Stand By For Action

This CD contains eighty minutes of themes and incidental music written by Barry Gray for Gerry Anderson's TV series of the 1960s and 70s. The CD is accompanied by a generous and colourful set of sleevenotes comprising fourteen pages about the series and the music, but not enough about Gray himself and how he came to write for Anderson.I was born in 1965, so for me this CD was purchased for the music from `Thunderbirds' and thereafter. But Gray's musical style is clearly evident right near the beginning in his work for `Supercar' (1961), where riffs from the title song would appear later in music written for `Thunderbirds'. Similarly, a four-note sequence in the music for `Stingray' often appeared in `Space 1999'. But Gray was no mere musical regurgitator, as he clearly continued to come up with some great themes in differing styles and arrangements that suited the period when each series was first conceived: in this way, he was always hip!Although many of the earlier tracks are in mono, remastering has done wonders for the sound quality. I was disappointed to find that the `Thunderbirds' set on this CD does not include the theme used when the boys get into their ships, but at least I have a thrillingly-arranged version recorded by Geoff Love and his orchestra on his `Star Wars & Other Space Themes'. (And I consider that Geoff Love's arrangement of the `UFO' theme is actually better than the original.)For the second series of `Space 1999', the producers brought in Barry Wadsworth to provide a new theme. That music too is very good, but somehow - as with much else of that second series - the changes made meant that something was missing. Barry Gray was thus the auditory `face' of Anderson's programmes, and was just as much a genius as many of the rest of the technical team.

Any boy born in the 1950s (like myself) must have been enthralled with Gerry Anderson's wonderful television programmes as they grew up. They were fun and exciting and the thing that bound everything together was the wonderful and very talented Barry Gray and his music.Here is an exceptional selection of titles taken from the Anderson series following on from Torchey the Battery Boy (which I vaguely remember).Barry not only composed but arranged his own material. Although much of the music is of its time, it still works so well. He uses the twist when it was the latest thing. He also adopted the five-four time signature (when Dave Brubeck had his hit 'Take Five' in the pop charts) to compose music for the background of episodes of Fireball XL5 (yes 5 again!) I remember this very fondly and it is called 'Formula 5'. Michael Holliday and Gary Miller were of course famous pop singers of the time and they too provided their talents for incidental music and theme songs.If I was being petty I would have liked 'Two Gun Tex from Texas' featuring Holliday and a couple more of the great tunes used in Thunderbirds such as 'Jeremiah', 'That Dangerous Game' 'The Man from MI5' etc but everything else seems to be here. There are other Barry Gray compilations but if you are buying only one this is it. Great music, great sound and great memories.

Barry Gray doesn't get the recognition he deserves.His title tunes for classic programmes such as Joe 90, Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, UFO and the earlier Space 1999 series all set the tone for what was to follow.It's all about the music though. When present, the lyrical content wasn't great, but as a child that's not important.This album also includes some of the background themes from within the episodes and if you like a bit of 60's electronic organ check out the incidental music for UFO.Also includes some earlier programs that most listeners might not know, but since there are 40 tracks on this CD and by track 6 we get to Fireball XL5 they don't take up too much space.Although when I say '40 tracks' that includes the 3 second track "Stand by for action!" which just says that and should in my opinion be part of the Stingray theme (38 seconds) where it would normally be heard when watching that program.Most tracks are on the short side and it would have been nice to hear some longer versions, but even so this is a great album that brings back childhood memories of exiting TV.

I saw Barry Grey at a Fanderson convention way back in 1982, he was there, he had to apologise for the lack of the piano he had asked for, so he resorted to singing the music on his own, great laughs all round as he sung fireball xl5 theme to us from a sheet of paper. The sounds of Mr Grey are unique and Gerry Anderson tv series would surely not get the applause they do if this were missing. The orchestra works for it's living on these tracks as the likes of Stingray, Thunderbirds and captain Scarlet seem to try to escape to confines of the speaker cabinet, when Stingray comes on I expect my block of flats to descend into an underground bunker, or as with Scarlet, no more graveyards in the fog thank you. Good old fashioned work done by a real band, Lady Penelope will be round later in the Rolls Royce so have you're FAB ice lolly handy, they're only 6d.