A group of youngsters are making sweet music with the inside of an old washing machine, a few beer barrels, brushes and dustbin lids.

The Junk Band is the brainchild of Debbie Matthews, woodwind teacher at Wootton Bassett School, who saw a junk band while she was on holiday.

She was inspired to create a summer term arts project for her pupils.

“In 10 weeks we create the instruments, scavenge for the parts, learn to play them, choose our style and what we look like. It is a musical opportunity that is accessible to any student whether musical or not,’’ said Debbie.

“We will be creating a drum kit and making a funky sound but we need more barrels.’’ She has already acquired some beer barrels from her brother Simon Cole, landlord of the Five Bells pub.”

The project encompasses all the arts including songwriting, design technology and engineering skills. The Junk Band will be competing in Swindon Talent ’10 as a performance finale to the project, which is based at Wootton Bassett School and the Youth Development Centre in the town. The band’s line-up varies from 10 to 12 members all aged between 16 and 18 and Debbie is hoping they will pass on their skills to primary school children in the area.

“We want to include the whole school cluster in the activity so the Junk Band can take workshops and mentor the younger children,’’ said Debbie, who is also a teacher with the Swindon Music Co-operative.