Anything can happen in the next two and a half hours
It's a cold, wet and windy Saturday evening. An ominously dark River Thames snakes its way past the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank. People scamper inside, seeking shelter and warmth from the inhospitable autumnal weather. Suddenly, a crack of thunder, the flash of lightning, Brian Blessed's voice booms around the inside of the packed auditorium, counting down from five, to tell us that Thunderbird's are GO!
The Philharmonia Orchestra led by Francois Evans, blast off into a blistering rendition of the opening titles of Gerry Anderson's seminal classic and start a night of celebration for the centenary of composer Barry Gray.
Before the concert, I asked Mr Anderson how important he thought the musical score was to his work, he replied that like anything, the special effects, the story, the script, the acting, it was all integral to the success of the work, but the music was the acid test, could the piece still excite with the sound turned off? He went on to say that the continuing appeal of his shows was down his honesty to the audience. David Graham (the voice of Brains in the Thunderbirds amongst others) agreed, saying that this very appeal to generation after generation defines Gerry Anderson's shows as classics.
But back to Barry. The rest of the evening featured sublime pieces of music from Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Joe 90, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterones, UFO and Space 1999 together with other work from Four Feather Falls and The Secret Service with Pascale Rousse-Lacordaire on the Ondes Martenot and the wonderful Voces8 providing vocals for the Stingray titles and the haunting Aqua Maria as well as the quirky Robot man.
It was a marvellous evening, invocative of childhood afternoons in front of the telly yelling in excitement at the Supermarionation exploits of WASP, Captain Scarlet and International Rescue. Barry Gray, we salute you!
Thunderbirds is now available on Blu Ray, watch out for our boxset competition.
