Electronic Sound Magazine Issue 59 Retour à l'édition précédente

Delia Derbyshire was starting to make tentative moves back into the public eye when she passed away in July 2001. She was just 64 years old. If she was still around, perhaps she would have been able to fill in the gaps of her creative life for biographers. Instead, those apparent voids have often been filled with supposition, received wisdom and myth.

In contrast to the popular romantic narrative of her life, Delia Derbyshire never stopped making music. Part of the problem is that anything she did after the ‘Doctor Who’ theme would suffer for not being the ‘Doctor Who’ theme. No one could have predicted the impact of that TV theme tune or that it would still be revered nearly 60 years after it first blasted into popular culture from the mono speakers of black and white television sets in 1963.

So with this issue we’re going to add to the legend, celebrating her work of the 1960s and beyond as she is honoured by Delia Derbyshire Day this month. Hopefully, we’re able to share a well-rounded picture, thanks to Dr David Butler’s extensive research into her life and archives, the memories of her from BBC Radiophonic Workshop colleagues Dick Mills and Roger Limb, and from her friend David Vorhaus, who she worked with as White Noise, pursuing her more counter-culture impulses.

Elsewhere this month, we have a guided tour of the new Moogseum in Asheville, North Carolina, the home of Dr Moog in his later years, we chat with the excellent Kim Gordon about her debut solo album (what kept her, right?), join Steve Davis (yes, that one) with his Utopia Strong bandmates, then there’s William Doyle, Dave Clarkson, Little Boots, Josh Wink, a bumper reviews section, our usual round up of the latest gadgets, books, gear and the like… that’s the full electronic gamut run we think you’ll agree.