Nottingham (Britain), Sep 3 - Indians living in Nottingham West Park village in Derbyshire have in the past month woken up to a sound from their homeland - thanks to a five-member band that plays the popular south Indian percussion instrument 'chenda'.

The brain behind Nottingham Boys is 35-year-old Siju Stephen, a male nurse in Old Vicarage Nursing Home in East Midlands.

'I had never learned the chenda before. But I have been interested in all kinds of arts forms and I was keen to start a band here,' said Stephen. In Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the chenda is used extensively during temple festivals. Chenda Melam (Chenda ensemble) is known for its loud sound.

The band practises almost every day for a couple of hours at Nottingham West Park, which is about 16 km from the Long Eaton County Council office.

Stephen teamed up with four of his Kerala friends in Nottingham - Raju Pappu, Tejin Lukose, and brothers Alan and Alvin Joy - and thus was formed the chenda band, Nottingham Boys.

Alan, a Class 9 student, and Alvin Joy, who has completed his A levels, are the youngest members of the band.

The chenda is seen hanging from Nottingham Boys' necks, all sporting identical white T-shirts with the picture of the chenda on it. They use two sticks to strike the upper parchment (made of cow hide) of the chenda.

Alvin performs 'chengila', a musical accompaniment with the chenda, where a thick bell-metal disc hung by a strap looped through one wrist and struck with a short solid wand in the other hand makes a clinging sound.