Great Lives - Comedian Stewart Lee on Derek Bailey
Download Comedian Stewart Lee on Derek Bailey
"The area I mostly work in is generally known as free - the free music area. And free is one of those four letter words, like rock or jazz or punk maybe. It started out meaning something." Derek Bailey
Born in 1930 in Sheffield, Bailey worked as a session musician in dance bands and orchestras before turning his back on that world. Free improvisation was where he made his name, and he took inspiration from whatever he heard. Stewart Lee first heard him in the 1990s and spoke at his funeral in 2005.
"Are there any parallels between his approach and yours?"
"There probably are ... in that I've copied him."
Also contains the voices of Ian Greaves and Tim Fletcher, a brief clip of Mastermind, and a recording of Derek Bailey's collaborator in the Joseph Holbrooke Trio, Gavin Bryars. Stewart Lee is a comedian and writer, the presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde.
We regret that this description barely scrapes the surface of the wonder of this episode - the ideas, the music, the archive, the brief row.
Published on Monday, 13th October 2025.
Available Podcasts from Great Lives
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