Doherty fails to show for charity song

Pete Doherty has failed to attend the recording of a Christmas charity single.

The singer was lined up alongside Billy Bragg and The Kooks to record a new version of John Cage's '4'33' earlier this week, but didn't turn up to the studio session.

Music Rooms quotes a spokesman as saying: "I don't know where he is. Somebody is trying to get hold of him. We can't rule anything out."

Imogen Heap, Orbital and Madness' Suggs were among a number of other acts who also took part in the performance at a Soho recording studio.

Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard said: "It's definitely something close to the heart and also I wanted to do it. To try and be number one for Christmas is quite cool.

"It's quite interesting, it's a piece of art really. It's a conceptual piece rather than something musical. It's more of a statement really, isn't it?"

Discussing the Facebook campaign behind the project - dubbed 'Cage Against The Machine' - Pritchard said that the track wasn't being recorded solely to topple the X Factor winner's song.

"It is a bit," he said, "but I don't think that's why everyone is here. You can make it a big deal if you want [of] the fact it's against X Factor.

"It's for charity, it's for a good cause. People want to do something they think matters. If it beats X Factor, that's brilliant."

The track is available to download on December 13.