Featuring [our emphasis] unpublished recordings of talks and debates with top cultural, artistic and political figures of the day, this latest addition to the JISC-funded Archival Sound Recordings website offers a chance to explore in detail cultural directions in the UK of the late 20th century.
* Unpublished talks and debates with leading cultural figures published online for the first time
* Over 880 recordings – that's 1000 hours
* Recordings date from 1981 to 1994
* Subjects discussed include art, literature, performance, fashion, film, music, philosophy, psychology, biology, feminism, AIDS and politics
+ Salman Rushdie and Tariq Ali discuss Rushdie's novel Shame and swap improbable anecdotes from Pakistan, such as the village that walked into the sea (1983).
+ Writer and raconteur Quentin Crisp talks to Adam Mars-Jones about his ‘divine guide to good behaviour', Manners from Heaven and describes the vast differences in etiquette between London and New York (1984).
+ Composer Steve Reich talks about his early influences: Bach, Stravinsky, Charlie Parker and - for his exceptional sense of time - jazz drummer Kenny Clarke (1986).
+ Ken Livingstone, former head of the Greater London Council (GLC) and future Mayor of London, describes the GLC's radical approach of involving women's groups, ethnic minorities and gay, lesbian and bisexual groups in the governance of London in the 1980s. (1987)
+ British horror writer James Herbert discusses quitting his job in advertising to become a best-selling horror writer almost overnight, with science fiction and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman (1988).
+ Socio-biologist Richard Dawkins defends the more controversial aspects of sociobiology which attempts to explain human behaviour in terms of genetic make-up (1984).
+ Graphic novelist Alan Moore discusses wilfully destroying the superhero myth with Watchmen and how he made the ‘pile of walking compost' - known as Swamp Thing - sexy (1987).
+ Cartoonist Steve Bell describes the influence of Popeye, the Beano and Robert Crumb in his early life, the importance of the Falklands War and why he likes drawing penguins (1987).
+ Neurologist Oliver Sacks and composer Michael Nyman discuss the process of turning Sacks' medical anecdote The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat into an opera (1986).
At the bottom of this news release, you'll see lists of some of the other people who are included in the archive.
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