Re: delia derbyshire video

[Tony Douglas <tonyisyourpal@yahoo.co.uk>]

Hi there,


--- On Sun, 20/7/08, tEd ® KiLLiAn <tedkillian@charter.net> wrote:

> I guess the story goes that although Ron Grainer was given
> the original 
> task of creating the score for the show, he subsequently
> heard some of 
> Derbyshire's music and (humbly and appropriately)
> realized it would be 
> even more perfect for the job. However, Delia was not a
> member of the 
> musician's union (or some other politic requisite of
> the time) and the 
> BBC was forced by said organization to delete or
> "demote" her in the 
> end credits (not being a supposedly accredited
> "musician" - no category 
> for "electronic musician" existing at the time).

I've heard this story told several times (including Ron Grainer's "Did I 
write that ?" and Delia's "Most of it" response, when he first heard the 
finished theme), but this is the first time the Musician's Union has been 
mentioned. There's an interview with Delia here -> 
http://web.archive.org/web/20060517133312/http://www.sonicartsnetwork.org/ARTICLES/ARTICLE2000JoHutton.html
 where she says ...

"I did the Dr Who theme music mostly on the Jason valve oscillators. Ron 
Grainer brought me the score. He expected to hire a band to play it, but 
when he heard what I had done electronically, he’d never imagined it 
would be so good. He offered me half of the royalties, but the BBC 
wouldn’t allow it. I was just on an assistant studio manager’s salary 
and that was it.... and we got a free radio times. The boss wouldn’t let 
anybody have any sort of credit."

> Plus it probably 
> didn't help that she was a woman edging in on an
> "old boy's" network 
> either.

Probably closer to the mark, given the trouble of getting into sound 
recording in the first place.

> So, Grainer has been given public credit over the
> years for 
> music that was likely entirely Delia Derbyshire's and
> she given the 
> patriarchal pat-on-the-head (slap in the face) as in the
> "realized by" 
> credit. To give Grainer own credit, I understand it was he
> who fought 
> for her to be given full credit at first . . .   and at
> least that much 
> as a compromise (the union and the BBC intended to leave
> her off 
> altogether).
> 
> Look it all up on Wikipedia sometime.
> 

Indeed. For the curious there is also a tribute website at 
http://www.delia-derbyshire.org, and a tribute page on MySpace. There's 
also a recent BBC article including some audio clips here -> 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7512072.stm

Oh, and as to Doctors ... Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker. It gets increasingly 
naff after that (Bonnie Langford as an assistant !?!?!?!?!)

- Tony




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