History of Sounds of Progress

Founders Statement

"During 1989 I began the venture that was later to become Sounds of Progress (S.O.P). The idea was born of necessity due to the lack of provision for disabled people in the arts at that time. As a member of the creative team for the large-scale professionally led community project in Glasgow entitled "City", I noticed that people with special needs were being marginalised and not realistically integrated within the project. As the father of a young girl whose life was and still is affected by epilepsy and autism I decided to combine elements of my personal and professional life and form a specialised training company. The philosophy was simple and still is valid to this day:

We need to change our society and the way it addresses disability in general.

The first step was to look at other charities and arts companies involved in this area. During the 1st year I compiled an in depth report of the work of Richard Stilgoe and Michael Swallow, whose chance meeting in an airport lounge created their Share Music Courses. This report formed the basis of the first major S.O.P. venture in spring/summer 1990, a residential socially inclusive music training camp.

Since its creation Sounds of Progress has trained many people who without our intervention would never have had the opportunity to develop and promote their musical abilities. We have also given many well known artists a great insight into disability awareness and their experiences within the organisation have given them inspiration that they have taken and used within their own work. So, many productions and thousands of hours of training later we find ourselves again in a position of expansion working with up to 1,700 people per week throughout Scotland. Added to this we have 4 fully working bands largely consisting of people from a background of disability. We will soon be moving into our new base at 73-77 Trongate which will allow us to record the music of our bands and bring much of our work under a single roof."

Gordon Dougall, Artistic Director