Rush to download War Child album

Stars record tracks

More than 4,000 copies of the new War Child charity album featuring Coldplay, Radiohead and Gorillaz have been downloaded in two-and-a-half days.

Organisers say Help: A Day in the Life is the fastest-selling download album.

Stars recorded 22 songs on Thursday and Friday and by Monday lunchtime fans had spent £40,000 downloading the tracks.

It also features Keane and Kaiser Chiefs and will be released on CD on 26 September. A decade ago, the original Help album raised £1.25m for War Child.

Help: A Day in the Life, which costs £9.99 to download, is currently on the warchildmusic.com website and will be available on major download sites from Tuesday.

Rap artist Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier in Sudan, took part

Ben Drury, managing director of War Child's retail partner 7 Digital, said no other complete album had been downloaded at such a rate.

"We receive data from the Official UK Charts Company every week and no download bundle or album has sold anywhere near the amount that Help did in a single week let alone over just two days," he said.

The Official UK Charts Company said it was unable to confirm whether Help had set a record.

The War Child site crashed under the demand and the album is on course to be the biggest selling download album, organisers say.

Some fans have downloaded single tracks for 99p each and Radiohead's new song I Want None of This is currently the most popular choice.

Mercury winners

Among the other offerings is Coldplay's How You See The World, which had been available in Japan but was remixed by the band remixed in New York on Thursday.

War Child patrons Keane recorded a version of Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road while Kaiser Chiefs covered I Heard It Through The Grapevine.

Antony and the Johnsons, fresh from picking up the Mercury Music Prize, contributed a version of John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War is Over) with Boy George.

Artists were asked to enter the studio at 1200 BST on Thursday, although some started work a few hours early. The completed album went online at about 1810 BST on Friday.

Full track list for Help: A Day in the Life

• Antony and the Johnsons and Boy George - Happy Xmas (War is Over)
• Babyshambles - Bollywood to Battersea
• Belle & Sebastian - The Eighth Station of the Cross Kebab House
• Bloc Party - The Present
• Coldplay - How You See The World
• The Coral (produced by Portishead's Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley) - It Was Nothing
• Damien Rice - Crosseyed Bear
• Elbow - Snowball
• Emmanuel Jal - Gua
• The Go! Team - Phantom Broadcast
• Gorillaz - Hong Kong
• Hard-Fi - Help Me Please
• Kaiser Chiefs - I Heard It Through the Grapevine
• Keane and Faultline - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
• The Magic Numbers - Gone Are the Days
• The Manic Street Preachers - Leviathan
• Maximo Park - Wasteland
• Mylo - Mars Needs Women
• Radiohead - I Want None of It
• Razorlight - Kirby's House
• Tinariwen - Cler Achel
• The Zutons - Hello Conscience