FIVE talented performers will take to the spotlight for a summer proms extravaganza at Kidderminster Town Hall next month.

Tenor, Russell Painter, will perform with soprano, Beth Dunn and accompanist, Sara Weaver, who are all from Wyre Forest, as well as alto, Anne Jones and baritone, David Stout, on Saturday, July 1.

The programme will include a variety of old favourites, from popular classics to Gilbert and Sullivan and Flanders and Swann.

There will be songs from the shows, including West Side Story and Les Miserables, as well as popular tunes including Time to Say Goodbye and The Wind Beneath My Wings.

Russell, Beth, Sara and Anne performed together at the director general of the CBI, Sir Digby Jones's, 50th birthday party at Blenheim Palace last year.

Anne is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and won a choral scholarship to Cheltenham Ladies College and Kings College London.

David, who has performed in Kidderminster before, studied at the Guildhall School of Music and was head chorister at Westminster Abbey.

The event has been organised to raise money for the Drakelow Preservation Trust - DPT - which was set up to oppose plans to develop the Drakelow Tunnels site, near Wolverley, into a training centre for jobless people by Jericho.

The Birmingham-based social enterprise group helps the long-term unemployed get back to work.

Andy Cox, spokesman for DPT, which is made up of local residents, said: "We still want to raise awareness of the trust. We thought it would be nice to have a happy jolly summer proms event that everybody can enjoy and show the fight against the Jericho development continues."

The DPT's secretary, Jane Dunn, said: " We want people to bring along flags and hooters as there will be Land of Hope and Glory and Jerusalem. Everybody loves a good sing-song so it should be good."

Tickets for the Summer Proms concert, which will start at 7.30pm, are available from Kidderminster Town Hall and Kidderminster Library.