberty are an extraordinary statement of intent for the development of a great nation  "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

Click here to download Help Is Coming on iTunes

Click here to buy the Help Is Coming 7" from The Vinyl Factory