The Radiophonic Workshop

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The BBC Radiophonic workshop was founded in 1958 by Desmond Briscoe and Daphne Oram. This group of experimental composers, sound engineers and musical innovators provided music for programmes including The Body in Question, Horizon, Quatermass, Newsround, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chronicle and Delia Derbyshire's iconic Doctor Who Theme before being shut down by Director General John Birt in 1998. Tying into the 2020 celebration of classic Prom concerts, this episode of Free Thinking is being rebroadcast

It was recorded in 2014, as the Workshop prepared to release an album, and tour the UK, Matthew Sweet brought together Radiophonic Workshop members Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Peter Howell, and Mark Ayres to reflect on the days and nights they spent in the workshop, coaxing ageing machines into otherworldly life, and pioneering electronic music. Also in the programme, producer and former drummer with The Prodigy Kieron Pepper, Oscar winning Gravity composer Steven Price, Vile Electrodes, and Matt Hodson, on the influence the Radiophonic Workshop had on them.

Producer: Laura Thomas

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:33.2	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:36.8	Hello, I'm Matthew Sweet and this is the Arts and Ideas podcast,
0:40.6	the sound of which is brought to you by an old lampshade,
0:43.5	a tin of Swarfiger, a razor blade and lots of magnetic tape.
0:47.3	I don't know if I felt that from there. Yeah.
0:52.3	I don't know if I felt like from there.
0:53.9	Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I felt like that's on there, yeah.
0:55.0	Yeah.
0:56.0	Yeah.
0:57.0	Yeah.
0:58.0	Yeah.
0:59.0	Yeah. Yeah. We have also sound
1:17.6	where we practice and demonstrate all sounds and their generation.
1:31.3	We have harmonies which you have not.
1:34.3	I think you'd call that music, wouldn't you?
1:37.3	Of quarter sounds and lesser slides of sounds.
1:49.0	Is it time to start talking? Or eat, would you like some more of this?
1:51.0	It's charming, isn't that?
1:53.0	Diverse instruments of music, likewise, do you unknown?
	...

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