Ufo Gerry Anderson

From death defying heroics to fantastic visions of the future and adventures beyond imagination. For decades the world has been enthralled by the television and film productions of Gerry Anderson. Perhaps the one thing which binds this remarkable canon of work together is an incredible tapestry of music which enriches each series and instalment. Despite all the impressive techniques and technical wizardry employed by Derek Meddings and his special effects crew, Stingray’s launch wouldn't have half the impact if robbed of Barry Gray’s sweeping crescendo. Similarly, the ponderous ache of the Alphans plight and a police cruiser chase in Demeter City are brought to life by their respective musical accompaniments. The Stand By For Action! concert in April 2022 was a celebration of this incredible body of music which helped to bring life to some of the most popular television series ever made. This sensational show transported fans through over 60 years of the Gerry Anderson back catalogue, paying homage to his special partnership with composers including Barry Gray, Richard Harvey and Crispin Merrell.

After a decade of creating pioneering puppet series made for children, Gerry & Sylvia Anderson took their first steps into live-action, with the 1969 feature film Doppelgänger (re-titled outside Britain as Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun). This science-fiction film approached its outer space subject matter with a gritty realism, and would set the tone for what was to be their first live-action television series: UFO. This new series took as a starting point the pioneering work of Dr Christiaan N. Barnard, the surgeon who performed the world’s first heart transplant operation.

Gerry Anderson and Christopher Burr’s Terrahawks turns 40 this autumn. On Saturday 8 October 1983, Terrahawks was broadcast for the very first time on ITV. The cult show was Anderson’s first in over a decade to use puppets for its characters, and also his last. Set in the year 2020, the series followed the adventures of the Terrahawks, a taskforce responsible for protecting Earth from invasion by a group of extraterrestrial androids and aliens led by Zelda. Like Anderson’s previous puppet series, futuristic vehicles and technology featured prominently in each episode.

Following releases of the UFO and Supercar soundtracks, Thunderbirds is the third in the series from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's iconic TV shows. It is newly compiled, mastered and designed by the creative team at Fanderson (The Official Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Appreciation Society), who have access to Barry Gray's original studio tapes. The album features 37 tracks from 19 episodes (series 1 and 2), including the Thunderbirds main theme and closing titles. The tracks were not programmed to follow the episode order but to achieve an integrated listening experience. The best bits of the sixties' soundscapes are here. The Thunderbirds soundtrack is an effective time capsule as Gray's music veers into British spy genre, Latin pop, exotica, urban jazz and military marches. Beautifully composed and conducted, the score reflects the moods of the scenes, from dangerous to romantic and no-nonsense to silly. Barry Gray was a classically trained composer and a versatile musician, and was amongst the first composers to use electronic instruments in music for television. Best known for creating the music for most of the Gerry & Sylvia Anderson television series in the 1960's and 70's (Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, UFO, Space:1999), Barry Gray's complete musical opus is still not commercially available in it's entirety.