Northallerton College’s winning ensemble Wet Paint will jazz it up against several other bands from all over the country at the finals of the National Festival at Birmingham Town Hall on July 11.

Head of Music at Northallerton College, Garry Firth, said: “We’ve been fortunate enough to have had finalists within various musical categories at the National Music Festival ten times in the past eight years.

“This is the fifth time that Wet Paint has been in the final but as yet we still haven’t managed to win.

“It’s a lot of hard work, and because the line-up constantly changes as the students leave college it makes reaching the final so many times an incredible achievement for the youngsters.”

If successful this year the band will be invited to play at the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London later this year.

“Most schools don’t ever make it to the finals,” added Garry. “We are just a small college with a tiny budget of £1,000 competing against schools with massive budgets of £100,000 and corporate sponsorship so the standard is incredibly high.

“All I ask of the students is that they work hard and perform to the best of their ability and we’ll wait to see how the judges compare us to the other ensembles.”