Last week, James Rhodes popped into the Big Yellow Self Storage hub where all the instruments donated to his Don’t Stop The Music instrument amnesty are being prepared for delivery to the 150 schools set to receive them.

James has been the driving force behind the amnesty and campaign, yet even he was astounded by the sight of row upon row of guitars, cellos, violins, drums and more.

“It’s amazing, I could never have anticipated this,” he marvelled.

“When you think what it entails: it’s not just clicking a button on a computer and you’ve done something; it’s finding an instrument, making sure it’s packaged up, being willing to donate it, finding your local Oxfam shop, filling out the form, taking it down, waving goodbye to it… and yet people have done more than that as well. They’ve put in little notes – I mean it’s totally overwhelming.”

“I thought maybe we’d get a few hundred [instruments] and now it’s over 6,000 – and counting. And a whole team of people … working through all of them one by one and repairing, fixing, cleaning, polishing and tuning.”

While at the hub, James rolled up his sleeves too and helped unload a delivery of instruments – one of the last loads to be collected by Yodel Direct from Oxfam shops around the UK where donations were dropped off.

Those instruments are now being packaged up, ready for delivery to the schools next week. “I’d love to see their little faces when [they’re told] ‘This is yours, it’s all yours’,” said James. And that’s what it’s all about.

The Don’t Stop The Music amnesty ended on 17 October. Instruments can no longer be accepted.

Instrument Amnesty