A RECORDING artist is reviving the youth club music sessions where she cut her teeth.

Eloise Rees is going to teach teenagers how to hone their songwriting and performing at the Sweatbox youth club in Wantage.

Young people from 11 to 18 will have a chance to learn how to make music videos, use a mixing desk and operate lighting rigs for live concerts for free on Tuesday nights.

And every Friday the club at King Alfred’s Academy East Site in Springfield Road will hold live performances from bands, solo performers and DJs. The club has guitars, bass guitars, amplifiers, a drum kit, a PA system and lighting, and video-making equipment.

The Sweatbox used to have regular live music sessions but they dwindled and have all but disappeared in recent years.

Miss Rees, who represented the UK at Nashville’s Americana Festival in 2013 and now regularly performs around the UK, said she wanted to revive live music at the club and show young people could be artists like her.

The 24-year-old said: “We can develop skills that can be helpful for further careers and show young people you can make money out of creative industries, not just music. If it wasn’t for the Sweatbox I would never picked up a guitar.

“I was a very shy kid, but with the Sweatbox I got the opportunity to go to Germany and play live at the age of 14. That improved my confidence so much, and now I’m a solo artist and go on stage, on my own, every week.”

Miss Rees, who lives in Wantage, runs her own videography company and said: “I’m bringing all my kit to every session so people can jump on cameras and have a go.

“You don’t have to be a singer or play an instrument, you can also go on the sound desk.”

She said local businesses, including Challow Park recording studio, would be coming in to run workshops on Tuesday nights. And she stressed the sessions were not just open to students at King Alfred’s.

She said: “You can do everything here – the only thing missing is people, and we want to spread the message further than Wantage, to Abingdon and Oxford.

“I remember when I first started going to the Sweatbox and it didn’t feel like part of the school.

“We want to make sure people realise we’re not teachers and it’s not that kind of vibe.”

The new Soundbox sessions launched this week, and will run each Tuesday from 7pm to 9pm.

Friday evening gigs will run from 7.30pm to 10pm and cost £2.50 For more details about the sessions please visit facebook.com/thesweatbox

For information about performing at the Sweatbox contact Eloise at hellosoundbox@gmail.com.