Welcome to Delia Derbyshire Day
Delia Derbyshire Day (DD Day) is a Manchester-based organisation which pays homage to Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001) whilst actively addressing inequalities in the arts. Delia consistently inspires children, artists and audiences with her varied body of electronic music work and as a self-defined “working class girl.”
Our work is centred around the Delia Derbyshire Archive which is held at the John Rylands Library in Manchester, UK.
We feel this collection is a rich resource for electronic music education and inspiring the creation of new music and art by under represented artists in heritage and electronic arts.
We hope you will find here all the information you need about our organisation, our cultural heritage events and our hands on electronic music making activities. Do get in touch via our Contact page if you want any further information.
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Our Delia inspired offerings
Our Latest News
Happy Delia Derbyshire Day 2024
This year has been a quieter one for our activities throughout the year after our big Doctor Who 60th project in 2023. We did enjoy a fun Doctor Who remix project that brought electronic music education to Cheshire and we have also gathered a few Delia related items...
Doctor Who remix project in rural schools
We recently completed Phase 2 of a partnership Doctor Who Remix Project. The partner was Music for Life, a non-profit music education provider in Cheshire who wanted to expand their service to include electronic music education. The project was exciting for us as it...
The Delia Derbyshire Day archive now available
We are pleased to announce the Delia Derbyshire Day archive at John Rylands Research Institure and Library, Manchester, is now accessible. You can access the archive catalogue online via the Elgar online system. You can visit the collection in person at John Rylands...
DD Day 2023 “Doctor Who 60th” project complete!
Summary of our DD DAY 2023 programmeWe are grateful to have been able to deliver our largest project yet, with wondrous support from Lottery players via National Lottery Heritage Fund and the support of many partners, volunteers, creative/heritage professionals and...
Listen to Delia Derbyshire Day 2023 broadcasts
Welcome to this smorgasbord of Delia Derbyshire Day 2023 broadcasts! With thanks to those who gave us a platform and helped to amplify the love and respect for the late great Delia Derbyshire as a key figure in the development of electronic music in the UK, at...
Delia and the Doctor Who theme
A guest blog post by one of our DD Day 2023 volunteers, Will DavisWhile working at the BBC as a trainee Studio Manager, Delia Derbyshire asked to be attached to the Radiophonic Workshop. This was set up to create music and sound effects for BBC programming, using tape...
Countdown to DD Day 2023: about the new art inspired by Delia and Doctor Who
DD Day 2023 - 4 new artist commissions producing 2 new audio visual worksWe are excited to be able to offer 4 artists commissions this year as part of our Delia Derbyshire Day 2023 'Doctor Who 60th anniversary heritage project'. Supported by National Lottery Heritage...
Delia Derbyshire Day 2023 Manchester event info
This year's DD Day, on 23 November 2023 is centred around the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who and its hugely influential theme tune, realised by Delia and her tape assistant Dick Mills in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, working from Ron Grainer's musical notes and...
Kids make their own wobbulators!
Wobbulator making activity for our DD Day 2023 Doctor Who 60th project As part of the 10 Inspirational Days we have designed and delivered in primary schools in Manchester, schoolchildren aged 9-11 have learned about the diverse original Doctor Who production team and...
Introducing our commissioned artists for DD Day 2023
4 new artist commissions producing 2 new audio-visual worksWe are excited to be able to offer 4 artists commissions this year as part of our Delia Derbyshire Day 2023 Doctor Who 60th anniversary heritage project. Supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are...
DD Day 2023 project – our team of volunteers
From Left to Right: Rachael, Will D, Charlie, Daisy, Will S, Hayley. Photo by Shirlaine ForrestWe are excited to have a team of 6 younger volunteers (aged 18-30) as part of our Delia Derbyshire Day 2023 programme of activities. Supported by The National Lottery...
DD Day 2023 Doctor 60th heritage project is go!
WELCOME TO DD DAY 2023Welcome to our Delia Derbyshire Day 2023 programme of activities. Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are doing our best to provide electronic music education and inspiration, honouring the 60th anniversary year of BBC sci-fi...
DD Day 2022 – what will you share?
Wed 23 Nov 2022, online DD Day 2022 will be an online (and no budget!) happening. As momentum builds each year internationally on this day, we invite you to share your inspiration and appreciation. We will also share some Delia-n related news and introduce our new DD...
DD Day Spring news update for 2022
A few announcements from DD Day HQ as we prepare to return to a couple of music/science festivals this summer, honour a generous donation and let you know what we have planned for 2022 and beyond. 2022 is looking like a quieter year for us publicly as we reflect on...
DD Day 2021 project review
A ROUND UP OF OUR DD DAY 2021 ACTIVITIESOur DD Day 2021 programme of activities is now officially complete. Our "Covid Creative Response" project which ran throughout 2021 was gratefully supported by Arts Council England and The Granada Foundation and collaborative...
Presenting new art created for DD Day 2021
Another DD Day completed, we now present to you the new art work that premiered on 23/11/21. The new works are informed and inspired by Delia's work, working methods and archive collection based here in Manchester, UK. We find in our work that Delia consistently...
DD Day 2021 new art commissions trailers!
DD Day 2021 - 4 new artist commissions producing 2 new audio visual worksWe are excited to be able to offer 4 artists commissions this year as part of our Delia Derbyshire Day 2021 project. These will be 2 x new electronic music/sound and visual based art commissions...
DD Day 2021 – 23 NOV – information
Countdown to DD DAY 2021We are pleased to announce another feast of activity taking place on Delia Derbyshire Day 2021, fixed in the cultural calendar as 23 NOVEMBER - the date Delia’s revolutionary realisation of Ron Grainer’s Dr Who theme first beamed into British...
Introducing our DD Day 2021 commissioned artists
DD Day 2021 - 4 new artist commissions producing 2 new audio visual worksWe are excited to be able to offer 4 artists commissions this year as part of our Delia Derbyshire Day 2021 project. We - and our funders - felt it was particularly important at this time to...
DD Day 2021 is go!
WELCOME TO DD DAY 2021 Welcome to our Delia Derbyshire Day 2021 programme of activities. Supported by Arts Council England and The Granada Foundation we are doing our best to provide electronic music education and inspiration, especially at this time. The theme of...
Announcing DD Day 2020 online
For information about DD Day 2021 - 23 NOVEMBER please click HERE Sorry, Musicians' Union shared the link for DD Day 202o by accident 🙂 Join us for DD Day 2020 - 23 NOVEMBER online, worldwideDelia Derbyshire Day is pleased to announce a feast of online content to...
New music! Summer 2020 Found Sound crowdsourced electronic music project
The new music from our Summer 2020 Found Sound music making project is ready to share! With sounds such as Alice the chicken clucking away, that cheek popping sound using your finger, slo mo swifts, eggs being fried and whisked and so much more, we created 3 tracks...
Found sounds in the home music making project
The Matthew Nicholls Foundation recently approached us to suggest we try out a found sound project with secondary school students in these unprecedented times. The Matthew Nicholls Foundation supported our Electric Storm 50 creative residency at Loreto College last...
DD Day has gratefully been awarded funding from:
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