Electronic Sound Issue 106 (The Radiophonic Workshop)
Electronic Sound
We are celebrating 60 years of 'Doctor Who' with the help of The Radiophonic Workshop in the new issue of Electronic Sound. We have a silver vinyl Radiophonic seven-inch to accompany the magazine as well, the material including two Dalek tracks taken from early episodes of the sci-fi TV show. Our cover story boasts an amazing cast of Radiophonic Workshop members, with Brian Hodgson, Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Peter Howell and Mark Ayres recalling those halcyon days at the BBC's famous Maida Vale Studios. There are tons of 'Doctor Who' anecdotes, of course, but they also talk about some of their other wonderful work for BBC television and radio programmes over the many decades. It's a lengthy and highly entertaining read and it begins with a mighty strange tale about "two mad scientists and a moon maiden". They certainly broke the mould when they made the Radiophonic folk. We have more Radiophonica this issue with a piece on Delia Derbyshire's 'Inventions For Radio', an early 1960s collaboration with British playwright Barry Bermange. We speak to David Butler from the Delia Derbyshire Archive about this unique sound collage, an extract of which appears on the flip side of this month's seven-inch. Keep turning the pages for interviews with Gazelle Twin, Maria Uzor, James Holden, Jlin, Fantastic Twins, Sextile and Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy too. As ever, it's all top quality stuff. This month's magazine is bundled with an awesome seven-inch featuring three tracks produced by The Radiophonic Workshop back in 1963 for the first 'Doctor Who' serial about the Daleks – 'Dalek City Corridor', 'Dalek Control Room' and 'Explosion, TARDIS Stops'. And that's all just on the A-side of this special silver disc. Reverse the record for an extract of Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange's 'Inventions For Radio – The Dreams', a pioneering cut-up piece from 1964. With so much classic Radiophonic goodness on offer here, it's easy to understand why Brian Hodgson claims the legendary BBC sound unit "reprogrammed the hearing of a whole generation".