Three blogs, ‘Toys and Techniques’, ‘A Sound Awareness’ and Unman-Wittering devoted the whole of May as ‘Radiophonic Month‘ and have been posting all kinds of Radiophonic extremely rare gems such as the David Cain Seasons album that Jarvis Cocker has been err ‘rinsing’ on his excellent 6Music show and more importantly for me Amor Dei (here and here) by Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange – I have been looking for this online for years.

I would gladly pay for that and the other Inventions and a proper Delia boxset/release but amazingly BBC and now the University of Manchester seem to be dragging their heels in that regard, so MP3s it is. But so glad to actually get to hear it…like the original poster I’d love to hear the other Inventions (I have a low quality copy of Dreams…are there any HQ versions out there?).

You might like these previous posts:

• RC 173: Radiophonic at 50 – December 1, 2008
• Oh Delia – July 19, 2008
• BBC Radiophonic Workshop Hits 50 – 3 new CDs – October 26, 2008
• Ada Lovelace Day: Delia Derbyshire – March 24, 2010
• Doctor Who Theme – BBC Radiophonic Workshop – January 6, 2010

I missed this – I loved the Digital Revolution program on the Beeb, it was a little bit overplayed/simplistic but still laid out some interesting thoughts about the Internet in the 21st century – and I knew they were holding a remix competition for the footage – but I didn’t know Cassetteboy had remixed it for the competition!

The internet is bigger than a balloon – but smaller than a car! LOL!

Much better than what actually won the competition. Although this runner up is pretty good

You might like these previous posts:

• healthier and more productive, a pig in a cage on antibiotics – October 6, 2008
• The Bloody Apprentice – Cassetteboy’s hired! – May 28, 2009
• Radio Clash 51: 51st Late n’ Spooky Edition – October 29, 2005
• Blogging can kill you – October 2, 2008
• Cassetteboy vs the party leaders – December 28, 2009

I do have a question – is Islam really against music? I know it’s probably in part to what degree of orthodoxy and which sect you follow (Sunni/Shia etc) but I know music has been banned by ultra-orthodox Islamic regimes before and it’s been incredibly unpopular, especially amongst local tribes and those who don’t follow Islam. Also I thought at various times music and dancing were allowed, and great flowering of those arts, in such places as Andalusia? Hence the acoustic guitar being developed – a Moorish introduction to Europe and ‘guitar’ is in fact an arabic loanword?

I also love how any religion can deem itself to enforce it’s beliefs on those who don’t follow it – like the recent story of the Williamsburg hassidim vs hipsters over a cycle path! (My thoughts there is if a bike is traif (unclean) then how can the Satmars drive in mini-vans? Eh?) Surely any religious mumbo jumbo should only affect those who believe in it?

And you don’t need protective laws or sharias against the rest of the world and need to live in a bubble if you really have faith?

You might like these previous posts:

• Mozgate: NME vs Moz part II – December 7, 2007
• Greedy Apple – October 2, 2008
• Saving 6 Music & Asian Network: Peel would be spinning in his grave – March 2, 2010
• Brilliant documentary on the State of the Music Industry – October 18, 2009
• Andrew Keen RSA lecture – September 5, 2007

As part of Ada Lovelace Day organised by the wonderful Suw Charman-Anderson, Finding Ada has asked bloggers to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.

It’s obvious to me who to celebrate – Delia Derbyshire, mathematician, musician, sound artist, and early audio engineer/technologist.

Born in Coventry in 1937 she grew up during the Blitz and graduated in a degree in mathematics and music at Girton College, Cambridge. She tried to apply to Decca in 1959 and was told “the company did not employ women in their recording studios” – the first of many prejudices she faced, but it didn’t let it stop her.

Eventually she was working at the BBC at the Radiophonic Workshop in the early 60′s, creating musical compositions on the sly as they weren’t officially ‘musicians’ for political and union/legal reasons…the Workshop was mostly working with tape and musique concrete techniques, for which her mathematics training came in useful (apparently she went and corrected their textbook on tape lengths and pitches because it was wrong!) with some very rudimentary electronics.

Here she created the famous Doctor Who theme tune with composer Ron Grainer, still a landmark in electronic music – and legendarily Ron asked her ‘Did I create that?’ to which Delia replied ‘Most of it’ – in fact Ron asked for her to get a credit because he realised how much she had added to his original composition, but the BBC wouldn’t allow it.

Delia worked on many projects, from doorbells to dreams to daleks, creating incredibly influential proto-ambient works and innovating music techniques using the most rudimentary technology that everyone thinks is electronically based, but the Radiophonic Workshop didn’t have synthesisers til the late 60′s/early 70′s.

Take this tune created with the sound of a reverberating lampshade:

Eventually she and others started creating music outside of the BBC, in studios they setup on their own using the newer synthesiser technologies and away from the BBC’s restriction…also library music was a lucrative business, and many people heard Delia’s work on adverts unknowingly as ‘Li De la Russe’ and other pseudonyms. She worked with colleague Brian Hodgson and EMS founder Peter Zinovieff with Unit Delta Plus that performed at the infamous ‘Carnival of Light’ in London, and also with Brian again and David Vorhaus with the influential late 60′s psych favourite White Noise and their first LP, ‘An Electric Storm’ for which she worked on 3 tracks and setup the Kaleidophon Studio with them:

In 1973 she left the BBC and retired from music apart from occasional projects like The Legend of Hell House soundtrack and working with Sonic Boom aka Pete Kember just before she died in 2001 of renal failure following reovering from breast cancer.

She faced a lot of prejudice in a then male dominated world of engineers, technicians, mathematicians and musicians, and bitchy BBC queens who didn’t like a strong-minded perfectionist woman who refused to stay in her place (although she rebuffed suggestions of being a feminist icon, saying she was just doing her work and what she needed to do).

She’s a role model for me because she created her own path, struggled, and suceeded, and is now a cult-hero for several generations of musicians. I doubt the likes of Little Boots would get acceptance as musicians and sound creators if it wasn’t for the likes of Delia. Just a shame there wasn’t as much support or acceptance, especially in the early 70′s where she felt ostracised from the BBC and society – because I think we lost many years of great music from one of the best modern composers and sound artists we ever had.

And with the discovery of her tapes which are being rescued and analysed I hope more Delia releases will come out, revamping and keeping her memory alive…compared to her contemporaries she is pretty badly served for record releases, I think. The likes of Trunk Records are trying to rectify this – but shame on BBC for leaving her and her contemporaries to gather dust.

Further information

• Alchemists of Sound – BBC4 documentary
• The Delian Mode – great Canadian documentary by Karla Blake. Only 25 minutes though – I think a whole feature would really suit Delia’s life story
• Delia Derbyshire website
• The newly discovered DD tapes
• Manchester University’s DD archive
• Google timeline
• Obituary

This video is interesting as it highlights not only one of Delia’s best tunes (done for Electrosonic in 1972 on the sly as De La Russe I think) but also the slideshow of women in electronic music. Certainly in this field there are many women who get sidelined unlike their male contemporaries – Delia is just the top of a large stack for me:

(+1 on the Pauline Oliveros, Eizabeth Parker, Bebe Barron, Daphne Oram – many of these were Radiophonic Workshop interestingly)

Finding Ada has an unconference event tonight in London, not sure I can make it, but Suw and Maggie Philbin (that’s a name from my youth religiously watching Tomorrow’s World ) and potluck and networking…sounds good

And another way of supporting Ada Lovelace Day is go read Sydney Padua’s great 2D Goggles – the Ada Lovelace / Charles Babbage crime-fighting steampunk comic! It’s my wallpaper atm, I love it.

You might like these previous posts:

• Oh Delia – July 19, 2008
• RC 173: Radiophonic at 50 – December 1, 2008
• BBC Radiophonic Workshop Hits 50 – 3 new CDs – October 26, 2008
• Radiophonic Month at 3 blogs (Amor Dei found) – May 31, 2010
• Doctor Who Theme – BBC Radiophonic Workshop – January 6, 2010

Well it’s official – the ‘not going to happen’ axing of BBC 6music, the only real music station now worth listening to, is going to happen.. Or will it? Let’s see.

What can you do?

Firstly there’s a flashmob protest at 6pm tonight outside Broadcasting House, dunno who’s organising it (the nature of flashmobs says: No-one! It’s beautifully organic) but they want you to print out and bring this flag . I’ll see you there.

Public consultation is until 25th May but act now – you can write to the BBC Trust at srconsultation@bbc.co.uk or trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk (check out their requirements here re: a cover letter or fill in their online survey or write to them at the address here (or all 3?) explaining how the cutting of BBC 6 Music is wrong and a severe loss for music, and a affront to the memory of John Peel and those who fought for new and alternative musics on the BBC.

Strange that the Strategy voices wanting to increase quality, but is doing this be restricting the amount of choice, a monoculture that allows the travesty that is BBC3 to exist (Sorry Andrew Collins, I know it’s part of your money stream but it’s an expensive carbuncle) and funds audience dropping Radio 2 far more, as Nigel Jenkins posted over on the FB group:

Radio 3 (2 million weekly listeners, annual budget £51.1 million, cost per user per hour 6.3p) No real changes detailed.

Radio 1Xtra (0.6 million weekly listeners, budget £9.6 million, cost per user per hour 4.5p) Links with Radio 1 will be “strengthened”.

Radio 6 Music (0.7 million weekly listeners, annual budget £9 m…illion, cost per user per hour 3.4p)

So if that’s true Radio 6 costs LESS than 1Xtra, and much less than Radio 3 (I’m not calling for Radio 3 to be closed, John would kill me…and like Radio 4 that would never happen, those in power listen to them).

Also the whole ‘making it bigger will make it commercial’ is a fallacy – as we know DAB and digital radio is still early-doors; and if ‘we don’t want to compete with commercial radio’ ethos was true then Radio 1, 2 and 4 would be for the chop for the start – especially Radio 1 which KissFM should be especially pissed off about. The idea Mark Thompson is upping the quality is a smoke screen – this is just a numbers game ignoring the Reithian ideals of community provision.

I strongly doubt that the mass produced banal pap the corporation produces will actually be less (it’s a mixed message – we need to concentrate on quality; so let’s axe the quality niche products and focus on the mainstream – eh?) and that Radio 1 or 2 will change at all, or as Mark Thompson alluded to start catering for the 6Music audience (in fact Radio 2 is going to go older, and Radio 1 gets off scot free for some reason, and 1Xtra’s audience won’t want 6Music’s breadth).

Really it is a victory for genre/demographics targetted radio, that you are all in little ticky tacky boxes and should stay in your ghettos – obviously new, unsigned and eclectic music isn’t going to be everyone’s bag, but to kill the station pretty much at birth without ever letting it have a wider (FM, or when DAB covers the whole of the UK) audience or promoting it, is totally short sighted.

There’s also a petition at 38Degrees I’ve signed, and you can follow action on twitter by the #saveBBC6Music or #save6music hash tags or follow love6music.

Facebook group: Save 6Music 88,000 people and counting!

Another petition:

PS. I’d use the email address for the consultation rather than the flakey online form to contact the BBCStrategy Review – just got this lovely error after the first page:

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ConflictError: database conflict error (oid 0x10dca9, class Products.QuickConsult.content.Survey.Survey)

Nice. Great public consultation if the form doesn’t work? Of course they don’t want the form to work, they’ve decided their route…interestingly it looks like it might become an election issue, so sorry BBC, this won’t go away. I think it’s going to be hotly political, fast.

Oh and BBC 6 Music just played Public Enemy – Fight the Power, an audience choice. I think they’re in a fighting mood.

Let’s do this, show Auntie how we roll with social media campaigns – we did RATM #1, Trafigura, MP’s expenses…now here’s the biggest one: the BBC.

You might like these previous posts:

• p990 Email settings (Dreamhosts/GMail) – October 18, 2008
• John Peel or ’4 Real’? – October 16, 2005
• Oh! How it hurts In the wardrobe of my soul in the section labelled “shirts” – January 16, 2010
• Somalia bans music on the radio – April 15, 2010
• Radio Clash 65 – alt.alt.alt.rap show – March 1, 2006

Love the kitten line, the BBC Micro comparison and ‘your dad’s got a beard! I bet he’s in Al Qaeda!’

Maybe their followup should be a cover/version of EMI about the blight that is record companies in all of this…

Thanks to Bob Levingbird for tipping me off about this.

You might like these previous posts:

• Greedy Apple – October 2, 2008
• I <3 James Randi – long may he live :-D – January 23, 2010
• More face things… – July 22, 2009
• that OK Go video you nearly never saw: EMI and the embedding wars – March 8, 2010
• the system might fail you but don’t fail yourself – Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip – Getting Better – December 31, 2009

I’ve been on a Viv Stanshall kick (again) recently because a kind listener (reader? what is the collection noun for podcast and blog listeners? poggers? pistener? err..anyway thank you Julian it made it through the snow!) sent me some Viv rarities as a result of the ‘Viv and Neil’ podcast I did last year inc the excellent 2002 radio documentary ‘Canyons of His Mind‘ which of course is referring to the above track, recorded for ‘Colour Me Pop’ in 1968. Apparently they did the whole show, which I really want to see.

Also read a great piece about Viv by his second wife, Ki Longfellow about how they met…I mean I fell in love with him reading it, so in person the effect must’ve been greater . She as mentioned in the text SHOULD write a book about him. If she or anyone relating to her is reading this, please give her a prod, because reading that I would buy a copy, and I have a feeling a lot of people would feel the same way…and also because of his mysterious/insane/wonderful/maddening/glorious lifestyle there are a lot of wrong rumours out there – one of which is that he set himself alight with cigarettes when he died (no, coroner said it was electrical wiring, apparently). Would be great to have a book that comes closer to the real Viv (well dunno if that’s possible actually, but closer than the people writing ones who never met him!) and fills in that gap post Bonzos in the mid-late 70s.

Also did they ever record Stinkfoot? I’ve always wanted to have a copy, either on DVD or audio – and missed hearing about the short revival on Thekla last July…bah!

Oh a few of you might not know who Viv Stanshall was, you poor petals. So here’s a good intro, a show produced by the BBC and introduced by John Peel with Viv on himself and his history in his own words and music (the original piece in 1991 was called ‘Crank’, it seems to have gained the name ‘Diamond Geezer’ somewhere?).

It explains how Viv was just Viv ‘Well I don’t do it, I’m merely being myself, as near as dammit without frightening the housing estates…and her question was absurd rather than fatuous, as if I’d decided one day to wake up and decide I’m going to be a giant squid for the weekend or that’s it I’m going to be a wardrobe for the rest of my…err..word. Well strap me to a tree and call me Brenda! I’m whatever you like just don’t expect me to join in….You see I’m not different for the sake of being different, only for the desperate sake of being myself” Great words, indeed

…although I have no idea why an obit from 1995 has the roman numeral date of 1993 (I suspect it’s been edited together from Crank?) – EDIT: it is from 1993, someone added the ‘Diamond Geezer’ in 1995, seems like many layers of ‘Late’ show, I’ve got a headache.

Bonus: One Man’s Week, a 1975 film about Viv seems to have escaped from the BBC’s Gormenghast Colditz Vaults by means of 1975 quality video…such a shame Viv wasn’t let loose more often on the public with a camera, that would’ve been a great TV programme. Also in part 3 you can see him working on ‘Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead’ which was heavily African influenced and years before it’s time.

You might like these previous posts:

• RC 175: The Viv and Neil Show (Bonzo Dog Band) – January 29, 2009
• Radio Clash 49: Play at the Wrong Speed – Remembering John Peel – October 11, 2005
• The Future is indeed unwritten… – June 22, 2007
• Hey There DJ, Your Nation Needs You – October 12, 2008
• John Peel or ’4 Real’? – October 16, 2005

Saw this via Akira the Don and assumed it was the Alchemists of Sound but it’s actually from 1993 ’30 Years of the Tardis’ which I’d never seen (although much quoted second hand) – I’d love to have a copy of this! Can you get it?

And I love the bit at the end – yes Delia is totally right, the music to Doctor Who IS sacrosanct, as all ‘remade’ versions prove, the off-beat non 4/4 groove,

The runthrough I was talking about is also on YouTube, start from from 5:38 (it earlier also mentions the Wobulator which was a homebrew simple electronic noisemaker, not even a synth!) where Mark Ayres runs through each tape loop, track by track showing how it was built up.

P.S. yes I saw End of Time which was the departure of David Tennant – the last 20 minutes were devastating; not too sure about the Timelords return, it had leaked months ago – but the actual ending with Wilf was very sad. Shame he did the Dying Swan bit a la The Trocks and extended his goodbye out FAR too much. But anyway, remains to see whether the Goofy Floppy Haired ‘Gosh’ Doctor of Matt Smith is going to be better, seeing the new trailer really am not sure about the gun and return of Daleks…again.

You might like these previous posts:

• Doctor Who Goes to Glastonbury – June 28, 2010
• RC 173: Radiophonic at 50 – December 1, 2008
• Ada Lovelace Day: Delia Derbyshire – March 24, 2010
• Radiophonic Month at 3 blogs (Amor Dei found) – May 31, 2010
• BBC Radiophonic Workshop Hits 50 – 3 new CDs – October 26, 2008

Heard a bunch of the BBC’s Sound of 2010 on Music Week and on the wesbite, apparently ’165 UK-based tastemakers’ worryingly, and  my instant responses:

• Daisy Dares You – to be a Lily Allen clone
• Little Florence Marina and the Diamonds Boots Machine
• Stornaway‘s Fleet is rather Foxed
• Delphic Klaxons of Trojan War, or are they Friendly?
• Joy ‘Where’s the Burial?’ Orbison (great name though)
• Ellie Golding - La Lady Gagahawke called and wants her sound back
• Giggs in Manuva Attack Shocka!
• Rox-y Winehouse
• Two Door Cinema Club is obviously having a Vampire Weekend
• The Drums are obviously from Franzvegas
• Devlin will suffer in the autotune backlash of 2010. Do we need another Plan B? Isn’t one enough?
• Everything Everything quote Radiohead as an influence but I can hear Peter Gabriel/Coldplay when the industry has gotten to them. Nice to see the african/Vamps influence again. It’s all a bit Simple Minds though.
• Gold Panda (Bear, Collective) – like the raga samples though. Could do some interesting collabs or go up his arse like Animal Collective.
• (Johnny) Hurts (Jazz)…in Black and 80′s white. Can hear them writing for boybands shortly. Like the return to the embarassing 80′s video though – but surely 2010 is the death of the 80′s revival? Please? Again on the Simple Minds/dreampop mid 80′s ABC thing. Saxaphones? Ugh.
• Owl City (obviously The Postal Service is on strike there, ho ho) – reassuringly crap name probably referencing Harry Potter. The return of twee, ffs.

The only ones I liked were The Drums who have been getting airplay already, Two Door Cinema Club cos of the Vamps influence (ditto Stornaway cos I’m a big fan of teh Foxes), Giggs could be interesting and Joy Orbison’s fidgety drumstep crossover might wobble into the charts but it’s all rather generic and sounds like someone else. Meh.

What do you think is going to be big in 2010?

You might like these previous posts:

• Doctor Who Theme – BBC Radiophonic Workshop – January 6, 2010
• 2009 in music – December 30, 2009
• tips for tourists in London – July 25, 2005
• Year Zero has arrived (Exclusive news, well sorta) – January 14, 2010
• Mozgate: NME vs Moz part II – December 7, 2007

You might like these previous posts:

• Boris Johnson? On a dance record? With HIS reputation? – June 4, 2010
• RC 173: Radiophonic at 50 – December 1, 2008
• Those Instamatic and DJNoNo tunes now up! – November 13, 2005
• 30 years of Hip Hop; 1 hour; 538 tunes – September 18, 2009
• RC 144: Space Disco II – Calling All Robots – December 23, 2007