Babyshambles side-project album

DREW MCCONNELL has announced plans to release an album from his side-project band.

The Babyshambles bassist said ten of the 12 tracks for the Helsinki album had already been recorded.

The band features a number of guest musicians including Albert Hammond Jr of The Strokes, Fionn Regan, Kid Harpoon and The View.

Speaking to NME, McConnell said: "[Helsinki) is an entity that came into being unwittingly, a cloud of friends who at many points over the last two years found ourselves gigging and recording a handful of my songs for disparate reasons, ranging from charity endeavours to just finding ourselves in the same city with a few days to kill with itchy fingers.
"We've now cut ten studio tracks and plan to record two more and release a record before the end of the year."

Last year, McConnell said that he saw Helsinki as a "fun" side-project and took his work in Babyshambles "more seriously".