Gary Numan News

The Cure, Travis, Starsailor, Badly Drawn Boy and David Gray are among the artists planning to take part in the U.K. benefit concert series Passport: Back to the Bars.

Set for March 1-6, the event will place theater- and arena-level acts in "barfly" venues in front of 200 to 500 people.

The series will take place in Cardiff, Wales; Glasgow, Scotland; and the English cities of Exeter, Liverpool, London and York. Proceeds will benefit the children's charities Shelter and War Child.

"The project aims to demonstrate the ability of the music community to make a genuine difference to the wider world," reads a message posted on the War Child (http://www.warchild.org.uk) and Shelter (http://www.shelter.org.uk) Web sites.

According to the Cure's official Web site, the band will perform in London, as will the Darkness, Craig David , David Gray and Big Brovas. Cardiff will present Supergrass and the Super Furry Animals, while Birmingham will showcase So Solid Crew.

Travis and Texas will perform in Glasgow and Starsailor, the Sugababes and Atomic Kitten are lined up for Liverpool. Finally, York will be treated to sets by Badly Drawn Boy and Gary Numan , according to the Cure's site.

The War Child site indicates Elbow, Ash, Polyphonic Spree, Gabrielle and Floetry will also perform. All of the bands are donating their services, according to Numan's site (http://www.numan.co.uk).

No tickets will be distributed, as "passports" will be granted to winners of a text messaging-based contest, according to Gray's official Web site (http://www.davidgray.com). Premium rate text messages will serve as the main method of fundraising for the series.

An official Passport site (http://www.musicpassport.org) is scheduled to launch Jan. 26 with full details.

Reuters/Billboard