To those of us of a certain age, the TV programmes produced by Gerry Anderson during the 1960's will always remain firmly fixed in our minds and I was very saddened to hear of his death on Boxing Day.
Compared to some of the computer aided trickery available today, of course, Anderson's "supermarionation" looks a little clunky, but it cetainly transported me to a completely different world, a million miles removed from the grey Sunday afternoons of my childhood, where the Mysterons genuinely frightened the life out of me, with their creepy floating circles of light and spooky voices.
Everyone will have their own favourite show, whether it be Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet or Joe 90, while some may also be taken by his later live action work, although this never held the same charm for me.
In later life I would thrill to the sound of The Lost T-Shirts of Atlantis covering the theme from Firbeball XL5 at God's Little Joke in Clapham and later still I would come to know a man so obsessed with Anderson's work that he named his two children after chracters from his shows.
All of this has very little to do with surf and instrumental music, of course, athough The Shadows (and Cliff Richard) did put in an appearance in the Thunderbirds movie, Thunderbirds Are Go and many of the theme tunes do lend themselves to surf-ish treatments. A surf bands of the world cover Gerry Anderson themes album anyone? Oh yes, we think so.
Just loving the Burns guitars, by the way!
RIP Gerry and thanks, from my eight year old heart.
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