Amazing that Delia Derbyshire’s music has been hidden away for so long…her work has had the odd compilation appearance but unlike the others in the Radiophonic Workshop she’s never had officially an album of her own, a box set or ‘best of’ of her massive back catalogue.
She’s arguably the most famous Radiophonic workshop via her theme for Doctor Who. Her legacy is indeed mouldering away, with only a very select few, such as academics and those who made a career out of keeping her music quiet, allowed to hear it. Very sad….
I’m also disappointed with University of Manchester, who after all that fanfare mostly sat on the tapes and provided the minimum academic-only public access to them. No online archive, no way of listening unless you physically go to their faculty in the outskirts of Manchester where I’ve heard they might let you listen to their laptop (!!!) while chaperoned by a member of staff? But I see a few (faculty?) DJing these works at electronic music & arts festivals including ones abroad? This does not sound like ‘public access’ to me – and seems like more feathering of people’s nests by keeping her work under wraps.
If Trunk Records can manage it with two volumes of John Baker’s work, David Cain’s albums can be re-released, even Daphne Oram got props recently – so why not Delia? So hence this petition to the BBC to release her work ending on what would have been her 77th birthday. Please sign it. If you don’t know about Delia, then a good place to start is my Radiophonic at 50 podcast or Soundhog’s Delian mix. I’ve been planning a special Delia D podcast for digital debris for years…
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