All language subtitles for BBC.Arena.2021.Delia.Derbyshire.The.Myths.and.the.Legendary.Tapes

MUSIC: Another Green World
by Brian Eno

LOUD ROARING

INSTRUMENTS PLAY DISCORDANTLY

INDISTINCT SPEECH

And seven. Ah, br... 200...

TAPE RECORDING REWINDS

DISTORTED
ALTERNATELY PANNED SPEECH

ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC

SUSTAINED BEEP

Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three.

This is one of my uni...universal
mixes, generally useful.

You may have some of this later.

OK. Coming up...

Egypt, lot one.

The same sync points as before,
at 230 feet,

when the sun started to emerge
from the pyramid.

We can, if we like, go to these
the sound generators here,

electronic generators,
and we'll listen to three

of the basic electronic sounds.

First is the simplest sound of all,
which is a sine wave.

SINE WAVE PLAYS

As you see on the oscilloscope,
it has a very simple form

and has a very pure sound.

I once said Delia's a bit
like a diamond - it depends

how you shine the light
through it

and you get all sorts
of different Delias.

Oh, she was sparkling and wonderful,
great, terrific fun.

Her great joy was sound.

She'd always talk about somebody
having a wonderful pair of ears,

which means
they could appreciate sound.

She's fascinating, cos she had
all this magic up her sleeve

and she was doing it as
a regular job.

Who was Delia Derbyshire for me?

I think she was a friend,

a very talented composer.

Also very curious
about other people.

But a tormented soul.

You know, she had lots
of problems, unfortunately.

You know, she was always
calculating stuff

and she carried around reams
and reams of paper.

Usually in a large shopping basket,
with a bottle.

A more complex sound still
is white noise.

We call it white because it contains
all sound frequencies

in the same way as white light
contains all frequencies.

WHITE NOISE PLAYS

ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS

RADIO REPORTER: Now, we actually
have some sad news.

The death has just been announced
of Delia Derbyshire,

a pioneer of electronic music
in Britain

and a prime mover in
the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop.

She went on to influence many famous
musicians and composers

around the world, but will probably
be best known for TV's most famous

them tune - Doctor Who.

It's come to me, but just
relevantly recently,

that my love for abstract sounds

were the sounds of the air raid
sirens.

Because that is a sound you hear and
you don't know the source of it

as a child.

SIRENS BLARE, EXPLOSIONS

And then the sound of
the all-clear...

SHE IMITATES SIREN

..that was electronic music.

Seven feet is the beginning
of the dissolve into the tunnel.

ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS

METAL CLANKING

CLANKING

Just think, Delia Derbyshire,
me, Cosey Fanni Tutti,

spending our lives immersed
in music and art.

I'm so drawn to Delia. There's
connections I hadn't expected.

It'd be wonderful to leave Delia
and know that she could collect

a point of contact
across the dimensions.

The feel of the place makes me
speculate about the possibility

of residual sounds being
held in the concrete,

trace elements of life.

ELECTRICITY BUZZES

Musique concrete,
sourced from concrete.

BICYCLE CLICKS

I wonder how,
from what we leave behind,

do expect people to have
any understanding

of who we really are or the reasons
behind our life choices.

MUSIC: Mattachin
by Delia Derbyshire

RADIO PRESENTER: Back in the days
when that was recorded,

it was a completely
different process.

And that track you've just
listened to just now was Mattachin,

put together at the BBC Radiophonic
Workshop back in the early '60s

by Delia Derbyshire.

Some time since you heard
that track, I guess?

DELIA: Yes, since 1968, I think!

THEY LAUGH

I'm tickled pink by it!
It's charming, isn't it?

I think that what you achieved
in the Radiophonic Workshop

is something that maybe
we should define slightly for people

listening to the programme who
maybe don't realise the processes

that actually went into making
that kind of music...

Freedom of the spirit.

The gateway to
the next phase of life.

A doorway into a new life.

AMBIENT ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS

Perhaps I have a very strange mind,

because I analyse everything -
not just music.

I'm drawn so deep
into Delia's story.

It's like a map of her life
through sound, or a coded message.

There are so many subtleties
in the human voice.

I think I've found the language
of a shared experience.

Even when I'm listening to the news,

I note every inflection,
every comma.

I suppose, in a way, I was
experimenting in psychoacoustics.

DISTORTED VOICE SOUNDS PLAY

I came from...

..well, I think what
they'd like to call

the upper-working class
Catholic background.

Catholic, Roman Catholic...
in Coventry.

Delia! You're not going to throw
things out, but

you're going to have to take them
straight back to Cambridge with you.

I am.

No, you're not. Yes, I am.

Don't make me come up those stairs!

I won't. How can I MAKE you come
up on the stairs?

SHE PLAYS GYMNOPEDIE BY ERIK SATIE
ON HARPSICHORD

RADIO TUNES

MALE PRESENTER: The BBC presents
Private Dreams

and Public Nightmares,

a radiophonic poem
by Frederick Bradnum.

The programme is introduced
by the producer Donald McWhinnie.

This programme is an experiment,
an exploration.

It's been put together
with enormous enthusiasm

and equipment designed
for other purposes.

It's not a masterpiece,
not even a minor one.

And it's not a stunt.

We think it's worth broadcasting
as a perfectly serious first attempt

to find out whether we can convey
a new kind of emotional

and intellectual experience by means
of what we call radiophonic effects.

By radiophonic effects,
we mean something

very near to what the French have
labelled musique concrete.

The basis of it is an unlimited
supply of magnetic tape... Delia?

..recording machine, razorblade...
Yes, just organising things!

..and something to stick the bits
together with.

And a group of technicians who think
nothing is too much trouble

provided it works.

You take a sound, any sound,
record it

and then change its nature.

A sort of modern magic.

SHE SNIFFS
Hello.

..they've been exploiting
it on the Continent for years,

but strangely enough,
we've held it aloof.

Partly from distrust,

is it simply a new toy?

Some musicians believe
that it can become an art form

complete in itself.

One thought does occur from time
to time, not entirely frivolously -

would it not be more illuminating
to play the whole thing backwards?

Oh, the radio, the radio, the radio

was the most important thing
in my life.

And music, music, music.

I was told in no uncertain terms

that the BBC does
not employ composers.

And, so, it was only by gradually
sort of infiltrating the system

that I managed to do music.

I think you'd call that music,
wouldn't you?

EXPERIMENTAL ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS

Well, what I'm really interested
in is sound.

Sound? Yes.

The sound of what?

Well, I'm interested in sound.

Music and acoustics.

I see, Miss Derbyshire. You'd like
to combine your interest

in mathematics with your interest
in music.

Yes.

As a career choice?

Well, music is just an expression
of mathematics.

It's an idea that was established

way back in the 6th century
by Pythagoras.

Yes, dear. But this is a careers
office - not ancient Greece.

Do you see?

Have you considered a career
in deaf aids, Miss Derbyshire?

No, Mr Thompson.

Have you?

Angela! Tea!

Christ alive.

And you are?

Delia. Delia Derbyshire.

And where are you from? Coventry.

Not much of it left, is there?

Well... Totally decimated,
wasn't it?

Yeah.

Cambridge - ah!

Girton.

HE LAUGHS

Good old Girton College.

It's rather good, isn't it? Hm?
For girls.

I studied music -
and mathematics too.

Unusual. But do go on.

Well, my interest is in sound
and acoustics.

I'm also a musician.

I play the piano and violin,
double bass,

and I'd very much like to work
as a sound recordist,

or, well, possibly a music balancer.

Ah, yes. I'll have to stop
you there, Miss Derbyshire.

Decca Records does not employ women
in its recording studios

or any of its technical departments.

Never has, probably never will.

I see.

And why would that be?

Those are the house rules.

I'm not paid to question them,
Miss Derbyshire -

only to observe them.

However, we do have posts for women
in our administration department

and there may well be
a secretarial position available

at the end of the month.

Cheerio!

Toodle-oo!

He was probably the man
who turned down the Beatles.

BLEEPS PLAY

And this comes back to something
else I'd like to stress.

You see, there's that sexist
thing again.

One director came into the workshop,
said to me,

"Oh, you must be
an ardent feminist."

But I think I was a post-feminist
before feminism was even invented.

I'd prefer to describe myself...

..as an individualist.

DISTORTED: An individualist.

That's me.

Golly, I realise that now.

DISTORTED SPEECH CONTINUES

DISTORTED: An individualist.

An individualist.

FADES: An individualist.

And, so, I went to Geneva
to teach English,

and that's when I started bombarding
the BBC with endless applications.

And I finally ended up with
a three-month placement

as a studio manager.

I'm told you have
extraordinary powers.

Oh, really?

CHUCKLES: Yes.

The fellows on Record Review
are little in awe.

They tell me you can find a piece
of music on an LP

just by looking at it.

How? Magic.

Hm, yes. Witchcraft was mentioned.

I simply hold the disc up
to the light

and look for where the groove
modulations

break up the light the most.

Trombones and strings are
particularly easy to spot.

Mr Harper, could I please have
a placement

at the Radiophonic Workshop
at Maida Vale?

Are you mad?

No, I'm neither mad nor a witch.

I'm just fascinated by what they do
in there

and I'd like to work
with tape manipulation.

I must warn you,
nobody's ever requested to join

that department before.

People are normally sent
there unwillingly.

Like to Coventry, as a punishment?

Yes, in some cases.

It's a... It's a very
particular environment

that we're not sure is
altogether, er, healthy.

May I ask you why?

I'd like to create sounds
that have never existed

in the world before and I'm not sure
where else to do it, Mr Harper.

I'll call down.

She joined about two months
before I did.

It was around about Christmas time,

cos you were only allowed to stay
for three months

in case you went mad.

I think it was a doctor friend
of one of the engineers

who said that it could cause
psychological problems,

being exposed to all these
strange noises.

MUSIC: Time Beat
by Ray Cathode

Michael, the producer,
was in yesterday,

but I told him not to bother today.

Help me with the screen,
would you, please?

Lovely.

HE WOLF WHISTLES
Oh! Ignore him.

Set up a mic, would you, Delia?

Yeah. Just about here? Uh-huh.

I was doing this yesterday.

After trying a couple
of different methods,

it was by far the best sound
for what we needed.

Yet Michael, the producer,
kept laughing at me.

In the end, I said, "If I spot
you laughing at me one more time,

"I'm going home."
And he did, so I left.

Quite right. Shall I? Mm.

ROCKS CRUNCH AND GRIND

That's beautiful.
Well, it's music, isn't it?

Oh... Shh, shh. Why...?

It's forbidden, the word.

What word? The M word.

So, what are you supposed to be
making in here, then?

Special sounds. Oh, gosh.

As we're seen by some of the music
department as charlatans

using sound technology to disguise
our lack of musical ability.

Well, I see. So the musical
integrity of the nation is at stake?

So, if you're not musicians,

what are you being asked to call
yourselves?

Sound assistants,
studio technicians.

If a sound isn't notable,
then it's not music -

that's the thinking.

But it's the abstract sound
that's organised.

That's music, isn't it -
abstract music?

ABSTRACT SOUNDS PAN QUICKLY

We have also sound houses
where we practise

and demonstrate all sounds
and their generation.

We have harmonies,
which you have not,

of quarter-sounds
and lesser slides of sounds.

KNOCKING
Hello?

Brian. Remember me? Yes, of course.
Delia. Delia...

Yes, of course I remember,
the induction week.

Sorry, I was engrossed.

Have you been posted here,
as it were?

Well, yeah. Uh... A long story,
but, yes, yes, in a way.

This is extraordinary, isn't it?

It's 1620

and he's talking about reverberation
and delays.

Look - "artificial echoes,
reflecting the voice many times".

Mm, mm.

It's incredible, yes.

Look - "sounds in trunks
and pipes".

Sounds like microphone leads,
do you think? Mm.

"In strange lines and distances".

Well, that could be broadcasting.

It's Francis Bacon's vision for
a utopian society

called New Atlantis.

Apparently, Daphne Oram
put this up the day

the workshop opened in 1958.

She said that Bacon's premonition
had inspired her to persuade the BBC

they needed to create a space
to experiment with sound.

Of course, if we were in France
or Germany...

Oh, they'd have given up an entire
department to it. Yeah! Yes.

It's curious, isn't it, how
terrified people are of this place,

like it might be the root of some
hideous Continental sound invasion.

Do we have to whisper?
Possibly, yes.

They don't want composers making...

WHISPERS: ..music...

..in here, apparently.

Look, look.

This is magnificent.

I know. Look.

It's the Crystal Palace.

Oh, look - and this 1887 harmonium
with mouse-proof pedals.

See, look. "Mouse-proof"!

THEY CHUCKLE
Super.

It's a good job, as they're plagued
with mice in here, I believe.

But do you think they can read?
Well, some of them.

But they're usually the ones that
cause the most trouble, aren't they?

At least, in my experience.

OBJECT CLATTERS
Oh, dear! Sorry! Sorry.

Christ! What the blazes...?

Desmond, so sorry.

This is, um...Brian. Hello.

Yes, I was going to introduce
myself. Brian.

Well, you've certainly made
an impression already.

Where's your tie, man? Well, I
prefer to wear a cravat, actually.

Hodgson, isn't it?
Yes, that's right, sir.

Yes. Well, I've heard
all about you from Bumps.

But if you're to secure your
reputation as a snappy dresser,

Brian, perhaps you should
concentrate on

your professional reputation first.

Yes. I'm sorry. Sorry.

Shall we help you?

BOTTLES CLATTER
There we go!

When I first came here,
I was expecting to find

beautiful chromium-faced equipment
and everybody wearing white coats.

And, in fact, I found
the tattiest studio,

all full of virtually redundant
antique equipment.

Interesting stuff?

SHE CHUCKLES LIGHTLY

Well, potentially,
but it's full of mistakes.

Do you see?

No.

Well, they've not allowed
for the Pythagorean comma,

so, all these scales are wrong.

Hm, oh...

And it's the reason why
a Pythagorean 12-pointed star

will never close on one side,
because there ought

to be a discrepancy between
the 12 justly tuned perfect fifths.

Oh. Would you mind
if I corrected it?

Oh, well, as I've never seen anyone
so much as look it,

you do what you need to.

I really ought to.
It's a beautiful progression.

But, then, I suppose, if you're
using two-dimensional models

to explain four-dimensional
concepts,

you will end up with weird
harmonics eventually.

Well, you can be our very own
enchantress of numbers.

I'm a mathematician, Desmond.

Right.

DELIA VOICEOVER: I think I've always
been a very independent thinker,

but I must say that I...I go back
to first principles.

When it comes to the music,
I go back to the Greeks

and the original...

..well, the simple harmonic series.

I think that's a very healthy thing
to do for anyone.

It is 0830 hours,
September the 14th, 1988.

These are children of our time.

They should live to be 100.

They may colonise the stars.

They will not toil,
they need never be unhappy.

But, this morning, as every morning,
there is a problem -

how to spend a golden lifetime,
what to do with so much time.

From this September morning in 1988,

look back across
a quarter of a century.

We really make the use of computers
rather than the human brain

for the control of processes
and systems.

The new cybernetic machines
go one step further.

In fact, they simulate
the human brain.

That's what the word
cybernation means.

RECORDING STOPS

DISTORTED SLOW TEMPO: Cybernetic
machines...

So, how's 1988 sounding?

Like a very bad dream.

We also have a new commission.

So, Structures Sonores from Paris.

Well, Verity Lambert
can't afford them,

but she would like us
to sound like them.

They have glass rod set in steel,

a massive grant
from their government

and a 20-paid ensemble of musicians.

There are five of us
being paid peanuts.

We use square and sine wave
generators

and are mostly interested
in dissecting white noise.

Hm. She would like it to sound
familiar, but different.

Yes. We've been given a scrap of
manuscript from the composer

Ron Grainer, with a few bars
scribbled on there

with a melody and a bass line.

Yes?

And a mood description
of "wind, bubbles and clouds".

Yes. Interesting.

It's for a drama about
a time-travelling doctor.

But, of course, they're doing
it on the cheap

and, not very surprisingly,,
that's where we come in.

They want us to prove we are
as capable of tunefulness

as uncanniness.

Christ. Uff...

And, as you all know, we are
inundated at the moment.

Does anyone in this room
have any idea how to do this?

Well... Hm? Yes?

How? Um...

SHE PLAYS MELODY ON
LOOSLY STRINGED INSTRUMENTS

Ah...

Listen to this.

SHE PLAYS MELODY ON
LOOSLY STRINGED INSTRUMENTS

Something like that.

That's what he's written.

I think we can do something
with that.

This is very impressive.

You know, I think most of what I've
ever needed to know about anything

at all has come from that book. Huh?

That's quite a claim.

I'm translating notes on the page
into cycles per second,

and then I'm going to translate
the duration of notes

into inches of tape.

That's why I have this and this.

And this. I wondered why you were
was so engrossed

in the BBC Tennis Club newsletters.

Was I? You are aware that these are
the as yet undistributed

June editions and that Maddelena
is the club chair?

It's a good job
she likes me, then.

Well, not any more, love.
No, no, no, that is naughty.

Don't tell her.

PLAYS DOCTOR WHO THEME

HE WAILS

Something like that?

LAUGHTER

DELIA VOICEOVER: Ron wrote the score
with abstract things on,

like "wind clouds" and "sweeps"

and "swoops" and "wind bubble,"
all sort of beautiful descriptions

but with a carefully
worked-out rhythm.

And so I got to work
and put it all together.

So, are we all set?
Yes, just about there. OK.

Bass, bass, melody, details.
You're on bass.

I'll do melody and details. OK?

This will work.

Three, two, one.

DOCTOR WHO THEME

WHOOSHES

WAILS

It was a magic experience because I
couldn't see from the music

how it was going to sound and it was
just Ron's brilliant aural

imagination because when he heard
the results,

oh, he was really tickled pink!

SNEEZES AND COUGHS

She had this almost
permanent state of sniffles.

This old man said, "You've got
a very bad cold, my dear."

And she said, "No, no, I've got
vasomotor rhinitis."

And he said, "You should try some of
this,"

and he gave her a pinch of snuff.

SNEEZES

Which immediately cleared her head.

She didn't realise at that point
it's one of the most addictive

substances you can ever
let go up your nose.

And that became her recurrent habit.

Knock knock. Who's there?
Doctor. Doctor who?

Airs tomorrow between
Grandstand and Juke Box Jury.

That's still not a punch line!

BOTH SIGH

GUNSHOT

Hello, Leonard. Hello, yes.

Yes, OK, go ahead, then. Righto.

Well, as long as you realise all
I've got in front of me is a pile

of tape, which I'm just ripping
off the printer, which you can

probably hear in the background now.
Hello, London.

This is Leonard Parkin calling radio
newsreel from Washington.

President Kennedy and Governor John
Connally of Texas were shot today

from an ambush as President
Kennedy's motorcade left the centre

of Dallas,
where the President went on...

DOCTOR WHO THEME PLAYS

Let me read it to you.

"Verity's new sound is way out.
Verity Lambert walked

"into the workshop and said, 'I want
a new sound that is way out

"'and catchy.'" Mm, a version of
events.

"Mr Briscoe and his team looked
over the notes and went to work

"without using a single musician
or musical instrument.

"They did it all with electronics,
and this is the first time

"that electronics has been used
to produce a recognisable tune."

It sounds as if they think
the tune's been manifested

by some kind of radiophonic alien.

Ron was so sweet, he said to me,
"You should be getting half

"of my royalties." We can't claim
individual authorship, can we?

We're just seen as technicians.

Do your job and know your place,
my dear.

It's bloody appalling.

SHE SIGHS

I feel like I'm traversing time,
tapping into frequencies

as I'm making sound from fragments
of Delia's life, from her music

and her voice, her words.

In many ways,
our lives are a reflection

of each other's, our determination
to be heard

and our seeking the unheard.

Our vision of sound
as an image or a feeling...

..and the excitement of discovery
and redrawing rules.

When I was doing the inventions with
Barry Bermange, he wanted sounds

which would sound like
a Gothic altarpiece.

He said, "Oh, give me a pencil
and paper."

I did.

And, with great care and
elaboration,

he drew me a beautiful Gothic
altarpiece and said,

"That's the sort of sound I want."

The Afterlife,
an Invention For Radio.

All the voices
were recorded from life and arranged

in a setting of pure electronic
sound in five movements.

Light, light.

ECHOES

Everywhere is light, light.

"LIGHT" ECHOES

The vastness of space, space.

"SPACE" ECHOES

It's so clear, clear.

"CLEAR" ECHOES

Green fields.

Valleys.

Clear running water.

It's so clear. Clear.

My most beautiful sound at that time

was made by a tatty old BBC
lampshade

I found lying around the studio,

but it had the most beautiful
ringing sound to it.

LOW RINGING

ECHOES

Like joining forces,
an exchange between us.

This was a documentary

programme about the Tuareg tribe,

the Tuareg tribe of nomads

in the Sahara Desert.

I tried to convey the distance
of the horizon and the heat haze.

ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC

There's this very high, slow,
reedy sound.

That indicates, like, this strand

of camels seen at a distance,
wandering across the desert.

That in fact was made from square
waves put through every filter

I could possibly find to take out
all the bass frequencies.

Four - the castrated oboe.

# Ahhhh. #

RECORDED AND DISTORTED: Ahhhh.

PLAYS DISTORTED VERSIONS

OBOE SOUND

CONTINUES

SOFTER ELEMENT

AMBIENT MUSIC

So the camels rode off into
the sunset with my voice

in their hooves and green
lampshades on their backs.

It has to be something
out of this world.

Most of the programmes that I did

were either in
the far distant future,

the far distant past,
or in the mind.

I think this was
a science fiction play

called The Prophet.

It ended up with all these robots

and they sang a song of praise

to this bloke,
presumably The Prophet.

And this was the song they sang.

It is difficult to pronounce
because it's made

from backwards chanting.

I think if you play it forwards,
it would say something like

"Praise to the master...

"..his wisdom
and his reason."

Ooh, ooh, ooh... Uh-huh.

Praise to the master,
his wisdom and his reason.

Ooh, ooh...

What?

"Ooh". It's a bit...
Could you...? No.

I did train as an actor
I know what I'm doing. Yes, I know.

So you keep telling me,
let's move on.

There is a God, there must be a God.

You certainly didn't, did you?

You're so mean.
Have a go at that one.

There is a God, there must be a God,
there must be a God, there is a God.

Ooh, ooh, ooh...

Great.

OK?

And now we're going to rewind.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh...

DISTORTED BACKWARDS

Didn't you have a deadline tomorrow
morning? You know my deadlines

are always tomorrow morning,

and the closer they get,
the more I find better things to do.

I think I suffer from a kind
of reverse adrenaline.

But we're not flying our own kites,
are we, darling?

We spring into action for when
the department needs a tune.

Let's get a drink.

Another one?

VOICEOVER: Well, as far as I
remember, it was like this -

I had a very complicated studio

and definitely wanted
to make the studio better.

And at this time, I'd heard of,

I'd heard of the Radiophonic
Workshop, but I'd never been there.

And, then, one day,
Brian and Delia came to see me.

I think they just knocked
on the door at Putney.

They said, "What about joining
forces

"and making commercial music?

"To make money." And I thought
this was...this was rather amazing,

that Radiophonic Workshop
should come to me.

I hadn't at that stage realised
that what they were proposing was

not part of the Radiophonic
Workshop, but something different.

Peter had met Delia
and she involved me.

And that's when we started
Unit Delta Plus.

He was very, naturally, as everybody
was, impressed by her.

Well, it gives her a range
of facilities that weren't available

to us. And a studio to work in,
where we could sort of

not feel entrapped.

Peter Zinovieff was doing
the most interesting things.

He didn't claim to be a musician.

He didn't claim to be a composer.

But imagine one of those beautiful
London townhouses.

The drawing room on the first floor
was totally crammed with telephone

relay equipment, where he was
working on his random sequences.

And I thought, "Golly, this is
the way things should go."

That was a beautifully
interesting time.

Everything was mechanical.

It was all part of a very fertile
sort of area,

a wonderful sort of creative time.

Things were happening
all over London.

Units were the most popular thing.

And then the Delta was for Delia,
really, plus Peter and me.

So, we gave this concert
and I don't know

how it came to be in Newbury.

Yes, Peter knew the people who had
the theatre

and I think was Peter's
idea to do it.

I suppose they must have asked us,
somebody must have asked us.

It wasn't much of an affair.
It was a country,

you know, village thing.

There was a light projection
being done

by the Hornsey College of Art.

I think my forte is, well, apart
from having an analytical mind

to do electronic sound,
at the opposite end,

I'm very good at writing

extended melody, for which there was
not really an opening at the BBC.

And, so, I met this guy.

I was giving a lecture at Morley
College in London, and he came

up to me afterwards and he played
the double bass, same as I did.

And he was already doing
tracks for the Ballet Rambert.

And, so, we got together
and we started this album.

We got together.

UPBEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC

I was doing a postgrad degree
in the physics of electronics.

We hear there's this lecture on
electronic music in the next hall,

given by some people from the
Radiophonic Workshop - Brian, Delia

and Peter Zinovieff, who call
themselves Unit Delta Plus.

But I thought, "Christ.

"Yes, absolutely. I want to see it."

So, I shot along to this thing.

And, sure enough, these people
were actually doing what, to me,

had just been a fantasy.

Also, I think there's some chemistry

between Delia and I, and we
sort of hit it off.

Yes, David sort of erupted
out of the audience at the end

of the lecture.

Complete bearded hippie.

A bit like an excitable Peter Pan,
really.

And, er... I know he won't mind me
saying, he still is!

"Unit Delta Plus! I remember you
guys were playing last week

"at the Roundhouse." And we got
to talking after, and we just got

on like a house on fire.

And, within a week,
we'd started Kaleidophon.

Is this OK?

Yes.

I'm here this time,

most nights, no-one comes in.

The night porter thinks I'm a very
strange beast, and I am.

Oh, yeah, wow.

Where's the frequency shifter?
Frequency shifter? Er,

it's there. There. There!

Ah, yes.

OK.

Yeah.

Well, let's - we can start there,
can't we?

Erm. Fantastic. Careful with that.

Uh-huh.

How many you got? 12. 12?! Yeah.

Frequency shifter.

And then we have the, erm...
Incredible. ..these.

And Phillips's of course.

OK. OK.

ECHOES

Well, we might as well get going,
right? Right.

OK, is that linked up to there?
Cos I can't see the...

Yes, of course. Of course
it is, fantastic.

ECHOING

All right, look,
straight away...

ECHOING DISTORTION

LOUD DISTORTION

OK. I do know. I use it every day.
Yeah.

CHIMING

So, psyche-Delia...

..who are you?

Hm...

Now...

What are you doing?

HE MUMBLES

Golly.

OK.

Oh, oh, gosh, where to start?
Go on...

Um, no...I can't.

Please, please, please. OK.

Music... No, I'm not doing this.

Mm! No. Mm.

SHE LAUGHS

Well, I studied music
and mathematics at Cambridge.

You see, I'm fascinated by harmonics
and the numbers that are built

into nature - clouds, mountains,
and coastlines, and ferns,

and natural fractals.

And, of course, our bodies
respond to those numbers,

even at a subconscious level.

And, electronic music...

Well, I don't, I don't know.

I was three years old
during the Coventry Blitz,

and I can still hear the sound
of the, the air raid sirens,

a sort of permanent background hum.

And then there was silence, followed
by the sound of the all-clear.

And I can remember my mother
counting in the gaps

between the bombs falling.

Sorry, is this really boring?

No, no, I'm closing my eyes
so I can hear you properly.

Yes, yes, I do that sometimes.

And I am very, very stoned.

Go on, go on and on and on,
it's nice. No, it's not nice,

not nice at all, David.

Go on, you were talking about your
mother, please. Yes, yeah.

Well, she didn't pray, which was
strange because she was a devout

Catholic, she counted.

And I think
there was something very,

very potent within those spaces,
a sort of lifetime of faith

for my mother.

And, as a child, you don't know
what that is, of course.

And I think those experiences,

they must live in every cell
of your body.

FAINT AMBIENT MUSIC

Oh, I don't know,
it's just a silly theory.

AMBIENT DRONE

Stop! Stop, stop, stop...

No, no, I don't care...
What do you mean?

I like using...voices, just not

as conventional vocals.
What do you mean?

So, if, um, if somebody maybe,
in the background,

was having an orgasm...

Right. Yeah?

Then we should use it as one
of the waveforms

and then the listener will never
know what they're hearing.

DISTORTED SOUND EFFECTS

WOMAN CRIES

HEARTBEATS

SIREN AND SOUND EFFECTS

I mean, it's marvellous.

But, yes, they've turned it down.

What was the problem this time?

Well, you're not here most days,
are you?

But I'm here every day,
I work through the night.

What's that got to do with them?
Well, I can only assume

you have other priorities. I've
always preferred to work at night.

You know that. You've seen
how I work. Not recently, no.

It's too crowded in here,
Desmond, during the day.

There's too much work and there's
no space to work in.

Yes.

Well, according to this, it's, uh,
it's unforeseen circumstances

that have prevented them
from using the piece.

Desmond, they asked for a
light-hearted cartoon-like music for

a car-maintenance programme,
not the national bloody anthem.

Are we...are we wizards?

Are we...?

Electronic wizards. You know,
sound, sound wizards. Yeah...

Oh, and this...

..this sound here, right, Delia...

..it put me in mind of, like,
an electronic blizzard.

Oh, what, like a wizard
in a blizzard?!

LAUGHTER

Yeah.

Why, why not?

A wizard in a blizzard.

Yes, why not.

I mean, you might...you might laugh
but, listen, this album

could be a sonic rite of passage
for future generations.

Yeah? Yeah?

SHE LAUGHS

Just think of it.

It's a romantic triangle, OK?

Because there's, there's us in one
corner,

there's the music in the other.

And up here, right,

is the future listeners
who we're giving birth to

in this room right here, together.

It's...it's pure electronic sex.

Oh, yes! I love triangles!

I do love triangles. Look...

Yeah.

Mm.

And all their associated forms,
tripods, pyramids,

cones...

..and prisms. Yeah. Cones. Cones.

Yeah.

LAUGHTER

Prisms! Yeah.

Aren't we, Brian?

It's a triangle, isn't it?

It's a romantic triangle, Brian.

Bri...

TRIANGLE CHIMES

CHIME ECHOES

You know, I've always
been nonconformist.

I don't like, you know,
the eight-bar standard thing,

or the 12-bar blues.

They're beautiful in their way,

but why not explore
different phrase length?

Oh, I've exploded my Daleks.
Good. Where are you off to

in such a hurry, Delilah?

Brian Jones. Brian Jones is here.
I love him.

What, Brian "Rolling Stones" Jones?

I love him. No, look.

I've got him now. You can have him
later. Go and explode your Dalek.

Brian Jones?!

Goodness me.

There we were with our
12 oscillators,

hand-tuned oscillators.

And eight...circuits...

..and he sort of went to it...

..with his...

Oh, I remember him so vividly,
with his frilly cuffs, and things.

And he went to it so he could play
it as a musical instrument!

SHE LAUGHS

I think he was too spaced out!

AMBIENT MUSIC

I didn't want to go back
to cutting up tape,

because I was so against
tape machines.

I was incredibly romantic

and Brian and Delia
were very practical.

They really weren't interested
in the fact that

in the future, wonderful, exotic
things could be done by computers.

They were interested
in what could be done today.

The next item,
Partita For Unattended Computer,

by Peter Zinovieff, is a true live
performance in the sense that

no magnetic tape has
been used at all.

Furthermore, the computer
has a choice, at various stages

in the procedure, and the piece
therefore comes out different every

time it's played. The performance

you're about to hear is therefore
unique and unrepeatable.

First of all, checks are made...

VOICEOVER: Right from the beginning,

it never really clicked.

I don't think we quarrelled,
but just nothing happened.

Pity it didn't work out with Peter.
Hm. I think he's accepted

that we're all pulling
in different directions now.

I hope so. I think he's a genius.

I just can't work that way.

What do you think of his idea
for an unattended computer?

Well, it's very difficult to say.

I think it's thrilling as a concept.

But are the sounds
interesting enough?

He's a visionary, a futurist.

Hm.

LOW RUMBLING

Um. Toodaloo.

Golly.

What's that?

Oh, yeah...

Yeah, it's just, um, yeah,
I don't know.

I don't know.

I've just been, I've just
been working on it.

It's sort of like an electric bass,
but it's got

an electro conductive tape, here.

Yeah. I'm not sure yet.

I don't know.

I dunno. Could be good.
Interesting. Could be good.

Yeah. Could be. Yeah.

Good news. I've got good news.
Very good news.

Sit down. Sit down.

Oh, just tell us,
will you, I can't bear it.

I took some of the stuff we're
working on to my friend Chris

at Island Records,
and he absolutely loved it.

Absolutely loved it. Loved it.

Great. And he said,
"What do you want?"

And I said, "Well, we'd quite
like to do a single."

And then he said, "David, how much
do you think a single makes?"

I said, "I don't know, Chris.
I've really no idea."

He stopped me there.

And then then he said, "£3,000."

And, so, there and then,

he wrote me a cheque... No.
..for £3,000, said,

"He's your single.
Now, go make an album."

No! Yeah.

Oh, that's marvellous!
Yeah, yeah.

Well done, well done.

That's marvellous.

Let's hear it - come on.

Well done. Where is it?

# I'm just as high
in a rug looking up

# As I was in a cloud
looking down... #

Der, um, dum...

# Fire burn... #

Etc.

Yes, Brian arranged that,
a meeting with Chris Blackwell.

I think David had some contacts
at Island Records.

I spent as much time

as I could in the studio there,
which was on the top floor.

The living accommodation
was quite horrendous.

By then, Delia was getting
into sort of hippiedom.

The ceiling had a parachute draped
from it and she had a cat -

it had fleas, always.

So, we got our numbers together.

SHE SCREAMS

All right, all right, all right,
listen, listen...

Think about it, Jen,
right, your boyfriend,

he's just...he's just crashed
his car.

So, you're running away, in the
woods, somewhere off the A1,

through a lay-by.

You are wearing hardly any clothes.
Brutal rain, crashing down!

This is horrific.

So, so, give me some more. OK?

Give me more.

SHE SCREAMS

More!

SHE SCREAMS

SHE WAILS

Yeah...

Yes!

SHE WAILS

YES!

The rain is...

Blood and piss and rain...

SHE SCREAMS

SCREAMING CONTINUES

Is that the sort of thing?

That's incredible. Right...

Hey.

Hi, darling, hey!

Right.

I did a piece for
the Ballet Rambert,

and a couple of actresses

from the Royal Shakespeare Company
came over to record their voices.

And I remember we were...we'd
recorded them telling stories

of new experiences,
and stuff like that.

And, then, just the sounds
of laughing, crying, screaming...

..whispering - just about every
emotion you could think of.

And we were mixing these things
later, after everyone had left.

And, erm...

..oh, yeah, there was this banging
at the door, really violent

and I opened the door.

The police came in and pushed me
aside, searched the place.

When they found there wasn't anybody
there, they stopped and told me

what it was about.

They said there'd been a complaint
that somebody had heard a girl

being hysterically raped in my room.

So, this is what mixing tapes
in the night is.

The next day, the guy
underneath us dies,

and, less than a week later,
the guy next door dies.

And one of them was 98,
the other had cancer.

But that didn't stop
the people around saying

it's these new electronic sounds
that have done them in.

And we were like Frankensteins,

and the villagers had come
with their pitchforks,

you know, and we were evicted
from that place so damn fast.

WOMAN SOBS

CHANTING

EERIE AMBIENT MUSIC

ROCK AND ROLL DRUMS BEAT

AMBIENT VOICES

ROCK MUSIC PLAYS

Thank you.

Slob.

RADIO: The death has been announced
today of former the Rolling Stones

guitarist Brian Jones. He was found
dead at his parents' home

in Hatfield, East Sussex.

Yeah, I wept into my
washing-up bowl.

At that time, I was living
with David Vorhaus, I think.

At his parents' country home,
country retreat.

Oh, golly, all these people dying.

EERIE MUSIC

YOUNG GIRL: The land
at the bottom of the sea.

WOMAN: It wasn't a stormy sea
but it was a frightening sea.

And I had the sensation
that I was going to drown.

TRANSCENDENTAL MUSIC

MALE VOICE: The dream condition.

Mary, hello, how was your journey?

Oh, magnificent.

I took the 38 bus from Somers Town,

it was terribly easy.

Oh, Ada will be here soon.

I just...I don't know where to
begin.

You must have a clear idea
of where you want to end up.

Otherwise, you'll just be blown
about by every momentary

gust of feeling.

You must stand firm, my dear, and
accept that people will not like it.

Let's have a drink.

All the civilised women
of the present century are anxious

only to inspire love, when they
ought to have the nobler aim of

getting respect for
their abilities and virtues.

KNOCK ON DOOR
Oh, Ada, Ada.

Ada, Hello. Please come in.
Thank you for coming.

Mary's been helping me come
to terms with a broken heart.

I need to clarify my own wave
patterns and clear them

of all irrelevancies.

If anything is blocking that
process, your natural resonances

will be stifled.

Firstly, you must not wish
to have power over men.

But power over yourself.

Is that fair, Ada?

Yes, and perhaps not always happy,
perhaps, and not always fulfilled.

But at one with myself. Yes.

You need to find friends
in women and fellows in men.

Yes. I'll drink to that.

Your best and wisest refuge
from all troubles

is in your science, Delia.

Yes. Essential truth and beauty
through music.

Let the pattern of mathematics

be my road map to fulfilment.
And love,

by its very nature,
must be transitory.

So, to friendship. To friendship!
To friendship.

CLINKING SOUND RESONATES

WIND WHISTLES

FEMALE VOICE: It is raining women's
voices as if they were dead.

Sorry, sorry, it's just
a little too posh.

Uh, yes, that makes sense.
Do you want me to do it again?

Yeah.

It is raining - oh, hell,
that's not it at all. No.

It is raining. Women's voices...

Can we just do the whole thing...

There should be two of these.

I left... Did you take
the other one?

Bloody hell!

OK, that's enough, come on now,
everybody out. We're overheating.

Of course we are, because we're
sealed in here

like a tinned shepherd's pie.

Right, going out.

I can't stand
the sight of Desmond today.

Delia's depressions
grew out of pressure.

I mean, a depression is basically
when you back off from life,

you depress yourself away from it,
and I think that's

how it all started.

Everything was expected of Delia.
She was the, you know,

the clever girl at school.

She was... She shone
in everything she did.

She also, we must remember,
she was a mathematician,

and, very often, mathematicians
burn out quite early on in life.

And I think the circumstances
around her private life

were getting a bit complex.

I remember, at one point,
Ron Grainer saying to her,

"Delia, you drink too much."

And she said, "No, I don't."

It was self-medication,
to keep her calm I think.

And the trouble with any sort
of medication is it goes

on and on. They were
starting in the '70s.

You know, the late '60s and '70s,
and...

..went on, really, for the rest of
her life.

She was not a conformist in any way.

I did rebel against a lot of, um...

Ah! Yes, yes, I did.

I did all sorts of things
I was told I couldn't do.

Peter says it's not ready for
commercial use yet, may never be.

They just want to see
how we get on with it.

But the filters and oscillators
are much more stable than the VCS 3.

It's based around a combination of
three VCS 3 systems,

combined into one massive
synthesiser.

Well, you know, I'm sorry, Desmond,
but it's hopeless. Right...

DISCORDANT BEEPING

Listen, these sounds
have nothing to them.

I think we need to give it
a little bit more time to see

how you can help us.

Well... That's much faster.

Certainly won't help me.

It was called Delaware
or they wanted to call it Delaware.

So, it wasn't even
a Synthi 100, then.

We only made about 30,

35 or something.

But they're marvellous machines.

I was really looking forward
to having synthesisers

because I knew it would speed up
the work so much.

I was looking forward to being able
to do things much more quickly.

But I think I'm still disappointed
with synthesisers and what one can

do with them,
with the flexibility of them.

I think the trouble was she was
too in advance of her time.

Really, if you look back on it,
we all thought

it was the best thing
since sliced bread,

but it was a very primitive machine.

I'd still like to get inside it
somehow and make it do

a more human sound
than what it does.

We have a new commission,

from the Institute
of Electrical Engineers.

We are going to do
a radiophonic workshop in concert.

We can really show off
our Synthi 100, here.

So, let's wow them.

Remember, audience-wise,

while there will be a natural
interest in music, electronics,

and the arts, the social nature of
the event

and the presence of the ladies
will require that the programme

is not too technical,
but entertaining

and aesthetically pleasing.

So, Delia...

What are you doing?

Decomposing.

Mm.

This is a nightmare.

There's a deadline looming

and we haven't heard anything
from you yet.

Right.

HE CLEARS THROAT

Gladstone...

..congratulates Edison.

Morse code.

And a space rocket...

..taking off.

Use the scaffolding, fit it

where it fits.

It was a big, official number

which was being performed in front
of the Queen at the Festival Hall

and she'd been commissioned
to do a short piece

using the Delaware synthesiser,

which was, by then, you know,
that was the bee's knees

of modern equipment.

I began by interpreting
the actual letters,

IEE100, in two different ways.

The first one in
a Morse code version

using the Morse for IEE100.

This I found extremely dull
rhythmically.

MORSE CODE PATTERN PLAYS ON A LOOP

That's just awful.
It's just awful!

It's just bad.

SHE SWITCHES MUSIC OFF

SYNTHESISER SOUNDS

SHE SIGHS

TAPE REWINDS

And I said to him, whatever you do,
when you get to the final mix,

run tapes in the next door studio
as well, don't tell her.

Run duplicates and bring me
the duplicates yourself.

PHONE RINGS

Did you get it on with the machine?

Well done.

I most definitely suffered
from what I'd call

reverse adrenaline.

ECHOING: Reverse adrenaline...

When a project deadline got closer,
my output slowed down enormously

and there were just
other things to do.

But I went to the event.
I did my bit.

Though I was furious
with Brian at the time.

I think it went well.

The Queen liked it, apparently.

I'm not even sure she stayed
till the end.

I certainly didn't.

I've tried to get into it a feeling
of simplicity and loneliness.

Of a man on a moon.

It's...it's anaemic.

We'll play it to them
and then we'll see.

The programme's going into colour
now and there's a new Doctor.

So? It's my job to make sure
that we stay afloat

under this particular regime.

CACOPHONOUS SOUNDS

The world went out of tune
with itself.

Looking back, there was something
at that time, '72, '73, '74,

that went wrong.

It's hard to say why I left.

Self-preservation, I think.

I finally left the Workshop in 1973.

I don't have any bitterness.

I made my own choices.

DISTORTED BIRDSONG

Can you hear what I hear?

Partly why she left the BBC was
there was a lot of pressure on her

and at the same time no recognition.

I think I met Delia in '72.

I got on quite well with her.

We looked at Circle Of Light
and listened to the soundtrack.

And I was very impressed.

I said, OK, I'd like to work
with her. So, we went to a pub.

We asked her up to collaborate on
our first film, One Of These Days,

which I made with Elsa Stansfield.

And she was telling, you know,
that she was really fed up

with the BBC and wanted
to do her own things,

and very curious to hear about
the film, and what we wanted to do,

that she could come
to the Netherlands, and like that.

She felt no restrictions

and I think that appealed
very much to her.

She was totally free.

MUSIC: Circle Of Light, Part 2 by
Delia Derbyshire and Elsa Stansfield

I just had to sleep. To me,
everything was out of tune

in the world, so I'd go as far north
in England as I can,

so, I went there.
I had a lovely house

built from stones and Hadrian's
wall, yeah.

SHE CHUCKLES

Crazy, crazy, crazy!

London needs you, Delilah, darling.

I've set up my studio permanently
now at 8, 9 and 10 Studios,

Neal's Yard, Covent Garden.

I've called it Electrophon.

Perhaps I could lure you back.

With love from B.

Please get in touch.

I miss you.

I was in a disused quarry.

They advertised for
a French-speaking radio operator.

And, as soon as I saw the word
"radio," I applied.

Bonjour.

Delia went to work originally

on the gas pipeline

that was being laid across Cumbria.

It was all around sound

and language.

She was a French speaker

and would have been bilingual.

She told me that she'd met
her husband when he was laying

the gas pipelines.

We kept in touch after Delia
left for Cumbria

and went to marry a local man
there in Gilsland.

It looked like they'd nothing
in common apart from the drinking.

There wasn't much else.
They were so different.

And I think, in a little village,
like she was,

people thought she was
some kind of screwball, really.

Delia broke up with her husband.

It was inevitable, it was always
going to happen,

and she went to the LYC
and got some work there.

It was an incredible place.

She moved into an environment
which was much more her

because it was artists,
and stimulation, and things to do.

I think Delia is one of those people
that I met in life

a bit like a meteor, really.

It was this incredible flash,

this woman who did all these things

and then just went,

but I won't ever forget her.

I lived and worked with one of
the first group

of Chinese abstract artists,
Li Yuan-chia,

at his art gallery and museum
by Hadrian's Wall.

Well, Li was
a very hard working man,

and not really a people person,

you know, kind of shy and afraid.

And his LYC was really his artwork.

The museum was his artwork,
like a social sculpture.

And it was also kind of a space
where you could drink tea

in a library, and where children
could play.

So it was a very open space
with a lot of good exhibitions.

But I met also Winifred Nicholson
through him.

Li got the first building partly
through Winifred.

Did you really convert
this place single-handedly?

No.

All the help I need comes
from the birds

and my good friend
Winifred Nicholson.

Let's play a game.

We each write in only two words

the absolute essence of something,

or nothing. Like your cosmic point.

Yes, then we throw the paper
and pass to the next person.

And am I right in saying that
the cosmic point is not an object,

but a proposition
about space and time?

GIGGLING

OK, so, shall I read them out?

I've done two because
I couldn't decide. Yes.

A dot, a prism, an octave.

HE LAUGHS

A concrete poem.

Do you think perhaps we've written
the same thing?

CHORAL SINGING

NEWSREEL: I condemn all
contraception...

Euro pollution control
has failed to neutralise its...

OVERLAPPING POP SONGS PLAY

Let me read it to you,
it's quite funny.

"Delia Derbyshire,
who battled depression..."

Did I? Golly, maybe I did.

"Died aged only 64 in 2001."

Yes. That was a shame.

"She was the godmother of
electronic dance music."

No idea about any of that.
Sounds good, doesn't it?

"A hopeless alcoholic."

Actually, I was rather
a successful alcoholic.

Who writes this stuff?
Really, honestly.

"She carried out pioneering work
for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

"in the early 1960s,

"producing the familiar Doctor Who
signature theme."

Will they ever stop
going on about that?

I very much doubt it.
"And collaborating with Brian Jones

"and Jimi Hendrix and others."

Hardly! I glimpsed Jimi once
and had a chat with Brian.

Oh, I loved him and his frilly
cuffs, but who didn't.

"Miss Derbyshire was also
a woman of her times,

"clad in Biba" - never
- "and Mary Quant."

What, on my wages?

"Her hair in a Vidal Sassoon bob."
Wrong.

Too busy for hairstyles. "A fixture
of parties of swinging London."

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Here we go.
Now, this is why I'm here, you see.

"She left the BBC
a disillusioned woman."

No, I didn't.

"She struggled with drink."

It was never a struggle,
always a pleasure.

"Had a series of unsuitable jobs."

I had some lovely ones,
as a matter of fact.

"At one time, she married
an out-of-work miner."

It was a blip,
and he wasn't a miner.

"But settled in the Midlands where
she lived in relative obscurity

"and would rail between drinks."
SHE LAUGHS

Wrong!

Golly, am I glad I came back.

Otherwise...

..who designs the myths?

MUSIC: Circle of Light by Delia
Derbyshire and Elsa Stansfield

The sun starts to emerge.

It's only now that in perspective
that people are saying...

..how important it was.

But for the kids! I mean,
just for the children, like you.

MUSIC: Circle of Light by
Delia Derbyshire and Elsa Stansfield

Egypt, reel three and one closing!