Britain in the 1950s was a bleak place, as the nation struggled to rebuild itself after the devastation of war. Food rationing had continued right up until 1954, when bananas finally came back on sale; anything worth having was still in short supply. We now think of the ’50s as the rock & roll years, but the UK charts for 1958 tell quite a different story. Elvis was there for a few weeks; so was Jerry Lee Lewis — but the chart is mostly dominated by the likes of Perry Como, Connie Francis and Vick Damone. It was a dull time for music, but things were about to get more interesting…
If you grew up in the UK and are aged between about 25 and 80, then chances are your first exposure to experimental electronic music came via the sounds of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Here, in superb detail, is their story, courtesy of Sound on Sound.
[You can also watch this BBC documentary on Youtube, in six parts.]
