Sunday 9th I flew back home after attending the Barry Gray Centenary Concert in the Royal Festival Hall on the south bank of the Thames in London the evening before. I had had a fantastic night – the first performance where Thunderbirds roared from the orchestra live since the unbeatable “Filmharmonic ‘78” concert by Barry Gray himself. It was so long overdue! I got goose bumps hearing the Thunderbirds incidentals and Zero-X taking off. So why did I mark the concert with a 7 out of 10 instead of a 9 out of 10 I wondered. And then it occurred to me: I was there both as an admirer of Barry Gray’s work but also as a seasoned concert audience member.

A fan’s verdict

So let’s start with the 9 out of 10. The concert event was long overdue and may not be repeated for many years given the problems to organize such a big happening. The Philharmonia Orchestra and a group of soloists and vocalists had to be booked, the Hall secured. Sound, light, publicity – it was all done by a few people, partly as labour of love, and they pulled it off.

It all happened because Cathy Ford noticed that 2008 was Barry’s 100th birthday and it should not go by unnoticed. Together with her friend Ralph Titterton they were in an ideal position to provide the Barry Gray scores and François Evans eagerly wanted to conduct the orchestra and Crispin Merrell to play the piano. And with less than a year to go, the whole event got organized.

Just for making it happen and give many fans of the music of Barry Gray and me a great evening in their life, Ralph, Cathy, François, Crispin and all others involved must be applauded.

Such a shame that the hall was only two-third full, but an accomplishment given the limited publicity made for it. Concerts with Wagner, Beethoven, Haydn, Barber, Copland and other classical composers come “a dime a dozen”. Film music concerts are once a year in Ghent  (Belgium). Barry Gray concerts only rarely. So seize the opportunity when you can! Fortunately for those unable to attend (with valid reason): the concert was recorded by six cameras and many microphones so a future DVD or CD release is a possibility if financially viable.

On to the program. The public had a high percentage of loyal Gerry Anderson show fans.

Apart from the music, this proved to be a nice occasion to meet old friends and fans again from the UK as well as mainland Europe and catch up on the old days.

We were treated by an overambitious program – one that had to be shortened by two pieces in the end to avoid running into overtime and unforeseen extra payments. We were given:

Before the interval:

• Century 21 Ident
• Thunderbirds opening titles and Sun Probe incidentals
• Supercar Suite
• Fireball XL5 Suite
• Robot Man
• Four Feather Falls and Two Gun Tex of Texas songs
• Thunderbirds –Terror in NY City suite
• Captain Scarlet singles and title theme
• Doppelgänger Theme / Sleeping Astronauts
• Zero-X
• Thunderbird Six Theme

After the interval:

• Stingray Theme and Aqua Marina
• Stingray’s Big Gun incidentals
• Joe 90’s Theme and International Concerto
• Secret Service Theme
• UFO Titles and Identified incidentals
• Space:1999 Opening titles
• Thunderbirds Theme encore

My verdict of 9-out-of-10 is based on my Barry Gray admirer’s goose bumps hearing Thunderbirds, Zero-X and Stingray. I suspect original music sheets were used as the music was spot on. But with a dynamics that can never be captured on CD, DAT or other medium – let alone MP3 or AAC. For this real life experience alone it was worth it. The low bass when Sun Probe’s fuel tanks are lowered, the Zero-X assembly: it doesn’t quite sound like that from your expensive stereo set at home. And the Doppelgänger and Sleeping Astronauts themes with the odd Ondes Martinot synthesizer were beautifully handled by soloist Pascale Rousse-Lacordaire. Barry would be proud.

The title theme of Stingray was less impressive – the action-packed drumbeat sounded more like a drum falling down the stairs. Yes, the orchestra goofed up now and again – but with only one rehearsal before the concert it shows their professionalism to be able to play most without problems.

The vocal group replacing the Mike Sammes Singers of the past was Voces8. Apparently highly professional with many awards for classical music according to the programme booklet, but mostly out of place for the songs that Barry wrote. Only as close harmony group in Secret Service they did well.

Most other instrumental themes were orchestrations close to the original, but not “the” original. They sounded more like the City of Prague orchestra renditions available on Silva Screen CDs. Still highly enjoyable but without the goose bumps.

The concert finished a little rushed with the unlisted Encore – the Thunderbirds March. Therefore the Space:1999 incidentals (referred to as “19-9” by Brian Blessed) were skipped entirely. During the Thunderbirds March a video clip was shown made from home movies shot of Barry Gray. It ended with a portrait of the great little composer. That portrait I think would have been proper to be shown during the entire concert.

A concert goers verdict

For fans who really come for their favourite music, the evening was almost perfect. For those more familiar with other concerts and expecting similar professionalism, there were more slip-ups noticeable. This results in my giving it a 7 out of 10 as a concert goer instead of Barry Gray friend and admirer.

The comments that follow are strictly my opinion – some may disagree. But here is why the final three points of ten were not obtained.
 
The countdown sequence of Thunderbirds (one of the few film bits shown on the projection screen above the orchestra during the music), shouted out by compère Brian Blessed, was off by one. Thunderbird 1 was long gone before the music catched up.
Brian overacted his bit but that seems to be him. I could do without.  He (too) regularly mentioned Gerry Anderson and pointed to the box where he was presumably sitting. But no spotlight, no movement in the box. Was he there? We assume so but never know. Besides, this is a Barry Gray concert and he should get all attention, not Gerry.

The lighting was terrible. Whoever did it had no cues and no clue. When Brian mentioned a vocalist the person had either disappeared from stage or was hidden in the crowd. No spotlight to point him or her out. And when the lights moved, they shone straight into the hall, blinding the audience on the very few occasions something was shown on screen to accompany the music.

The audio mixing and amplification overall was poor. An orchestra of the size of the Philharmonia doesn’t need amplification and only subtle mix is needed to highlight certain instruments. I saw the soundmixer’s indicators regularly, if not mostly, run far into the red and beyond.
The people at the mixing table seemed to be asleep while standing and moving their arms. The first Ondes Martinot keys were hardly heard. The harmonica on Four Feather Falls was initially unheard.  Several other soloists or main instruments drowned in the sound that came more from the speakers above than from the orchestra. This also made it difficult to distinguish the instrument positions as their amplified sound came from above rather than from left, middle or right.

Secret Service Theme suffered from requiring bells and a real organ. The bells were tingles rather than what a bell sounds like, the organ was behind a film screen and sounded muffled – not the prominent role it takes in the real theme. Here a microphone might have helped. Or if it was there, the sound mix failed entirely.

Finally some notes on the souvenir booklet which is lavishly illustrated and contains many comments from friends, fans, fellow-musicians as well as an updated biography of Barry Gray. A bit pricy at £10, as all souvenir books seem to be, but worth having.

One minor nitpick: The picture on page 20 shows Barry in the Piccadilly Line from Cockfosters in the mid-70s. I know – I took the photograph.