by Graham Tutthill

gtutthill@thekmgroup.co.uk

Students from Dover Christ Church Academy are through to the Music For Youth Festival in Birmingham for the second successive year with their junk band R!OT.

They impressed the judges at the regional festival in March and will once again be performing in the Adrian Boult Hall at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

A successful performance there may mean they could be asked to perform in the Royal Albert Hall later in the year.

Some members of R!OT will also be performing alongside pupils from the ASPEN Unit as part of the Deal Music Festival on June 29 in the town hall.

The band stole the show again when they took part in the Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival in Canterbury earlier this month.

They performed alongside other primary and secondary schools in a concert celebrating music made from only junk instruments.

Matt Miles, head of enrichment and community music at the academy, said: “It was great to see our students performing with such energy and enthusiasm. They really stole the show.

“For this piece, we decided to set up a battle between R!OT and a solo drummer in order to see who was victorious and a special mention must go to Sheldon Carter for an excellent drum solo as well as R!OT's newest members, year seven pupils, who only had a couple of rehearsals to learn the piece.”