Brian Hodgson

Brian Hodgson Is A British Television Composer And Sound Technician. Born In Liverpool Hodgson Joined The BBC Radiophonic Workshop In 1962 Where He Became The Original Sound Effects Creator For The Science Fiction Programme Doctor Who. His Main Claim To Fame Is For Producing The Sound Of TARDIS Which He Created By Running The Back Door Key To His Mother's House Along A Bass String Of A Gutted Piano Then Electronically Treating The Recording. He Continued To Produce Effects For The Programme Until 1972 When He Left The Workshop Leaving Dick Mills To Produce Effects For The Remainder Of The Show's Run. Earlier In 1966 With Fellow Workshop Musician Delia Derbyshire And EMS Founder Peter Zinovieff He Helped Set Up Unit Delta Plus An Organisation Which They Intended To Use To Create And Promote Electronic Music. Based In A Studio In Zinovieff's Townhouse In Putney They Exhibited Their Music At A Few Experimental And Electronic Music Festivals Including The Million Volt Light And Sound Rave At Which The Beatles' "Carnival Of Light" Had Its Only Public Playing. After A Troubled Performance At The Royal College Of Art In 1967 The Unit Disbanded. Also In The Late Sixties Hodgson And Derbyshire Along With Fellow Musician David Vorhaus Set Up The Kaleidophon Studio In Camden Town. The Studio Produced Electronic Music For Various London Theatres And In 1968 The Three Used It To Produce Their First Album As The Band White Noise. Although Later Albums Were Essentially Solo Vorhaus Albums The Debut An Electric Storm Featured Collaborations With Hodgson And Derbyshire And Is Now Considered An Important And Influential Album In The Development Of Electronic Music. During This Period The Trio Also Contributed Using Pseudonyms To The Standard Music Library. Most Famously On "Electrosonic" With Delia Derbyshire Alias Li De La Russe And Don Harper. Many Of These Recordings Including Compositions By Hodgson Using The Name "Nikki St. George" Were Later Used On The Seventies ITV Science Fiction Rivals To Doctor Who The Tomorrow People And Timeslip. After Leaving The Radiophonic Workshop He Set Up The Electrophon Studio With John Lewis In Covent Garden Where He Was Later Joined By Derbyshire. In 1973 He Worked With The Doctor Who Composer Dudley Simpson Under The Name Electrophon On The Album "In A Covent Garden" Sometimes Credited To The Unexploded Myth . It Featured Hodgson And Simpson's Arrangements Of Several Classical Compositions For Synthesisers And A 16 Piece Orchestra. Their Versions Of Tchaikovsky's None But The Weary Heart And Debussy's "La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin" Later Appeared In The Doctor Who Serial "The Robots Of Death". The Duo Also Released The Albums Zygoat In 1972 And Further Thoughts On The Classics In 1974. In 1975 Hodgson Collaborated With John Lewis Under The Name Wavemaker On An Album Of Experimental Synthesizer Work Named "Where Are We Captain?" And Later In 1977 On "New Atlantis". Besides Records Hodgson Also Spent His Time At The Studio Writing Scores For Ballet And Film Including With Derbyshire The Music For The 1973 Horror Film The Legend Of Hell House. In 1977 Leaving The Electrophon Studio In The Hands Of Lewis He Returned To The Radiophonic Workshop To Replace Desmond Briscoe As Its Organiser. In 1983 He Became The Head Of The Department Remaining There Until Circumstances Forced Him To Resign In 1995. read less