A group of retired amateur poets gathered together to learn about song-cycles through studying and then attending a performance of Schubert’s Winterreise. We then worked together with poet Gillian Alnutt to create our own song cycle. The lyrics/poems were written by the group, with help from Gillian, and the music was composed partly by the group members and partly by me. Each song represented a job that they had done in their earlier days, and the concept they settled on for the cycle was of a group in a launderette waiting for their washing, and chatting about “the old days”. We included some washing machine music interspersed with the songs which were performed by a professional singer accompanied by me on the piano. The musical confidence of the group increased during the three-month process to such an extent that they performed the Washing Machine music themselves and also sang a round together at the end of the “Woodturning” song.