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Gig In The Dump: Classical Music Is Rubbish |
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Contributed by Sarah Cameron |
Monday, 03 September 2007 |
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The beautiful music of Elgar could be heard amongst scrap metal, bin bags and shrieking gulls yesterday as players from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played a recital in their most unusual venue ever - a London rubbish dump.
 The special concert was held to promote the new Channel 4 series
Dumped, which starts on Sunday night (Sept 2nd, 9.00pm) and sees eleven
people trying to live on what other people throw away on a rubbish dump
for three weeks.
And instead of treasured centuries-old violins and shining trumpets,
the musicians were playing bizarre instruments made from junk,
including violins built from artificial legs, a cello created from an
old crossbow and a clarinet that started life as garden hosepipe.
The instruments show some of the ways the 434 million tonnes of rubbish
thrown out in Britain every year - enough to fill the orchestra's
regular venue the Albert Hall every two hours - could be recycled and
reused in innovative ways.
Stephen Bell, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conductor, comments:
"This is the first time in our history that we've deliberately set out
to play a rubbish gig, but we're highlighting a serious environmental
message. Every one of us in Britain throws away ½ a tonne of rubbish
every year - and only a quarter gets recycled - but this recital shows
that one man's rubbish could easily be another man's violin and will
hopefully make people think twice before they bin their waste."
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