Summary

This conversation delves into the archive of Delia Derbyshire, a pioneering figure in electronic music, and the challenges faced in preserving her extensive body of work. It highlights the Delia Derbyshire and Delia Derbyshire Day archives, exploring the content and importance of this heritage collection. The key value here guiding us is curiosity. With special segments Delia's Dessert Discs and our 2025 team of volunteers describing their visit to the archives. 

Host Charlie Linton (2023 volunteer, archivist) explores the heritage connected with Delia Derbyshire Day with guests Jess Smith (archivist and curator at John Rylands Library, Manchester, England) and Mark Ayres (composer,BBC Radiophonic Workshop archivist, trustee for Delia Derbyshire Day). 

Takeaways

The physical storage of Delia's archive collection included unconventional items like cereal boxes.

Labels on tapes deteriorated, complicating the preservation process.

Understanding the contents of the boxes required significant effort.

The archival process is as much about discovery as it is about preservation.

Delia's creative process involved a lot of experimentation and iteration.

The importance of proper labelling in archival work.

Many of Delia's recordings were works in progress, not final products.

The conversation sheds light on the broader implications of audio preservation.

Preserving audio history is important for understanding the evolution of music.

Keywords

Delia Derbyshire, Delia Derbyshire Day, BBC, sound preservation, audio restoration, archival work, music history, electronic music, tape preservation, audio labels, creative process

Chapters

00:12 Intro

00:40 Special segment – our 2025 volunteers visit the archives

03:49: My guests, context about the Delia Derbyshire archive

08:30 Why archives sit within these institutions and preservation for future generations

10:01 Materials in the Delia Derbyshire archive

14:22 Delia Derbyshire Day archive

15:56 How Delia Derbyshire Day has increased access to Delia Derbyshire archive

16:53 Stand out items from Delia Derbyshire and Delia Derbyshire Day archives

19:57 Music makers archiving their work

21:28 Delia's Dessert Discs

24:09 Outro

Acknowledgements
This podcast series was designed by our trustees and our wonderful team of younger volunteers for 2025. We want to present a range of voices and perspectives so we have a variety of hosts and guests who are involved with our work. We also want to keep it fun and accessible, so have kept the conversations around 20 minutes long and inserted quirky segments like ‘Did you know?’ and Delia’s Dessert Discs. This series was produced by our 2025 volunteers and Caro C with thanks to funding support from National Lottery Heritage Fund. Podcast theme and 'Did you know?' segment music created by Caro C featuring sounds from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop virtual instrument by Spitfire Audio.

And finally, thank you to Delia for being an inspiration.

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