BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Saw a documentary about it the other day on BBC4 and it was fascinating!

I'd heard about it but had no idea what they'd been responsible for and even less how they'd done it. It was setup in the 50s or 60s (I missed the start of the programme) to create electronic sounds and music for BBC radio and TV programmes that needed jingles, theme tunes etc.

Probably their most famous "creation" was the Dr Who theme music. The actual tune wasn't written by them but the whole thing was arranged and put together with those electronic sounds we all know and love by one of the people working there at the time: Delia Derbyshire....what a cool name :MILD: (and from the archive footage they showed she was quite a babe aswell ).

I'd always sort of assumed that the Dr Who theme music had been created with early synths but no, there were no synths (not even a Moog) in those days. What they did was basically record snippets of sound - anything from real instruments to everyday objects that made an interesting sound - onto reel-to-reel tape and then, get this, create a tape snippet for each note by re-recording the required sounds at different speeds to get the right pitch

They'd then create a tape loop for each "track" (eg, the bass line)
by joining together hundreds of 2-3 inch long tape snippets and then they'd play each loop in synchronization with all the others on however many tape machines were required whilst recording the final "mix". We're talking thousands of tape snippets and hundreds of hours of work here :respect:

They made quite a few really interesting bits of electonic music, even some with quite a "groove" to them. Forget Kraftwerk - these guys were the true pioneers of the medium

More info here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/experimental/reviews/radiophonic_music.shtml

Michael.

 

I find it a bit depressing that this kind of stuff isn't what the BBC is about any more. It's not so much the Radiophonic Workshop, but the general doing something because they can rather than because it makes commercial sense. The BBC used to do original research, loudspeakers being the obvious, but also into the electronics required to handle video, graphics, digital sound and video, all sorts of stuff.

I'm trying to find the Radiophonic Workshop show on BBC4 at a time I can watch it. It'll happen in the end...

Paul

 

paul,
these days pretty much anything can be digitised and manipulated on a computer for the fraction of the cost of inventing a new machine to do it specificaly. it's certainly less romantic but SHOULD enable all the time to be spent on creativity. unfortunately 90% of the time all it does is encourage profiteering and lazyness still thats capitalism with no controls for you.
cheers

julian

 

That's what VHS was invented for

 

I can arrange my wires so they are operationally convenient, or so that I can record from the Sky box. So I don't record from the Sky box much...

Paul

 

Interesting link, Michael - thanks. I think a late Uncle of mine was involved in the Radiophonic Workshop in some way, although my family history knowledge is a bit hazy so I'm not sure in what way.

I think he was arranger for a revamped version of the Dr Who theme which was recorded after the show had been on the air for some time. I know he wrote the theme for Juliet Bravo but that's another story.

I must have a look around my parents' garage cos they've got loads of his old BBC stuff knocking about. Must give 'An Electric Storm' by White Noise a spin again too.....

 

Just caught this on BBC4 (rather apt as it's Dr Who's 40th anniversary this w/e :MILD: ) and it was fantastic. Even the g/f was mesmerised by it.

 

Another repeat?

Caught a showing of this documentary a few weeks back. Yeah, really interesting stuff, especially where they were showing how the Dr Who theme was put together.

Shame the beeb don't have more of this kind behind the scences type of programming anymore.

 

Yup, an absolutely fascinating show. And that Delia Derbyshire - Grrrr - I could go for a woman who wears tweed

I'd love to get some of this music. Anyone have any recommendations as to which release to go for?

(particularly liked the piece called something like Zhooi Zhooi Oo Oo Oo!! I want it

Another for the Chrimbo list prehaps.

 

Howdy Uncle Ants

I'd highly recommend the White Noise lp, 'An Electric Storm' from 1969. It's on the pink rim Island records label and is ace, featuring the talents of Delia Derbyshire and David Vorhaus - it's listed at a madly expensive price but you often see it come up on ebay where it goes for not unreasonable money(about £10).

Hope that helps....

 

Goomer, you're a man of taste, An Electric Storm is a fab record.

Saw David Vorhaus live a couple of years ago. Sadly, he appears to have lost the plot completely and was bloody awful...

-- Ian

 

You've obviously not been following the 'Metal' thread....

 

Cool. We are not worthy, etc...

-- Ian

 

Thanks for the recommendation Goomer. I had a look on ebay, but no luck. However I did a search on Radiophonic and discovered this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2579565198&category=9993

Seems that Rephlex records along with the Beeb have a released a limited Ed set of 4x10" vinyls. To quote from their site:

"This 4 x ten inch vinyl special limited edition release features the members' work given roughly a side per member with the exception of Delia Derbyshire and John Baker who get a whole record each for the first time ever.

It brings together tracks from the recently released Radiophonic 1 and 2 cd's. "

http://www.rephlex.com/2001releases/cat147/cat147.html

The rephlex site says to go to the Warp site for online sales, but they've sold out already.

So I bought one of the copies on ebay (There's two left at the mo if anyones interested)

 

Only one now - cheers for the link UncleAnts.

 

None left now

Tony.

 

Blimey. That was quick. Must be great untapped demand for this stuff.

Hope my Mum doesn't mind me playing it during Christmas lunch ..... on the other hand, best not, I might never get invited again. Elvis is more her scene

 

Christ, can't believe I forgot this but who was the balding, bearded fella in the background of every interview ?
Come to think of it, why was there also a clock, stuck at the same time, in the background with him ?

I'm not sure if he, or the time significance, were mentioned at all in the documentary as I missed about 2 mins at the start.

Any ideas ?

 

I wondered that too. He kept sort of floating in and out and grinning - must have been very distracting for the interviewees.