Music to my Ears was a schools outreach project funded by the UK Government through Shared Prosperity Fund. 166 key stage two children across Revoe Learning Academy, Thames Primary Academy and Westminster Primary Academy took part.

As one of two legacy projects from Get Dancing, Showtown worked with local composer and music educator, John Wright, to deliver sessions exploring Blackpool music history. It highlighted Laurence Wright, a Blackpool based composer and music producer in the early to mid-twentieth century, known for promoting his music from songbooths, publicity stunts and his North Pier variety show On with the Show.

During the sessions the children reflected on their experiences of living in Blackpool to create a new song created using collaborative composing techniques. The children performed their song to their whole school and families in an assembly.

To round up the project, all three classes visited Showtown and the Tower Ballroom to see the Wurlitzer being played by musician, David Windle.

The learning team have created a music box for schools to loan which will enable all Blackpool schools to learn about this history and create their own song. It features all the music research from the project with historical artefacts to handle and musical instruments and recording equipment to experiment with (available from April 2025).

Teacher’s feedback:

“I could see the confidence levels of children rising throughout the project and we really enjoyed seeing quieter children shine through their love of the song that they have created.”

“The children have learnt about the history of music in Blackpool and feel like they became composers when making the song.”

“This project was just fabulous and I would absolutely love it if Showtown were able to offer more workshops and projects for different year groups, aligned with our History and Geography curriculum.”

This schools outreach project was funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.