Indie stars unite to combat racism

Babyshambles, Hard-Fi and The Enemy have donated songs to an anti-racism compilation album.

The two-disc collection, a joint initiative between the Love Music Hate Racism campaign, the National Union of Teachers and the NME, was initiated after a Channel 4 report found record levels of racism in UK schools.

29 indie acts, including The View, Maximo Park and Bloc Party, have contributed a new song, a rare B-side or an exclusive remix to the collection.

"I don't think you have to be a particularly developed human being intellectually or spiritually to despise racism," said Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty. "It may be easy to be complacent, but we need to encourage people to fight racism whether with words or actions. Count me in – I'll fight!"

Disc one of the Love Music Hate Racism compilation will come free with the NME on October 17. The two-disc collection will be available as a free download soon afterwards.