Delia Derbyshire

[reelguy]

Thought this may be of interest to Reel to Reel fans...
Delia Derbyshire, The Myths and the Legendary Tapes is on BBC 4 @ 9Pm ,May 16th . Sunday .
Peter W ...Reelguy.

[initialsbb]

Thank you for the "heads up" Delia and co made some fabulous sounds!
I once got to peek inside the actual Radiophonic Workshop at Maida Vale - so wish I'd taken a photo!

[Richard_FM]

I remember there was a very good documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop a few years ago.

[Dual Standard]

And if you stay tuned afterwards the wonderful Anna Meridith presents a BBC Proms special 'Pioneers of Sound' which starts with music by Delia Derbyshire and ends with Daphne Oram's Still Point.

The bit inbetween should be pretty unmissable too with the London Contemportary Orchestra performing works by Laurie Spiegal, CHAINES and Suzanne Ciani (I realise those names will mean nothing to you Boom Radio junkies but if you like Delia Derbyshire then there is a chance you will like them too).

Mike

[dave walsh]

Women and electronics are being strongly featured at the moment eg BBC4 has a four hour session starting tonight-

8pm A repeat of "Sound Waves:The Symphony of Physics" 1/2 Helen Czersk

9pm A Drama Documentary [NEW] "Arena: Delia Derbyshire-the Myths and
Legendary Tapes"

10-30pm BBC Proms: "Pioneers of Sound 2018" [R] A tribute to Delia D and
a premiere of Daphne Oram's "Still Point".

Plus, at 11-55pm, not directly about electronics but related surely-Dawn
Chorus : the Sounds of Spring!

[ASSOCIATED] A documentary film re Delia, Daphne and a number of other women I've been unaware of [as far as I know] is out now..."SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS" [available to view on line via a virtual ticket].
[Yes Sisters With Valves might have been more accurate but less "catchy"]

It's narrated by the amazing Laurie Anderson.
She appeared on Newsnight [26/3/21] and was very engaging re the 41st Anniversary of her LP Big Science and the prophetic single "Oh Superman".
The LP is out on a coloured vinyl special edition, since 9/4/21.

Dave W

[joebog1]

HHMM another "lover" of very early synthetic music.
There is quite a bit available on YouTube!!

I am watching this thread with great interest.

PS. I have quite a large collection of Laurie Anderson.
ALAS Delia Derbyshire is VERY hard to find on vinyl here.
I cannot, and will not, play CD stuff.

Joe

[Andrew2]

Well! I'm afraid this didn't do much for me. Too much mooning about, weirdness and time-wasting. Very little content. Surprised to see it was written and directed by Caroline Catz.

[brenellic2000]

I agree with Andrew2 - I too was disappointed especially by the lack of early reference to Daphne Oram's pioneering work and too few shots of the Brenells!

[dave walsh]

I think it's probably a given that even any plain documentary [and there's been one or two of those] will usually be found wanting in someway by someone with a technical inclination and great experience but this was a dramatised account after all, for a wider audience and previewed as such. Each to his own opinion of course but this was a troubled woman who might have been totally forgotten by now [Dr Who or not] and who deserves wider recognition along with all those of her peers being celebrated currently and mentioned in post 5*.

"A fond portrait of the woman behind Dr Who's pioneering music" The Guardian G2" 17/5/21 "The film is celebratory and often witty. This could have been a sombre, straight documentary but it feels fitting that it is playful and for much of it a lot of fun". 267 tapes almost forgotten !

Rebecca Nicolson

Referring to "artistic license" [not the TV one] one of those often sought after little bedside radios appeared briefly but more than once on a sideboard in "The Pursuit of Love" [BBC1 last night] which I mentioned in the other Delia thread. It may be regarded as out of time and place, unless I'm mistaken but it looked right!


Dave W

Despite the negative reviews so far I am going to watch it later.

[barretter]

It's a perfectly fine biopic about Delia Derbyshire and her music. If people were expecting a documentary about the technical aspects of the Radiophonic Workshop they will have been disappointed but that wasn't its purpose.

I lasted 10 minutes, nuff said.

[Restoration73]

There is much great uncelebrated electronic music on the sound library LP's made for film and TV productions, e.g. De Wolfe, KPM and others

A documentary was made about Fred Judd but has not been televised to my knowledge.

[dave walsh]

Well that's a shame Restoration. Sort of Britain's Les Paul in a way! Although I said last night's Bird Song programs might not be strictly technical they featured great recordings and the Sound Recordist [with his equipment] trudging round, talking about getting the perfect sound balance and philosophising about life in general. Very relaxing at the very least! I'll be interested to see how "Sisters With Transistors" goes down. Has anyone seen it yet?

Dave W

[Radio Wrangler]

Fred Judd did the electronic music and noises for "Space Patrol"

He also was the originator of the 'slim jim' 2 metre antenna along with a few others.

David

[M0FYA Andy]

I'm afraid I'm another who only watched for ten minutes - too 'arty-farty' for me, I'd hoped for technical info on the Radiophonic Workshop but clearly that wasn't the nature of the programme.

Andy

[initialsbb]

I enjoyed the programme as a wistful biopic of Delia Derbyshire - the old Arena Documentary is better for Radiophonic Workshop insight.
If anyone is keen to hear more Daphne Oram material as well as that from other electronic music pioneers (and masses of other stuff from strange 70s folk to hideous industrial noise and everything in between!) the dieordiy2 blog is a treasure trove.

[DMcMahon]

Enjoyed some of it but did find some parts disappointing.

David

[Malcolm G6ANZ]

A bit late now , Radio 3 have done a weeks worth of Delia's compositions. Every day at about 8:30 a couple of her compositions. They should be on iPlayer.

Malcolm

[Malcolm G6ANZ]

All this week Radio 3 Breakfast have been playing her work. Usually at about 8:30 a couple of theme tunes and others.
Too late now to hear live but they should be on iPlayer.

Malcolm