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Busk Stop Bootcamp

Free Songwriting and Performance Sessions for bands and solo artists over the Easter Holidays. 

For ages 13 - 19, our sessions will be based at Rugby Park Stadium in association with Kilmarnock Community Sports Trust.

Week 1 Mon April 1st - Wed April 3rd 9.30am - 1.00pm

Week 2 Mon April 8th - Wed April 10th 9.30am - 1.00pm

Book your place now by contacting creativity@rocknrolemodels.co.uk

Here's to a fantastic 2019

Happy New Year and we're looking forward to another creative year ahead. 

Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates on our creative sessions in schools in Ayrshire. We're expecting to make an announcement very soon on a new project with one of our community partners that will offer great opportunities for young songwriters. 

Kilmarnock Community Sports Trust - October 2018

A big thank you to Kilmarnock Community Sports Trust for donating musical equipment to Rock 'n' Role Models for our creative projects in schools and communities across Ayrshire. Over the last few years we've established a great relationship with the work that Kilmarnock FC does in the local community. This equipment will benefit the lives of hundreds of young young people in Ayrshire on a daily basis. 

Arts Awards 2018/19

In 2018 we became an approved centre to run Arts Awards with our first sessions being held at the Community Centre at Shortlees Primary with P4 - P6 pupils. 

In August 2018 we started running the programme with 30 pupils who will take part in arts activities over 20 hours guided by a professional songwriter and musician. During this time the pupils will enjoy creative music making and become familiar with musical instruments, songwriting techniques and working together in groups. 

The pupils also choose to explore the work of their favourite musical artists as well as investigating the role of an arts organisation working in the community. 

To find out more about Arts Awards go to www.artsaward.org.uk

Spirit Survival Challenge August 2018

In partnership with Never Mind The Buzzwords, we created a survival challenge for apprentice engineers at Spirit in Prestwick. The participants were given a survival scenario and team working challenges to work through.

Having only met each other the day before, the group of around 16 apprentices quickly bonded which was one of the major aims of the day. Having learned basic knife skills and how to build a model shelter, the participants put these skills to great use in the afternoon session where they were tasked with making a basic shelter and making food and tea. 

Fantastic team working day!

Busk Stops @ K-Fest

At the end of July 2018 we rolled out our Busk Stops at K-Fest in Kilmarnock. Local songwriters, many of whom started their creative journey with Rock 'n' Role Models' projects in schools and communities, played over the course of the weekend at 4 Busk Stops in Kilmarnock Town Centre.

Thousands of people had the opportunity to hear talented performers create a musical backdrop to K-Fest.

All performers were paid MU rates in recognition of their talents and the feedback from local people and business owners was resounding positive.  

St Mary's Primary May/June 2018

After the success of Song Book in North Ayrshire, St Mary's Primary invited us back to work on a school song as they moved into a new campus. Stick Together was written by the P5 class and is now sung at Assembly every Friday morning. 

All Together Now - February to June 2018

After writing the songs, pupils from Silverwood and New Farm Primaries recorded their parts and vocals to songs built up by professional musicians. This approach allowed us to create a musical framework based around the original demos created in Stage One of the project.

So many friendships were built during this project between pupils and families from both schools. The songs are available on our Soundcloud page.  

All Together Now - October 2017

We've just completed the first stage of All Together Now, a songwriting and recording project involving P7 pupils from Silverwood and New Farm Primaries.  They will be moving to the William Mcillvanney Campus in April 2018 and they've been writing songs about this transition. An emotional and fun filled week of creativity. 

In Schools across East Ayrshire, Rock 'n' Role Models is engaged with pupils in a number of pioneering projects as part of the Pupil Equity Funding introduced recently by the Scottish Government. Working to bridge the attainment gap is deeply embedded in the philosophy of Rock 'n' Role Models and being able to work with pupils who wouldn't normally have this level of access to the arts is constantly inspiring. 

Our Creative Director Paul Brunton recently did a talk and performance with women from a group in Stevenston who benefitted from Song Book. As the women told their stories there wasn't a dry eye in the room, but it really does illustrate the power of music and song. 

We will be announcing an exciting partnership in the near future that will link songwriting and visual art, until then...keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel. 

Exciting Times Ahead - August 2017

It's been a fun summer with gigs, recordings and songwriting sessions over July and August. 

Our successful Song Book sessions in local libraries were continued through the summer at Bourtreehill Library. We've run these sessions with people of all ages, from toddlers to grown-ups and it's an incredible way of opening up and exploring creativity through using books to write songs. 

We plan to run more of these sessions over the coming year. 

At Rugby Park, home of Kilmarnock F.C., we held a free week of songwriting and rehearsing bookended by gigs at Sweet Afton Water Acoustic Music Festival and Celebrate in Kilmarnock Town Centre. What really makes Rock 'n' Role Models unique is that in these type of sessions young songwriters are constantly given feedback in terms of how they communicate together, encouraging feedback on songwriting and music making and providing a platform to have their music heard by audiences.

As we move into September, our groundbreaking work in schools will continue apace with sessions throughout Ayrshire and beyond. This highly specialised approach to creativity and music making allows young people to develop their confidence and literacy skills in a safe and nurturing environment inspired by rehearsal sessions that I've been involved with over a number of years in music, theatre, dance and visual art.

This approach works particularly well with people of all ages who have perhaps never tried songwriting before or have become disconnected from their own sense of creativity.

For updates on all of this and more, please click on our social media links.