This is an unashamed plug for an event organised by West Sussex Youth Services.

The youth centre at Dormans in Gossops Green does a lot of good work, and specialises in music and encouraging youngsters to learn how to play instruments, recording techniques, DJ mixing and everything to do with music.

There are two things which can put youngsters off learning an instrument. One is if their school only encourages types of music which the pupil do not find stimulating, and the other is the expense of buying an instrument just to find out if you are any good at it. Dormans Youth Centre has a selection of decent instruments for members to use and actively encourages them to be used for whatever music is wanted.

On Monday night (11th December – tomorrow) at 6:30pm they are having a concert with about half a dozen groups of local youngsters playing. Admission is two quid. There are posters up at the youth centre but I have not seen it listed on either the borough or county council websites’ ‘whats on’ listings.

If you have teenagers it might be worth getting them to go, or even going with them. Apart from being entertaining it might get them interested in learning to play themselves, especially if they have never felt the buzz of seeing music played live before.

I will see if I can persuade Charlie to go so I can go with him (I think it might be a bit naff for an adult to go on his own to a youth concert). It will be interesting to see what sort of stuff they are playing (death metal is my guess) and how well they do it. Who knows, I might even be seeing next year’s Actic Monkeys