MY CENTURY 21 RECORDS -21 MINUTES OF ADVENTURE

 Here’s a few of the Century 21 and other vintage Anderson related records I’ve collected over the years. Nowhere near a full set, as there was a total of 6 LPs and 37 EP’s released between October, 1965 and November, 1967, so I’m a long way off completing a collection.

Plus, I’m only interested in records that came out at the time, and even those have to be from Gerry & Sylvia’s series’, so no Tingha and Tucker, or Topo Gigio here!

Before I begin here’s a vintage favourite of mine; Supercar – A Flight of Fancy, which I see as a precursor to the Century 21 records output. It’s on the PYE record label, the same label that carried Century 21 records. It’s produced by Gerry Anderson, the story is by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, and it features the original cast.

This jazzed up version of the Fireball XL5 theme from 1962 was recorded by Barry Gray and his Spacemakers. Sylvia Anderson is the voice of Venus, while David Graham stands in for Paul Maxwell as the voice of Steve Zodiac.

I principally set out to collect only the first set of six mini albums, originally released in 1965, and that were regularly advertised in early editions of TV Century 21.

These were affordable 7” 33 r.p.m. mini albums featuring 21 minutes of adventure!

The first 7” release was Journey to The Moon, written by the then TV Century 21 editor, Alan Fennell, and featuring all the original voice artists from Fireball XL5.

An extended 12” LP version, was also released, which included the original Don Spencer version of the end theme, and the original title theme

The 21 minute version was also released as part of the 1966 ‘World of Tomorrow’ compilation LP, which included a re-recorded end theme sung by Ken Barrie, backed by the Barry Gray Quintet.

The World of Tomorrow LP also included ‘A Trip to Marineville’ featuring Stingray.

‘A Trip to Marineville’ is another original story by Alan Fennell, and the third Century 21 mini album released in 1965. It features three of the original voice artists, plus Sylvia Anderson.

The second Century 21 mini album release was ‘Into Action with Troy Tempest’. The story uses excepts from the episodes, Subterranean Sea and Deep Heat with connecting dialogue provided by Commander Shore.

The record is intended as a read -along, and comes with a separate dialogue sheet to help the listener read along with Troy and Phones on their adventure. Three original voice artists are featured, Don Mason, Ray Barrett and Robert Easton.

The fifth mini album release is ‘Marina Speaks’. This original story reveals the reason why Marina can not speak. Sylvia Anderson joins Stingray original voice artists Lois Maxwell, Ray Barrett and David Graham. The sleeve mentions Don Mason, but he's not actually heard on the record. 

The ‘Marina’ comic strip in Lady Penelope magazine expands on the reasons why Marina is mute.

‘Marina Speaks’ is also featured on the 1966 LP, ‘Lady Penelope Presents’, which also includes the fourth mini album release, 'Introducing Thunderbirds’

‘Introducing Thunderbirds’ does just that, as Lady Penelope and Parker, characters already familiar to TV Century 21 readers, meets up with Jeff Tracy on Tracy Island and gets the gen on International Rescue. Sylvia Anderson, David Graham and Peter Dyneley feature. Note: The front cover of the record is advertised on the back of the Somperex monochrome bubble gum cards.

The sixth mini album, TV Century 21 Themes has five Anderson related tracks, and a sixth, Dr Who, played by the Eric Winstone Orchestra.

As the Daleks were part of TV Century 21’s comic strip line-up it’s no surprise that the seventh mini album features those mutant monsters.

The album, which is narrated by David Graham, uses an edited audio version from the Dr Who episode, The Planet of Decision from the story, The Chase which was notable for the only TV appearance of The Mechanoids.

Another LP, Jeff Tracy Introduces International Rescues features Thunderbird 1 in Trapped in the Sky, and Thunderbird 2 in End of the Road.

Back to the mini albums, and Thunderbird 3 in Sun Probe. This is notable as the audio script is written by comic artist Jim Watson.

Mini album Lady Penelope Themes: TV themes associated with comic strips in Lady Penelope.

An assortment of adverts from TV Century 21.

Coming right up to date, here's a rather nice facsimile cover containing an orange vinyl record of the original Fireball Theme.

And I should mention that nowadays it’s  far simpler to collect the Century 21 recordings from Fanderson, as they’ve perfectly  transferred most of them to CD complete with a perfect facsimile of the cover. Even the 'Into Action with Troy Tempest' CD has a facsimile of the read-a-long script!

Here's a photo of some in my collection: