Delia Derbyshire Day Archive

The Delia Derbyshire Day Archive is a multimedia collection which contains papers and digital material produced through work of the the organisation. This includes administrative documents such as financial paperwork relating to successful grant applications which have funded the activities of this organisation. The collection also contains MS notes produced during educational workshops held at schools in Greater Manchester, and audio recordings of oral history interviews carried out by school children with individuals involved in the original series of Doctor Who. The impact of DD Day is represented in the reviews in magazines in the collection. The collection also contains audio-visual compositions inspired by the work of Delia Derbyshire, most of which were commissioned by DD Day. Some working notes produced by the sound and visual artists are also included to reflect their artistic method and practice.

Note: Delia Derbyshire Day is referred to as DD Day throughout this catalogue.

Delia Derbyshire Day (DD Day) is a charitable organisation based in Manchester, England, which pays homage to Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001). Derbyshire was a pioneer in electronic music and is most famous for her electronic 'realisation' of Ron Grainer's theme tune for the hugely popular BBC series Doctor Who.

DD Day was founded in 2012 by Caro C, Ailis N Rain and Naomi Kashiwagi. The organisations work is centred around the Delia Derbyshire Archive which is held at the John Rylands Library. DD Day became a registered charity in Dec 2016 (Number 1164959).

The organisations stated aims are:

• To advance the education of the public in music technology and the history of British electronic music via the archive and works of Delia Derbyshire.
• To advance the art of British electronic music via the archive and works of Delia Derbyshire.

DD Day hold public events and participatory activities in Greater Manchester, with national touring events and a developing education programme. DD Day has received support from Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, PRS for Music Foundation, Arts Council Quebec (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Qubec), Postlethwaite Music Foundation and The Granada Foundation.

DD Day has commissioned artists, based primarily in North-West England, to respond to material in the Delia Derbyshire Archive (DDA), producing new audio-visual works.

The first DD Day event took place at Band on the Wall, Manchester, England on 12 January 2013. The event included the first UK screening of the award-winning documentary directed by Kara Blake, The Delian Mode, and performances of new commissions.

Since 2013, DD Day have held a series of events across the UK and online, including a talk, panel discussion and film screening at the Deliaphonic Festival in Coventry (2022), regular sessions at Bluedot festival in Cheshire and a talk and workshop at Womens Work festival in Belfast (2018).

In 2017, DD Day created the Deliaphonica Game as part of a National Lottery Heritage Fund supported project to mark what would have been Delia Derbyshires 80 birthday. This game is a free online resource which highlighted DDs atmospheric and quirky music and her interest in using non-musical sounds to make early electronic music.

In 2019, DD Days Electric Storm 50 project marked the 50th anniversary of the of An Electric Storm by White Noise (Delia Derbyshire, David Vorhaus and Brian Hodgson). New music and art were created through a programme of workshops, commissions and a creative residency with young artists in partnership with fellow Manchester arts organisation Brighter Sound.

DD Day is now held annually on 23rd November. This date has been chosen as it marks the day that the first episode of Doctor Who, with the electronic theme tune realised by Derbyshire, was aired on British television.

At time of establishing this archive (Nov 2023), DD Day has 4 trustees: David Butler, Mark Ayres, Jenna Ashton and Sashwati Mira Sengupta. Caro C is the organisation's project manager.

The archive is divided into two subfonds:

DED/1 Organisational records

DED/2 Compositions

The organisational papers are further divided into administrative papers, materials related to events, promotional materials, educational work and volunteer projects.

The compositions in the first accession are arranged in chronological order.

The collection includes material which is subject to the Data Protection Act 2018. Under the Act 2018 (DPA), The University of Manchester Library (UML) holds the right to process personal data for archiving and research purposes. In accordance with the DPA, UML has made every attempt to ensure that all personal and sensitive personal data has been processed fairly, lawfully and accurately. Users of the archive are expected to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018, and will be required to sign a form acknowledging that they will abide by the requirements of the Act in any further processing of the material by themselves.

Open parts of this collection, and the catalogue descriptions, may contain personal data about living individuals. Some items in this collection may be closed to public inspection in line with the requirements of the DPA. Restrictions/closures of specific items will be indicated in the catalogue.

The collection is open to any accredited reader.

Items in the DD Day Archive were donated by the DD Day trustees, project manager, volunteer committee and contributing artists.

The digital material in this collection requires the use of a listening/viewing device.

Photocopies and photographic copies of material in the archive can be supplied for private study purposes only, depending on the condition of the documents.

A number of items within the archive remain within copyright under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988; it is the responsibility of users to obtain the copyright holder's permission for reproduction of copyright material for purposes other than research or private study.

Prior written permission must be obtained from the Library for publication or reproduction of any material within the archive. Please contact the Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3EH.

No appraisal or destruction of material is planned.

The material relating to volunteer projects was collected by the 2023 volunteer committee. All other organisational records were collected by Caro C, DD Day project manager. The compositions and related materials were collected by the DD Day project archivist, Imogen Durant.

The establishment of this archive was made possible by funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Regular accruals of material from DD Day are expected.

Delia Derbyshire Day website

The John Rylands Library also holds the Delia Derbyshire Papers, and the Juvenile Papers of Delia Derbyshire. The Li Yuan-chia Archive (LYC) is also held at the John Rylands Library. LYC was a 20th Century Artist and founder of the LYC Museum and Gallery near Hadrian's Wall in Banks, Cumbria. During the mid-1970s, Derbyshire lived at the Museum and worked alongside LYC running the gallery and printing press.

Some original materials are held by the artists.

Delia Derbyshire Day website

The Delian Mode

Di Mainstone website