The animation for Four Tet's "Go Go Ninja Dinosaur" - is now available to view in the videos section.

We have a range of extremely tasteful, Ethical Threads kids' t-shirts, which will fit most ages from 2-7 for sale in the Belle and Sebastian shop for a bargain £10. Copies of the album are also available for the same price.

Time magazine ran a story on the Colours Are Brighter - roadtesting it on various under 12s , here is what they found:

Too Cool for School
Alt-rockers band together for a children's album even hip parents can groove to
BY HUGH PORTER

As any parent who has sat at traffic lights with The Wheels on the Bus blaring out the car window knows, after the stork arrives, it flies away with your last shred of cool. But help is at hand in the form of Colours Are Brighter, a compilation of 13 original songs by alternative rock acts put together by Belle and Sebastian's Mick Cooke. Issued on Rough Trade, the label that evolved from the legendary punk-era London record shop, it's specifically for kids ("and grownups too" acknowledges the small print). "Go Go Ninja Dinosaur!" roots Four Tet's electro-tinged refrain on the opening track. From there, the likes of Snow Patrol, the Flaming Lips, Jonathan Richman, the Kooks, Ivor Cutler and the Divine Comedy tackle subjects from mud and astronauts to Pooh Bear and bunions. All proceeds from the just-released album go to Save the Children's campaign that funds children's education in global conflict zones. But what do the experts think?

Maggie
Age: 23 months
"Shoes, shoes, shoes."
Maggie chants while doing a rhythmic yet fit-like dance and points to her feet during Half Man Half Biscuit's David Wainwright's Feet. It's more the gleeful trance of an ecstatic clubber than a toddler's sway. So far so good then..although admittedly our reviewer had just that morning responded in the same way to the washing machine on spin cycle.

Tom
Age: 5
"I like the one about eating cakes best."
Franz Ferdinand's Jackie Jackson, a cautionary tale about a gluttonous boy, is Tom's favorite. He also liked the Barcelona Pavilion's tidying-up song. "I put on Tidy Up Tidy Up when I clean my room, and Franz Ferdinand when eating cakes," says Tom. "I like my CD, all my other music is babyish..but Daddy keeps stealing it."

Georgina
Age: 6
"I like everything about this song. What's a ninja?"
Four Tet's Go Go Ninja Dinosaur! is a hit with Georgina, but her favorite tune is Belle and Sebastian's The Monkeys Are Breaking Out the Zoo. "The music is nice..it's happy. The monkeys get away up to the hills, and they fly kites. I like the tiptoeing bit, and the chorus." [Georgina then perfectly mimics the chorus.]

Hannah
Age: 11
"I'm not sure it would really encourage me to tidy my room."
Hannah isn't buying the parental propaganda of Tidy Up Tidy Up, although she finds the Kooks' The King & I "O.K., a good tune." Our most mature reviewer is a hard nut to crack: "Snow Patrol are better off sticking to what they are good at." Maybe they should have aimed for a younger audience.

At pop's heart lies the simplicity and naivety of children's songs, so it is no great leap to create pop for children. Belle and Sebastian are the curators (proceeds to Save The Children) of this batch of new songs (bar Ivor Cutler's 1967 rarity 'Mud') that tackle the right subjects - mud for starters and dogs (a surprisingly sombre Jonathan Richman with 'Our Dog Is Getting Older Now'), cheesy feet (thanks, Half Man Half Biscuit) and cake, from Franz Ferdinand, in skiffle-rock mood., with the death-by-cake tale of 'Jackie Jackson' to Kathryn Williams' clsoing lullaby 'Night Baking.' At the start of the album Four Tet's 'Go Go Ninja Dinosaur' is a sugar loaded bouncy castle that will impact of three year olds and active clubbers. As for the curators, their 'The Monkeys Are Breaking Out The Zoo' is nursery-rhyme sunshine pop peppered with snores and chimp hoots. (Martin Aston)

Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol, The Kooks and Four Tet are amongst the artists contributing to a collection of childrens songs curated by Belle and Sebastian, to raise funds for children's charity, Save the Children. Colours are Brighter will be released on Rough Trade on October 16th, with all profits and artist royalties from the record being donated to the charity.

A while in the making, but well worth the wait, the album contains twelve tracks, the vast majority of which have been specially recorded for the project over the past two years. The full track listing hides a number of stories

1. Four Tet featuring Princess Watermelon - Go Go Ninja Dinosaur
2. Rasputina - A Skeleton Bang
3. Franz Ferdinand - Jackie Jackson
4. Snow Patrol - I Am An Astronaut
5. The Divine Comedy - Three Cheers For Pooh, Cottleston Pie, Piglet Ho
6. The Kooks - The King & I
7. Half Man Half Biscuit - David Wainwright's Feet
8. The Barcelona Pavilion - Tidy Up Tidy Up
9. Jonathan Richman - Our Dog Is Getting Older Now
10.Belle and Sebastian - The Monkeys Are Breaking Out The Zoo
11.Ivor Cutler Trio - Mud
12. The Flaming Lips - The Big Ol' Bug Is The New Baby Now
13. Kathryn Williams - Night Baking

Snow Patrols track is a cover version of a much sought after 7 recorded in 1972 by the then 11 year old Ricky Wilde, brother of Kim, son of Marti, who is also the author of the song. The Ivor Cutler track was produced by George Martin and featured on the Apple-released album, Ludo. Permission for its use on The Colours Are Brighter was given by Cutlers son, Jonathan. Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy performed a medley of three pieces from the pen of A.A.Milne for the release, whilst Jonathan Richman flouted medical advice to record his track. He had been ordered to give his voice full rest after a problem with his vocal chords had been diagnosed, but ventured on for the cause.

Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand, on the band's involvement:-

"We were very happy to record for Colours are Brighter album since, like most people in bands, we tend to think like children anyway. When I was a kid I hated songs that were too nice. I didn't care about whether the wheels on the bus went round or if we were going to the zoo tomorrow. Me and my brother used to make up revolting words for pop songs instead. I used to love stories that were gory, particularly Roald Dahl, Shock Headed Peter and Grimm Fairy Tales. Jackie Jackson is from that world - he's a horrible boy who meets a horrible end. It's also an amazing honour to be on the same album as Ivor Cutler, Jonathan Richman and Half Man Half Biscuit - all musical icons. I had a safe and happy childhood, but not everyone is that lucky. Save the Children is a charity that quietly works hard at making life better for children around the world who suffer because of the situation around them."

Kieran Hebden, AKA Four Tet, on Go Go Ninja Dinosaur:-

"My basic idea for the track was to get straight to the point and really do something that I thought little kids would like, rather then just take a childrens song and produce it in my normal adult style. I came up with the idea for Ninja Dinosaur from thinking about ideas in cartoons and stuff that I was into when I was a kid... Bananaman, Super Gran, Mysterious Cities Of Gold, Dogtanion...all pretty mental concepts really. I would be heavily into the theme tunes from these things, and would usually be perfectly happy if the song was just the name of the character repeated again and again over some cheap casio keyboard sounds. So with all this in my head I made Go Go Ninja Dinosaur."

Gary Lightbody, Snow Patrol, on I Am An Astronaut:-

"We wanted to make our version of the song sound as if it was made in space primarily. There are two ways to do this. You can make it in spacealthough this is tricky as it involves actually becoming an astronaut. The training alone takes years and I've heard you need to be very good at mathematics for some reason, and I'm not very good at maths at all. This only leaves one other optionthat we give the song a spacey feel. So we sprinkled some space dust (that we bought at a special market) on top of the song, and now it sounds like it was made far above the earth. Really it was made in a studio in Ireland, but if you don't tell anyone I won't either."
Hmmm now theres a man with an overactive imagination.

The Monkeys Are Breaking Out The Zoo is the first Belle and Sebastian track ever to have featured Mick Cooke (bassist/trumpet player, and the Belles band member primarily responsible for envisaging/bringing together this fantastic release) on lead vocals. He describes it as his "own Ringo-esque contribution to the band". Monkey noises are courtesy of bandmates, Chris Geddes and Richard Colburn. The Belles track in fact provided the impetus for the album to come together, as Cooke explains:

"I woke up one morning with a song in my head about monkeys breaking out of the zoo. We recorded the song at our own studio in Glasgow, which turned out to be a lot of fun, as I found myself chucking bricks into Glasgows river Kelvin, minidisc recorder in hand, and screaming like a monkey with Chris and Richard. Having recorded the song, the band began to decide what on earth to do with it. Someone suggested compiling an album of songs for children by lots of different bands, with the proceeds going to charity. So that's what we did."

On completion of that particular track, other artists were approached with a view to contributing. Most were intrigued by the challenge of writing a song for children that would not irritate their existing, adult fans (and parents).

"It wasn't too difficult in the end," says Cooke. "It basically involved speaking to friends, bands we had toured with and people, like Kieran Hebden, Half Man Half Biscuit and The Kooks, that we thought would get the idea and come up with something unique and original."

"Save the Children were an instant and obvious choice of beneficiary, as they are, perhaps, the best childrens charity," explains Cooke. "The work they do is global, concentrating on helping children in developing countries, and in areas which have been torn apart by war. Their workers put their lives at risk every day to save lives and educate."

Save the Children fights for children in both the UK and around the world who suffer from poverty, disease, injustice and violence, working with them to find lifelong answers to the problems they face. Funds raised from the sale of Colours Are Brighter will go straight to Re-write the Future, a global Save the Children campaign aimed at providing eight million children living in conflict-affected countries with education, offering them protection, stability and opportunities where they would otherwise have none. Almost half a million children live in conflict affected countries where they are at risk of being displaced, forced to fight, sexually exploited or used as labour. Many see friends and relatives die and are more vulnerable to malnutrition and disease. Schools provide children with a safe place which equips them with the skills to look after themselves, and provides them with better prospects for their future.

Colours are Brighter is released by Rough Trade on 16th October.

" It was very flattering to be asked to be involved in this project. One of the good things about being successful is to be able to do something positive with your music. When you are on the road for so long, it's easy to forget that you can. I wrote the song on the bus while in Europe, I wanted to make a song that was fun but had a message and had this idea of using an 'evil King' as a metaphor.

This king takes everything away from the children, he won't let them play or eat chocolate, but the children soon find out that there is more power in numbers than in the foolish king.

We had fun recording it as well, the other guys came up with a kind of 'grange hill' style groove. Anyway I hope it makes a difference. It was a real honour to be on the CD love from all The Kooks"
Luke Pritchard of the Kooks, who recorded "The King & I"

"My daughter Hollis, who was 6 at the time, told a friend that she had just seen a skeleton banging his head on a tombstone in the cemetery. She swore that she truly did see it. It's pretty easy to make a song out of that. To elaborate, I just thought, hm, why was he doing that? And it's so incongruous for him to be doing that in broad daylight, but that's how it supposedly went down."
Melora Creager of Rasputina, who recorded "A Skeleton Bang"

"This song is from a long since shelved educational e.p. called 'Clip 'Round the Earhole' which we donated to Wirral Borough Council in 1984 for the benefit of both teachers and parents whom we felt were coming up short in RAMMING home the message of SENSIBLE FOOTWEAR. "Have you not seen the Inn of the Sixth Happiness?" we implored, but our concerns were unfortunately greeted with a rather terse response alluding to egg sucking Grandmothers and 'the wholly more successful OMD'.
There are currently SEVENTEEN Chiropody clinics in Birkenhead alone.
Now who needs the 'Clip 'Round the Earhole'....."
Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit, who recorded "David Wainwright's Feet"

The Times ran a lengthy article about childrens' music and Colours are Brighter on Friday. You can read it at http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14932-2336728.html