[sdiy] Attention all Delia Derbyshire worshippers

[Steve Ridley]

> British people in particular should be interested in this. For those who
> don't know, Delia Derbyshire is one of the more pivotal and yet least
> known characters in early electronic music. Initially, she WAS the BBC
> radiophonic workshop.

That's a little unfair on some of the others.  While Delia was brilliant,
Daphne Oram, Dick Mills, Brian Hodgson and others made major
contiburtions at the same time...

> And although Ron Grainger was credited as having written the theme to
> Doctor Who, it was actually Delia who pulled it off.  Grainger actually
> campaigned to BBC management to have her in the credits but they
> declined. (assholes)

Probably dead assholes by now.  This was 40 years ago, and luckily
attitudes have changed since then.  In those days, being a woman
was a bad career move!!!!!!!!

> Even today, the BBC are apparently sitting on a huge Derbyshire archive
> but won't release it. Ian was once telling me that he tried just to get
hold of
> recordings of it for his own listening pleasure but they would only give
him
> copies for commercial (IE: contractual/mechanical.) rates.

The BBC used to be very bad at releasing anything, but they've
got a lot better in recent times, but if they have a "huge archive",
deciding what to resease can be tricky. Also, as much of the
material was commissioned for a range of different TV and Radio
programs, the rights could take a lot of time and effort to sort out.

I can understand them not releasing music for "personal listening".
It would be madness if they were thinking of releasing any of it.
While some people still respect this sort of thing, others will have
distributed it worldwide within days.  At least  it shows they recognise
it as having some value, which is a hopeful sign.  I wonder if the
Nationa Sound Archive have any?

> It pretty much annoys me that with so few women working in this field, one
> of the early pioneers was in fact female and yet through a combination of
> sexism and stupidity, has been swept under the historical carpet.

Under the carpet?  No, she was forgotten by most people.
AFAIK, She's become disillusioned with music until a few years
before her death.  Who was asking about her ten years ago when
she was still alive?

> Derbyshire was also the other half of the WhiteNoise team. With David
> Vourhause. Their electronic musical exploits now being somewhat legendary.

Indeed.

> I suspect the list will be pretty slow. There's not much more to tell
> without the BBC allowing us to hear all the material but it would be
> nice if people kept the memory alive at least.

I'm sure the recent burst of interest, especially since the "Alchemists"
program, will make then show more interest.

> And that's my good deed for the year so I should at least get my two
> front teeth for Christmas.

Did you copy it to the BBC?  That would have been useful.



Steve