The Radiophonic Workshop

Celebrate 60 Years Of Doctor Who At The Blue Dot Festival

28 February 2023 admin Comments 0 Comment

Mission Control, Orbit, Notes Sunday 23rd July 2023

Join us for a special Sunday celebrating 60 years (!) of the legendary sci-fi series Doctor Who, featuring panels, performances, screenings and much more taking over Jodrell Bank. With Delia Derbyshire Day and Doctor Who expert Toby Hadoke we’ll be presenting the ultimate Whovian day out – and you can celebrate with us by digging out your fancy dress to get in the mood!

Standby for the full 60 Years of Doctor Who celebration line-up, revealed in the coming weeks.

Founded in 1958 by Desmond Briscoe and Daphne Oram, the Radiophonic Orchestra was home to a maverick group of experimental composers, sound engineers and musical innovators.

Now, original members Peter Howell, Roger Limb, Dr Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland and Mark Ayres are back working together, described by the music press as the ‘Electronic Buena Vista Social Club’ and ‘the British Kraftwerk’.

The Radiophonic Workshop To Play The Internet!

16 November 2020 admin Comments 0 Comment

The composers behind the Doctor Who theme tune are set to turn the internet into a big musical instrument.

The Radiophonic Workshop features musicians from the original BBC group, who created the themes for most shows on the network between the ‘60s and ‘90s.

Now, the composers have found inspiration in Zoom calls during the pandemic, using the natural lag of online calls to make “a loop of music”. “The sound gets sent to someone and they add to it, and it keeps going round,” Bob Earland explained to the Guardian. “So you’re not relying on everyone being on the same clock.”

Roger Limb said the loop presented a new way of responding to what he previously came up with. “What I enjoyed was waiting to hear what I’ve done on the previous round, coming up in about five seconds, listening to it, and then reacting to myself,” he said.

The Workshop’s Peter Howell added: “The idea [of playing the internet] reflected our time. We’re all subject to the internet now in a way that we never thought we would be. And Bob and Paddy [Kingsland] came up with an idea that is literally using what we’re all relying on for a creative purpose, using something that we’ve all taken for granted but in an artistic way.”

The Radiophonic Workshop will perform the piece titled ‘Latency’ – a word used to describe the delay in a transfer of digital data – alongside other compositions on their YouTube channel next week. The performance will take place at 8pm GMT on November 22.

In 2009, the Doctor Who theme tune was voted the best sci-fi theme tune in an online poll. It was originally composed by Ron Grainer in 1963, before being arranged by The Radiophonic Workshop’s Delia Derbyshire.

(With thanks to the MNE)