Now for a lampshade solo: how the Radiophonic Workshop built the future of sound
▻https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jul/18/lampshade-solo-radiophonic-workshop-built-future-of-sound-festivals
They chased bees, raided junkyards and banged household objects. Now, half a century on, the Radiophonic Workshop are festival material. Meet the sound effect visionaries whose jobs came with a health warning
All of this reminds Limb of someone. “One name we haven’t mentioned yet is #Delia_Derbyshire,” he says. “She was the doyenne of inventing new sounds using tape techniques. When synthesisers started to creep above the parapet, I think she was intrigued but uneasy. She didn’t take naturally to them.”
Derbyshire is a cornerstone of the Workshop’s history, famous for taking Ron Grainer’s original Doctor Who theme and performing it on oscillators, using what she described as “carefully timed hand swoops”. Even the Queen knew that one. “Well,” says Kingsland, “Delia is more celebrated for that than for many of the other great things she did. Even she thought of it as a bit of a millstone.”