Discography Workshop is my sprawling review of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s discography. This is mainly for BBC Enterprises releases, although this will extend a little further to include other record labels.
Each part covers a group of similar releases. Sometimes sub-parts focus on a single release for even more in-depth investigation. And these are deep explorations. On the whole, I’m paying attention to the details of the production of these pieces and the records. Objective analysis, rather than subjective criticism. I want to find out everything I can about the special sounds which were committed to vinyl, tape and CD by the Radiophonic Workshop.
As I have dug further into the histories of the Workshop I’ve also unearthed interesting stories about Radiophonic things which are not directly related to record releases. To avoid making the posts more cumbersome and long-winded than they already are I started moving some of these side-tracks to a new series. Discursive Workshop is where I can digress from records and just roam around the studios of Maida Vale to see what I can find.
| Part 1 | Radiophonic Compilations |
| Discographic Workshop Part 1 | In this first post, I rattle through all the compilation albums. |
| Part 2 | Solo Albums |
| Discographic Workshop Part 2A – Solo Albums | Narrow Boats, The Seasons, Music By David Cain From Four Radio Plays and Language Courses |
| Discographic Workshop Part 2B – Fourth Dimension | Paddy Kingsland’s synthesizer music LP, Fourth Dimension and lots about test-cards |
| Discographic Workshop Part 2C | More solo albums including Through A Glass Darkly and The Living Earth |
| Part 3 | Doctor Who Records |
| Discographic Workshop Part 3A – Doctor Who Theme (RESL 11) | The story of the greatest TV theme of all time and its first BBC Records release as a single. |
| Discographic Workshop Part 3B – The World of Doctor Who | The story of the oddity of a Doctor Who music and effect collage on the b-side of a failed sci-fi series theme tune – and lots of Dudley Simpson! |
| Discographic Workshop Part 3C – Doctor Who: Not The Music | The sound effects of Doctor Who |
| Discographic Workshop Part 3D – Doctor Who Radiophonic Music | When the Doctor Who musical soundtrack finally went fully Radiophonic |
| Part 4 | Sound Effects |
| Discographic Workshop Part 4A – Goons | Radiophonic Sound effect(s) for The Goons |
| Discographic Workshop Part 4B – Sound Effects LPs | Radiophonic Sound Effects LPs on BBC Records |
| Discographic Workshop Part 4C – Sound Effects Centre | Radiophonic effects for the BBC Sound Effect Centre 7″ discs. |
| Part 5 | Chrildren’s & Themes |
| Discographic Workshop Part 5 – Childrens and Themes | Records for children and themes Radiophonic |
| Part 6 | Eclectic |
| Discographic Workshop Part 6 – Eclectic | Everything else: Easy, Comedy, Religious etc. |
| Part 7 | Lost & Found |
| Discographic Workshop Part 7 – The Lost Records | Radiophonic Records that never were or came much later. |
| Part 8 | Before BBC Records |
| Some Radiophonic records appeared before the BBC released their own | |
| Part 9 | Archive Programme Library Discs |
| Radio programmes about the RWS on library discs |