The hills (of Berkshire) are alive with the sound of music

There are some fun things going on for young people at the moment that you should all look out for. The Download are running a competition for bands and solo musicians in West Berkshire. The entry deadline is Friday 9 October, so if you're part of a band or you're a budding singer-songwriter do check it out. The prizes include headlining a gig at the Moorside Centre in November and getting airtime on local radio, so worth looking into. If you haven't come across The Download before it's a website for young people in West Berkshire run by an editorial team who mainly seem to come from St Bart's at the moment. They're always looking for new recruits so do have a look around and if you're interested drop them a line.

Staying on the music theme, we've got a couple of gig nights coming up. The Dead Cities Club are presenting a gig night here at the Corn Exchange on Friday 25 September featuring Televised Crimewave, Four Dead in Ohio, Elliot to Hong Kong and The Circus Sands. We're pretty excited about having a 'proper' gig here for the first time in a while, and the bands have certainly got our feet tapping and heads nodding. Come join us to see what it's like!

We've also got the Newbury Electric Proms on Sunday 18 October. This will be an evening of music and dance performed by young people from the area, and should be pretty darn cool. There's a Facebook Group you can check out for updates. The whole event is in support of the Community Furniture Project, which is a great local charity. Best of all, the evening is being organised by Josh Smith, a student at Trinity school - kudos to him! Empowering people to run their own events like that is one of the main aims of the Take Over, so he's ahead of the game in that respect.

Other than that little lot, Take Over things are still going on behind the scenes. We're currently trying to get out to schools to give workshops and talk in assemblies, and setting up for the event on Saturday 24 October. If you've got any requests or want to let us know what you've been up to, do get in touch!