Barry Gray

Barry Gray (Born: July 18, 1908 in Lancashire, England - Deceased: April 26, 1984 in Guernsey, Channel Islands) was a British musician and composer who is best known for his work for Gerry Anderson. His birth name was Jack Eckles. He studied at the Manchester Royal College of Music and at Blackburn Cathedral.

Gray gained valuable experience in scoring for theatre and variety orchestras. After serving with the RAF during World War II he returned to the music industry to work with such worthies as Vera Lynn and Hoagy Carmichael.

In 1956 he joined Gerry Anderson’s AP Films, where he scored the puppet show, ‘The Adventures of Twizzle’, followed by ‘Torchy The Battery Boy’ and then the famed ‘Four Feather Falls’.

Perhaps most famous was his score for ‘Thunderbirds’ and its theme “March of the Thunderbirds”. Gray composed the themes to the other Supermarionation shows such as ‘Stingray’, ‘Fireball XL5’, ‘Joe 90’, and ‘Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons’. Gray’s professional association with Anderson ended following the first season of ‘Space: 1999’ when Anderson decided to replace Gray’s original theme.

He 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 in several of his scores.