Knock Knock - it's that little music shop

There's a little advert which appears regularly in SRFN News which may mystify a few readers... for 'the best little music shop in the North' is indeed a most unusual music shop. This is the place where you can't buy a melodeon or a fiddle, but you can buy a Djembe, a didjeridoo or a set of Pan-pipes. Here's where you get your congas, your timbales, tablas and mbiras. Yep, the little music shop is the only source of World Music instruments in the North of England. The shop is a treasure house of instruments from around the world, and specialises in ethnic percussion including everything you need to form a Samba school and enough Indian and Asian percussion to start your own Mela. If you think of African percussion as being about drums, a visit to this establishment will blow your preconceptions straight out of the window. As a music teacher I find this a great source of new ideas and the shop has inspired many of my better lessons. Founded in 1982 as 'Xylo' makers of wooden tongue drums by Ianto Thornber and Andy Wilson, Knock on Wood moved around the Leeds area until settling for some time in the dark arches of Granary Wharfin 1988. They recently relocated to new premises in Leeds' Eastgate.

Ianto Thornber plays didjeridoo and Djembe, and runs weekly classes based in the shop. He's also well known as the inventor of the BOAB didjeridoo made by building a wooden tube from scratch rather than finding one hollowed by termites. Andy Wilson holds an MA in Ethnomusicology and Visual Anthropology, and was once a member of Leeds-based duo Akimbo. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, he specialises in keyboards and the mbira or thumb piano. A composer of film scores for the Leeds Animation workshops, Andy also runs the mail order end of the business.

Looking for that elusive and exclusive Christmas present, the one that's guaranteed to knock the socks off the receiver? Look no further. And while you're there .... it's a great place to take the kids for hands-on experience of world music. In fact it's a great place to experience it yourself. In addition to the various instruments, they also stock instructional and other videos, tapes and CDs, musical toys and a range of magazines.