{"id":216,"date":"2015-04-30T10:35:30","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T10:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shindig-mag.com\/?p=216"},"modified":"2015-04-30T10:51:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T10:51:28","slug":"the-radiophonic-workshop-queen-elizabeth-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=216","title":{"rendered":"The Radiophonic Workshop – Queen Elizabeth Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

The seminal electronics troupe continues its 21st century renaissance, 50 years after its inception<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday April 17th, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Radiophonic Workshop. Photo by Clifford Jones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once a faceless group of studio-bound improvisers toiling to fulfil the audio needs of the mid-century BBC, the musicians of The Radiophonic Workshop are happily spending their unretirement gracing the stages of festivals, universities, and glorious 20th century cathedrals of music like this one. The transformation is nothing short of joyful. And it only took 50\u00a0years.<\/p>\n

Original members including Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland and Peter Howell have, of course, become cult figures to lovers of early electronica. Their live ranks are swollen by the addition of drummer and relative youngster Kieron Pepper, the thunderous, animated centre of a crowded stage. In fact I\u2019ve never before been to a gig where members of the audience\u2014hip architects and trench-coated Dr Who fans\u2014struggle to take photos of the equipment\u2019s blinking lights before the band have even arrived. But the Workshop engender a special kind of love.<\/p>\n

You might expect this to be an exercise in nostalgia, and indeed all our childhood scares\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u2018The Changes\u2019, \u2018Doctor Who\u2019 (for the impatiently baying Whooligans)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0are terrifyingly revisited. But it\u2019s the new material, from the recent Society Of Sound<\/em> album and the upcoming Electricity<\/em>, that is the real treat; funky, inventive, unsettling, it\u2019s as accomplished as anything from their enormous back catalogue.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a real shame that none of the Workshop\u2019s pioneering women survive to share the stage with these gentlemen, but it\u2019s also clear that they don\u2019t just look back, instead remaining fixed on providing an evolving soundtrack to our weird future. Long may they do so.<\/p>\n

Christopher Budd<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The Radiophonic Workshop\u00a0live at the UK launch of the ARP Odyssey<\/p>\n