Music At Burley Inclusive

Music is a universal language that speaks to everyone regardless of learning disability. Burley Inclusive draws on the experience and talent of music promoters, music teachers, DJs and recording artists on its staff to run in-depth music projects that go beyond the usual. Our service users explore their creativity through songwriting and self expression, and develop their confidence by playing to live audiences. Through gigs and radio broadcasts, our service users act as ambassadors for their demographic, offering their peers an inspiring view of members within the LD community as successful musicians, and encouraging them to realise and achieve their own ambitions.

The Steel Squid Collective

A service user rock band set up by Burley Inclusive, the Steel Squid practises in the recording studio at Portishead Youth Centre. The band is more than a music therapy project - students receive 1:1 tuition on their instruments, are supported to write songs, develop their stage image and undertake recording projects.

The band have played a number of gigs in front of sizeable audiences, rocking venues such as Weston College, Tickenham Community Hall, People First events and outdoor festivals in Yatton and Bristol. Their next project is to record an album of original songs, and the possibility of a genuine record deal is on the horizon.

The High Fives

An acapella vocal group led by our inspiring choirmaster, the High Fives formed in the autumn of 2017, and soon after delivered their first performance of Christmas carols to raise the spirits of shoppers outside a local supermarket.

The choir helps students build confidence by enabling them to let loose and sing, and includes an autistic poet and a non-verbal student among its members, whose role in the choir is supported by the use of Makaton.

Live Radio

Twice a year the Portishead Youth Centre broadcasts a week-long radio show, in which students from schools and youth organisations create and manage the output. Burley Inclusive contributes its own 1-hour long programme to the schedule, offering those students the opportunity to interact with learning disabled adults in an atypical context.

The radio shows typically take place in the Easter and October half terms, and are broadcast in analogue on 106.9 FM and digitally online at Radio Dynamic. Further details and links will be posted on this this page closer to the date.