Plan B’s £100,000 gift to revamp the music room that saved him

Plan B has spent £100,000 on a new recording studio and music room at the pupil referral unit in Newham where he spent time as a teenager.

The 30-year-old star marked its opening by calling in friends Tinie Tempah, Labrinth and Jess Glynne to give workshops to young people at Tunmarsh School.

The facilities include a drum room, recording equipment, work stations for producing and guitars donated by Gibson. Plan B, whose real name is Ben Drew, credited the music room at Tunmarsh for saving him when he was a wayward pupil. He said: “I came back here to shoot a documentary for the BBC a few years ago. The music room had been neglected and felt like a cupboard. It was quite depressing. For me, it was the only thing that was good about this school.

“There are people that have this belief that kids are bad and say, ‘Why are you helping them?’ I think they are missing the point. We have an issue. We have an illness in this country among certain young people and nothing the government has done has ever changed that.

“A lot of these kids will be disruptive because they haven’t got anything to lose. This is about giving them something to lose.”

Tinie added: “What he’s doing is great. I definitely believe in investing in youth and inspiring them. I was honoured to come down.

“I think we play too much to the syllabus and curriculum. Everybody is individual and learns differently. I feel like they don’t teach people how to be creative, how to be successful or how to have your own business. They just teach you how to go straight into work. Hopefully this will motivate the Government to pull a finger out and do something more about it.”