Fanderson has finally announced the news that every Gerry Anderson fan has been dying to hear - the long awaited release of the Stingray soundtrack CD. A lavish double CD set, the album comes with a full colour booklet containing track notes, trivia, and musician and recording sessions. Each disc runs to almost 80 minutes, packed with some of composer Barry Gray's most enchanting and exciting music...

Music can be evocative as the visuals when it comes to movies but it’s unusual when a TV show’s score has the same impact. Often bland, quickly written library recording, TV rarely serves up the rich textures and varied themes of a Hollywood blockbuster.

But there was a time when one man picked up the challenge and turned writing for the small screen on its head. His name was Barry Gray and he largely wrote for the creative team of Sylvia and Gerry Anderson. And boy was he prolific!

Year in, year out he provide music for episodes of Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds... and so the list goes on. Always inventive, rarely repetitive, always beautifully scored, Gray’s best-remembered work is almost certainly for Thunderbirds (1964) but that was only part of a purple patch that started with the previous Anderson series, Stingray (1963).

Sadly, much of the music for this show has never been unavailable but now, thanks to the Fanderson fan club, more than two hours of the best underwater adventure music ever written has been committed to CD. And it sounds simply fantastic.

The tracks are clean and clear, well ordered and fully of a vitality that belies the age of these recordings and the speed with which they were often turned around. Happily, such was Gray’s genius that every track sounds as important as the last.

So that’s the good news - this double CD set is simply unmissable (with the sole exception of 'Something to Shout about' - a truly dreadful song and best skipped). The bad news is that you can only buy this release if you’re a member of Fanderson...

So what are you waiting for? Go and join, buy this double disc compilation and marvel at how fantastic it all sounds. Fanderson has a fab range of merchandise, including more Gray CDs, so you’ll not be disappointed.

10

Anthony Clark