THE New Forest Festival got under way with a free evening of live music. Customers at the Thomas Tripp pub in Stanford Road, Lymington, lapped up an eagerly awaited appearance by The Dodge Brothers.

Members of the Southampton-based skiffle band include TV film critic Mark Kermode, one of the team behind the three-day festival.

The band was back in action at Brockenhurst College last night when eight bicycles were used to power a projector for a screening of Beggars of Life, a 1928 silent movie starring Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen.

Music was by The Dodge Brothers and silent film pianist Neil Brand.