Gig In The Dump: Classical Music Is Rubbish

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."