A PROJECT dedicated to saving traditional North-East music from extinction has gone on-line.

The Northumbria Anthology, which has produced two CDs of folk and music hall songs from the 19th and early 20th centuries, has set up its own website.

The project was started in 1999 with a Millennium Heritage grant of £90,000 to revive once-common songs from all parts of the region.

The two CDs, which have proved popular with the region's music lovers, feature new recordings by North-East stars including Sting, Brian Ferry, Jimmy Nail, and leading figures from the world of opera and folk, including Graeme Danby and Teesside's Vin Garbutt.

Other discs by artists including Graeme Danby and Durham-born composer Will Todd have also been released by the anthology.

It is hoped to issue a limited-edition 20 CD box set featuring the music of specific areas of the region. Discs will eventually be available individually.

The project's website, which features information about the songs and the featured artists, will develop as the project grows.

"Normally, you would expect to get a new site finished before publishing it," said project co-ordinator Ken McKenzie.

"But if we did that with the anthology site, we would never get on-line.

"New material and contributors are being added all the time. So we took the decision to put up information about the nine discs released so far under the Northumbria Anthology banner and continue to build the site day by day."

The address of the site is www.northumbriaanthology.com.