'Shambles side-project to release album

Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell has announced plans for an album release from his side-project Helsinki.

He told NME that ten of the 12 tracks for the album had already been recorded by the band.

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

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 definitely saw Helsinki as a "fun" side-project and took his work in Babyshambles "more seriously".