Barry Gray

Barry Gray (1925 in Lancashire, England - April 26, 1984) was a British musician and composer who is best known for his work for Gerry Anderson.

Related Topics:
1925 - Lancashire, England - April 26 - 1984 - British - Gerry Anderson

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He was born in to a musical family and greatly encouraged to pursue a musical career from a very early age. Starting at the age of five - with piano lessons - he studied diligently and became a student at the Manchester Royal College of Music and at Blackburn Cathedral. He studied composition under the Hungarian teacher, Matyas Sieber.

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Gray's first professional job was in London for B.Feldman & Co., where he gained valuable experience in scoring for theatre and variety orchestras. From there, he joined Radio Normandy as a composer-arranger. After service with the RAF in World War Two he returned to the music industry to work with such worthies as Vera Lynn and Hoagy Carmichael

Related Topics:
London - Radio Normandy - RAF - World War Two - Vera Lynn - Hoagy Carmichael

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In the 1956 he joined Gerry Anderson's AP Films, where he first scored the puppet show, The Adventures of Twizzle. This was followed by Torchy The Battery Boy and then the famed Four Feather Falls, a puppet Western.

Related Topics:
1956 - Gerry Anderson - AP Films - The Adventures of Twizzle - Torchy The Battery Boy - Four Feather Falls - Western

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Gray's association with Gerry Anderson lasted well in to the 1970's. He composed the themes to the other supermarionation shows such as, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. Additionally, Gray is also known as the composer for the Anderson live-action shows, such as, UFO and Space 1999.

Related Topics:
Supermarionation - Stingray - Thunderbirds - Captain Scarlet - UFO - Space 1999

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In addition to composing and conducting orchestral scores, he also became interested in the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument that had been developed by Frenchman Maurice Martenot, and used it to produce unconventional musical sounds as well as electronic sound effects.

Related Topics:
Ondes Martenot - Frenchman - Maurice Martenot - Sound effects

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The Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society has recently gained access to all of Gray's original studio tapes and is undertaking a major reissue project, compiling the themes and incidental music from Gray's various Anderson projects on a series of remastered CDs.

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Discography:

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• No Strings Attached
• Thunderbirds Are Go! (movie soundtrack)
• Thunderbirds (TV soundtrack, released posthumously)
• Captain Scarlet (ditto)
 
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