Made at the Transcription Centre in London that was established by Dennis Duerden,[1] the recordings were broadcast throughout Africa and sometimes on the BBC World Service.
Contributors include Wole Soyinka, Dennis Brutus, Lenrie Peters, John Pepper Clark, Richard Rive, Raymond Kunene, Chinua Achebe, Kofi Awoonor, Cosmo Pieterse, Ama Ata Aidoo, Chris McGregor and the Blue Notes, Dudu Pukwana, and Abdullah Ibrahim.
Interviewees include sculptors Elisabeth Frink and Eduardo Paolozzi; painters Terry Frost, Paula Rego and Michael Rothenstein; photographers Grace Robertson, Mari Mahr and Helen Chadwick; and architects Denys Lasdun, Ralph Erskine, Edward Hollamby and Patrick Gwynne.
It also features oral history interviews with significant figures in the worlds of music, radio, and the recording industry – with a focus on backroom innovators who have rarely enjoyed the limelight.
Popular among city workers, guests included Enoch Powell on race, Diana Rigg on single parentage, A. J. Ayer on moral responsibility, Edna O’Brien on fear, and Germaine Greer on free will.
There is also a wealth of material by famous Guinean artists who, as they were never commercially recorded, are virtually unknown outside of Guinea, including Farba Tela (an inspiration to Ali Farka Touré), Mama Kanté, Binta Laaly Sow, Koubia Jazz, and Jeanne Macauley.