Heavy Metal Truants and Lounge Kittens team up for charity single

The Heavy Metal Truants will be making their fifth charity bike ride to Donington for Download festival next week, starting on Wednesday June 7.

To kick off their week of fundraising, the Truants have teamed up with long-time supporters The Lounge Kittens to record a cover of Bicycle Race by Queen to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust, Nordoff Robbins, and Childline.

Mixed by Olli Daffarn at Blue Dot studios, Bicycle Race is available for purchase from Amazon for 99p.

The Truants will also be launching their annual Monster Rock Auction on June 6 and 6pm BST. The first round of high-end items will include a bass guitar donated by Geddy Lee of Rush, handwritten Livin’ On A Prayer lyrics written by Jon Bon Jovi, rare original and signed Grateful Dead artwork, a signed Metallica Les Paul guitar, and a rare original oil-on-canvas portrait of The Beatles’ George Harrison by famed pop and rock artist Barry Novis.

To date, the Heavy Metal Truants have raised £338,000 for Teenage Cancer Trust, Nordoff Robbins and Childline, and hope to raise another £150,000 this year. You can donate to the Truants via their JustGiving page.

What happened on the first day of Heavy Metal Truants 2016?

GALLERY: Heavy Metal Truants' big-ass charity bash 2015

Luke Morton joined Metal Hammer as Online Editor in 2014, having previously worked as News Editor at popular (but now sadly defunct) alternative lifestyle magazine, Front. As well as helming the Metal Hammer website for the four years that followed, Luke also helped relaunch the Metal Hammer podcast in early 2018, producing, scripting and presenting the relaunched show during its early days. He also wrote regular features for the magazine, including a 2018 cover feature for his very favourite band in the world, Slipknot, discussing their turbulent 2008 album, All Hope Is Gone.