You know, I’ve got to admit, I was something of a fan of electronic music, as a child.
Kraftwerk, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and the fact I was a teen in the early 1980s — when everyone was doing something with a Fairlight — were a big factor in that, but I wasn’t as rabid as some I’ve met.
But for me, one of those factors was the theme tune to “Doctor Who”, written by Ron Grainer, and arranged by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop.
Something of a blinder, even today.
Now, I’m not sure how true this is, but there’s a story, doing the fan circuit, that says Ron Grainer wrote what became the show’s theme tune, and took it in to Delia Derbyshire, at the BBC building at Shepherds Bush.
And went back, a couple of weeks later, to hear the results; rather gob-smacking ones, at that..
According to the story, his first response were the words “Bloody Hell!”
Rapidly followed by the line that’s gone down in fan history; “It didn’t sound like that, when I wrote it!”.
To which Ms Derbyshire is supposed to have smiled, and said “Well … That’s what you’re paying me for …”
Either way, Grainer was so impressed that he tried to get an arranger’s credit for Delia Derbyshire, at the end of each episode of “Doctor Who”. Something that the BBC, at the time, didn’t allow.
Which is a shame, considering that Ms Derbyshire — a very talented composer in her* own right — has never really ever got much recognition; neither — to the best of my knowledge — has the Musique Concrète movement she took so much inspiration from.
Saying that, the websites devoted to her, help.
Along with the fact that “An Electric Storm In Hell”, the album that she and fellow Radiophonic Workshop member Brian Hodgson worked on, as White Noise, is available on the iTunes Store, should help …
* She composed the famously strange theme tune to the original version of ITV’s cult hit, “The Tomorrow People,” for example, as well as lots of incidental music. On top of that, she worked with Brian Hodgson, on the White Noise album, “An Electric Storm In Hell”.
Bless, I’ve had Dan point out, quite accurately, that a lot of the 80s synth pop bands used Emulators and Moogs, as cheaper alternatives to the Fairlight.
ReplyDeleteAnd also thought I’d best mention that none of it would’ve been possible without Les Paul’s invention of multitrack recording!
Standing on the shoulder’s of giants, eh?