2003 Archive 
When the Joe 90 CD was released in 2006, I conducted an interview with Ralph Titterton and Tim Mallet, the men behind the release of this Barry Gray CD and all the earlier official Barry Gray CDs.
Ralph has in his possession the entire Barry Gray music library on analog tapes. Tim Mallett is the audio technician who worked with Ralph to clean up the tapes, re-mix them and create new audio masters suitable for production of the CDs.
This exclusive interview provides a great deal of information about the music source and level of effort that went into the production of the CDs.
Full interview after the jump.
1. The Joe 90 CD marks the 6th generally available Gerry Anderson CD you have worked on. (3x Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Space:1999). Has the process changed much since the first one?
Yes, the process has changed quite considerably since Thunderbirds Vol 1.
To start though I should explain how Tim Mallett, my co-producer, and I approach these titles. Tim is one half of a production company called Kindred Productions (a company that has built up a superb reputation for producing some high class material over the years, including video documentaries and more for Fanderson – The Official Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society, and as such Tim is the technical expert who works on all of Barry’s music at Kindred’s Maidenhead studio to create the fantastic discs everyone has been able to buy. However, Tim doesn’t know the Anderson programmes as well as I, and works with the scores purely in musical terms.
My role is to go through the scores and write guidance notes for Tim on each piece of music written for a given episode (each episode is divided into a number of musical “cues” of variable lengths from a few seconds to a number of minutes), so that he has a starting point from which to work. I also write all the track notes, contribute to the text pieces we include with each disc, and work closely with Silva Screen on the design of each disc.
Tim and I obviously work closely on our individual aspects of each disc (which do tend to go through several draft versions), and once we are both happy with all aspects of what we have produced, then everything is presented to Silva Screen for their input before fine tuning and preparing the end product. We also have a small network of knowledgeable fans we bounce thoughts and ideas from as required, and they have proven very helpful to us both over the years.
I should at this point mention a third person who works on each disc, and that is my own partner, Cathy Ford. Cathy has written all the superb text pieces for the discs and knows more about Barry Gray than anybody! She also compiles all the session’s information and musicians lists from Barry’s original notes.
Returning to the first Thunderbirds, though Tim and I had discussed and agreed our roles for approaching the project, I thought we could approach the album by my just writing a list of the pieces of music I specifically liked from the series, and by bringing these together that would be our album. But it doesn’t work like that as I soon learned!
Barry did not write a score for every episode of Thunderbirds, or indeed for any of the series he wrote for. Of the episodes that he did score and record, the tapes we have of these sessions are the best of the tapes that we have for each series. For the episodes that Barry did not score he would re-use material, literally cut and splicing lengths of tape with the music on that he needed to fit the pictures on screen. In the context of watching the programmes that’s fine, but when you listen to the music in isolation each edit and splice is very, very obvious and neither Tim or I wanted such edits in the music we were putting together.
Therefore, very quickly it became obvious that the key to each CD we were to produce was to target the episodes for which scores were written and recorded and in so doing we have managed on the whole to bring together all the key themes for each individual programme.
2. How did you come into possession of the Barry Gray Music?
Luck!!
I have always had an interest in Barry’s work and first met him in the late 1970’s when I made a couple of programmes on him for Hospital Radio in Margate, in Kent. I also later met up with him in Guernsey where he had set up home in later life.
There had always been rumours in fan circles that the tapes were “out there”. Barry died in 1984, but it was only after the death of Joan; his wife, in the early 1990’s that these tapes came to light. At the time I had been acting as a consultant to a writer putting a series of articles together on Barry’s record releases for Record Collector Magazine. My name was seen by a company in Guernsey who contacted me and asked me to come to the island and catalogue all these tapes (around 600 studio reels) over one weekend.
For reasons I can’t recall I declined, but later I heard that Barry’s son, Simon, had had all the tapes and other materials (musical instruments, tape recorders, electronic equipment, session notes and more) moved to London. I think the intention was to put everything up for auction; however I was very concerned that if the collection was split up into private hands the material would never see the public light of day. Coupled to this, various legal matters related to the question of ownership, would make any potential future commercial releases very unlikely.
I took these concerns to both ITC in London, and to Simon, and offered to take on the collection to see what I, and Cathy, could make of everything. My offer was accepted, and what has become the musical experience of a lifetime began.
On a cold damp day in 1993, Cathy, myself and a friend took a hired Transit to a lock up in Chelsea to pick up the collection. We found everything in a very sorry state, boxes just dumped, one on top of another. The boxes were cardboard and damp, the tapes were covered in mildew and there was no order to anything. We even found Barry’s Revox tape recorder and Ondes Martenot, both of which have been fully restored. The Revox we use today to run Barry’s tapes, and the Martenot is again being played on film scores!
For the next five years plus my house became a warehouse that had the smell of the damp cardboard as we gradually sorted the tapes and replaced all the storage boxes.
Using Barry’s Revox (which incredibly played the first time we plugged it in!) I played and catalogued the content of every reel. However, because of the mildew and drop out from the tapes, after every reel played the Revox had to be totally cleaned before the next reel could be played. I should have taken out shares in cotton buds and alcohol wipes considering the number I got through.
The Revox though only plays ¼” reels, and there were a considerable number of ½” reels as well (which contain many of the stereo mixes). For this, Tim and another good friend, Andrew Frampton (a BBC post production editor) hired a tape machine specifically to play and transfer these reels to another format.
As we went through each individual reel Cathy devised a cataloguing system for the collection, one we still use today, plus she took charge of all of Barry’s session notes and other personal materials. I must pay tribute to Cathy here. It is not every partner who would be prepared to have their house turned upside down for so long; however she has embraced the whole project and has been an integral part of everything we have done.
3. As the show ownerships changed hands (ITC, Carlton, Granada etc) has it had an impact on your ability to publish the music?
Not really, once we had clarified ownership of the tapes, which was still open to debate when I took procession of the tapes, and which I have already touched on above.
By the time we were ready to do anything with the tapes the ownership of the ITC Television Library had moved from ITC to PolyGram. I brokered a deal between PolyGram Film Operations and the Gray estate that gave ownership of the tapes to PolyGram. This cleared the way for the tapes to be used commercially, and gave the estate an ongoing income through royalties that would be required to be paid.
Fanderson had expressed interest in releasing Barry Gray CD’s, and though we knew PolyGram would not allow the club to release music from the Anderson shows that had a good commercial potential (i.e. Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet), they were prepared to give permission for a limited release within the club for some of the lesser considered commercial titles; namely Supercar, Fireball XL5 and The Secret Service. Space: 1999 was added to this list shortly thereafter, and UFO was cleared for Fanderson use by Carlton. The first Fanderson disc, “Supercar / Fireball XL5” released in 1998, became the template for the standard we wanted to work to for all future releases.
Though Silva Screen did not get their licensing agreement to commercially release Barry Gray titles from Carlton until four years ago, the company has been in the background since the start. I’ve known David Stoner of Silva Screen since assisting the company on their “FAB” album in 1992. We had often spoken of doing something commercially, and indeed we had used Barry’s original scores and the Ondes Martenot on “The Cult Files: Re-Opened” in 1997 (arranged by Derek Wadsworth!!). However, it was only in the early 2000’s when Silva Screen were negotiating for The Prisoner that they got an agreement for a series of Barry Gray titles as well.
People may not be aware that although the ITC Television Library has moved from company to company, the music itself is part of the ATV Music Library, which is currently owned by Sony.
4. For the Joe 90 CD we have over 78 minutes of music, which is outstanding for a CD soundtrack. How much music did you have to choose from?
Well it varies from series to series, for example Thunderbirds has 49 reels, UFO 73, Joe 90 48 and Space: 1999 just 13. Each reel has between 10 – 30 minutes worth of material depending on whether it’s a 30 or 60 minute programme. However, as noted above, some of the recordings are “cut and paste” episodes and therefore not useable for the standard we are working to (though we do use these to pick out bits and pieces for Tim’s digital editing, when the original tape is damaged), and some of the ¼” reels are mixed down versions of the ½” reels.
5. Do you have the original tapes from the recording session, or are these duplicates?
We have been very fortunate enough to work from all original material.
6. What about the tapes themselves, are they all the same size/speed or do they vary?
The reel sizes we have are primarily14”, though there are some 7” discs as well. The ¼” tape are a mix of the two, however the ½” are just on the 14”. The majority of tapes run at 15 i.p.s. (inches per second), though there are some ¼” that run at 7 ½” (with a reduced quality of sound) and some ½” run at 30!
Another point you didn’t ask, and that is how much do the reels weigh? The answer is a lot, and great care has to be taken when carrying a box of tapes!!
7. How much work is required on an average track to clean it up for CD use?
That does vary from track to track, however Tim is better to answer this question than I. The quality of each tape does vary and from our point of view, the common restoration problems that need to be addressed are tape noise, distortion, poor edits/splices and tape damage. Some of the tapes are badly recorded and require heavy denoising and extreme equalisation adjustments to make them acceptable. Other recordings are very well engineered and need almost no work at all.
8. How long did it take to get this CD ready?
To create a disc from scratch will take around six months, It could probably be done quicker, however you have to remember I have a full time job (I’m a Charge Nurse in Critical Care) and home commitments, and Tim likewise has his own commitments along with other work within Kindred as well.
The titles previously released by Fanderson will obviously take less time with the Silva Screen version because in the main they are just cut down versions of the club release, although track selection takes time, and we take the opportunity to add (or remix) material not available for the initial release. Indeed for Space: 1999 Year 2, Derek Wadsworth has re-recorded mixed elements of his score for the planned upcoming Silva Screen release.
9. Much of the CD is in stereo as the original music was recorded that way. Why would Barry Gray record the music in stereo at a time when it could not be heard that way?
Barry recorded the music at a various of different studios, his own and a variety of large and small facilities. Some of the recording sessions involved very few instruments and where recorded and mixed in mono directly to ¼ inch tape. Others involved large orchestras and groups of instruments where recorded separately to multi track tape. For the television episodes these were mixed to ¼ inch tape in mono. The nice side effect of this for us is that we are now able to go back to the original multitrack tapes and remix them in stereo, panning groups of instruments to varying degrees left and right. This gives a sense of space to the recording and greater definition to the sound of the individual instruments.
10. Why do you think it is that after almost 40 years, the music from the Gerry Anderson shows is finally being released? Is it popularity, technical improvements...?
I would put it down to a series of fortunate circumstances that has brought us to where we are now. As you know there have been various records and LP’s in the past (Indeed I produced two Barry Gray records for Fanderson in the late 1980’s), however from the technical point of view I think that now is a good time to release these CD’s as the technology for digital editing is at such a standard to allow us to present a quality definitive product.
11. As Joe 90 is newer than the other CD releases, has the process been easier as the tapes are newer?
Actually no. The quality of the tapes has been very good throughout with Four Feather Falls sounding equally as good as Joe 90. A ¼” reel played at 15 ips sounds equally good as many of today’s CD’s.
I can still remember the first time we listened to Thunderbirds “Trapped in the Sky” and Barry’s Thunderbirds theme as Thunderbirds 1 and 2 take off for the first time!!
It was moments like that, that confirmed to all involved that all the work we were doing was without a doubt well worth it (These tracks can be heard on Thunderbirds Vol 1)!
Of course we had difficulty with those reels that had had physical splices in them which either were very tacky or didn’t line up correctly, but again as noted above we did not use these specific reels in making the CD’s. Surprisingly the biggest problems we experienced were with the reels for Space: 1999, where the composition of the tape stock had changed and this caused problems on later playback. In order to make the tapes playable they had to be baked at Abbey Road studios.
12. You mention in the CD notes that several tracks are only a few seconds long. Did Barry Gray record each little "sting" separately?
Yes he did, and every individual piece or “cue” was documented separately. In fact for many of the series Barry produced detailed “cue” sheets, that not only listed each cue, but had the visual action on screen documented as well. Where such notes are written I have used this text as the basis for my track notes.
13. How many recording sessions were there, and how many musicians did Barry Gray use?
You actually already have the answer to this question on your website Simon, within the pre-existing pages you have for Barry. The link to the page is:
http://www.tvcentury21.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67
14. What is your favourite track from the CD, and why?
That is very difficult as there is so much good material, however I think it has to be the fore-mentioned launch of Thunderbirds 1 and 2 from “Trapped in the Sky” for the reasons given above.
15. Fanderson has also released a number of Gerry Anderson CDs exclusive for Fanderson members (Supercar/XL5/UFO/1999) Did you also provide the music for those?
Yes I did, in fact since this first Fanderson title was released all “official” use of Barry’s music goes through me as the Gray Estate’s representative for all his work.
16. Have you worked on any non-Gerry Anderson CDs?
Not as yet, although I have a friend who is currently exploring some of Barry’s non-Anderson work. During the 1950’s and 60’s Barry did a lot of commercials work for radio, television and the cinema and I have a box of reels of this material. These commercials have the sort of ditties where you can imagine a bouncing ball going along the bottom of the screen and everyone joining in.
Whether we can do anything with this material I do not know, so if anyone reading this has any thoughts I would be delighted to hear them!
17. So the obvious gaps in the library are Stingray, Secret Service and New Captain Scarlet. Can we expect to ever see CDs of music from these shows?
Well, it’s been four years since we started working with Silva Screen and at the moment the contract with Granada has to be renegotiated and agreed. When it has (fingers crossed), Tim has completed Space: 1999 Year 2 with Derek Wadsworth and I have completed New Captain Scarlet with Crispin Merrell (his score for this is brilliant!!).
Tim has started re-working the Fanderson UFO release for Silva Screen, but we’ve come to a halt on this until it’s confirmed that the license has been renewed. Likewise, I’m waiting to start on Stingray once I know about the license. There are also future plans to bring Supercar / Fireball XL5 and The Secret Service together, and do a two disc Anderson compilation of as many titles we can get clearance for.
Meanwhile I’ve just assisted Fanderson with their CD release of three of the original Thunderbirds Century 21 mini-albums from the 1960’s and in October start work with Crispin Merrell on a CD of the score of Space Precinct, again for Fanderson.
Let’s hope it’s not too long before we have the next title out!
Thanks to Ralph Titterton and Tim Mallett for making this interview possible.