The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was for me the absolute epitome - the pinnacle - of electrical/electronic and aural wonderment during the 60's, '70's and 80's.  It always amazed me (and made me somewhat non-plussed most of the time!) how these genius's came up with all these wonderful noises - and having an interest in almost everything electro-mechanical, spent a good deal of time trying to find out!

What I did find out was that the people employed in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop were - and still are - some of the foremost artists (and terribly undercredited!) in this genre of music and the methodology used to construct it.  Sadly most of the early pioneers like Delia Derbyshire are now not with us anymore and since the disbanding of the workshop only a few (that are left) are either retired, or working still as composers.

The Workshop was an integral part of the BBC - and out television lives - for well over fourty years and led the field many, many times in it's lifespan.  It's a great pity that this has gone mostly unnoticed by the General Public (and even the BBC - the 50 year anniversary this year yielded a couple of quick pieces on TV and a few web pages), however you could say that this is a good thing - they've obviously done their job very well, otherwise they would have had a certain notoriety to their work - which there clearly isn't!

It's also a great pity (and very, very sad) that hardly anyone that worked at the Workshop has ever had any credit!  Medals, OBE's, MBE's and the like are handed out willy-nilly to anyone nowadays who runs a race!  Where would we have been without Delia's Derbyshire's realisation of the Doctor Who theme, Brian Hodgeson's TARDIS sounds, Malcom Clarke's wrangling with the Delware and Dick Mills' many many sound effects??  Surely at least one of the people who worked at the Workshop deserves some sort of recognition....Sir Richard Mills......sounds good to me.....

Many many webpages since the demise of the Workshop have sung the praises of this incredible department of the BBC - this is just one of many and I hope it will be useful in providing an insight into the work of these pioneers of electronic music.

Alan Woodward 12th September 2008.