British stars' charity CD flops

The efforts of Sir Paul McCartney and Elton John to help the families of the World Trade Center victims have flopped in the American pop charts.

The British rock stars headlined a charity concert in New York two months ago, but a CD recording of the evening has so far struggled. The Concert For New York City, which also featured The Who, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, could only reach No 27 in its first week on Billboard magazine's album charts. This week it has slipped to No 37.

The two CD compilation of the concert has sold 140,000 copies, with profits helping the families of those who died in the disaster. Organisers had hoped to raise millions, after a huge audience watched it live from Madison Square Gardens in New York.

An earlier concert featuring mostly US artists and performed live only 10 days after the terrorist attack, has also sold slowly. America: A Tribute To Heroes, featuring Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Maria Carey and country star Willie Nelson, has so far only sold 129,000 copies. Billboard's director of charts, Geoff Mayfield, says the CDs may have been released too long after the concerts to hold the public's interest.