1978:
The trivia:
- Geologists working in the wastes of Siberia found a family of six people who had not seen another human being since 1936.
- Mathematician and philosopher Kurt Godel was so afraid of being poisoned that he would only eat food his wife cooked. When she was hospitalised for six months in 1978, he starved to death.
- The French created their own 1970s version of the internet called Mintel, where you could shop, chat to friends, send mail and check stock prices. There were still over 800,000 terminals in use when it was finally shut down for good in 2012.
The memory:
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds
"No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinised, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us..."
How many versions of this incredible album have I bought now? The LP records (twice), the cassette, the CD (the first thing I ever bought in that format), the 7-disc Collector's Edition, the DVD of the live stage performance. It's never enough. Across 95 minutes Jeff Wayne manages to beautifully tell the classic H.G. Wells story of Martian invasion through music and song in a way that has never been equalled.
Like most people I guess, I first came across the album via the song "Forever Autumn" which was released as a single and reached number five in the UK charts in August 1978. Justin Hayward's haunting vocals were perfect and as the presenters of "Top of the Pops" announced that it was from a musical version of "War of the Worlds", my ears pricked up even more. I'm sure I had read the original book by this point (I went through a phase at around ten of borrowing all the "classics" from the library - Ivanhoe, Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers, etc).
I persuaded my parents to buy the record for me as a Christmas present for that year and once the usual festivities were over and the relatives had all gone home, I was allowed to listen to it. I may have been familiar with the story, but what I wasn't expecting was the surprise of that opening narration from the superb Richard Burton and then those first few crashing chords. I was hooked instantly.
This was (and continues to be) a truly immersive audio experience. The thumping bass guitars, fabulous repeated themes and melodies, and extended sequences of prog-rock-esque music swept me away to Victorian London and the strangeness that was to come as a cylinder from outer space landed on Horsell Common. The sound design was just perfect - no-one can forget the noise of the cylinder unscrewing or the ear-shattering "ULLA" cry of the Martians as the tripod war machines rose above the terrified onlookers.
To help with the visualisation, the original LP version was accompanied by a 16 page booklet featuring several paintings by artists Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim. From that classic cover as a war machine attacks the warship Thunderchild, to the creeping of the Red Weed across the English countryside, to the crows picking at the dead flesh of the aliens after they are defeated - the images reinforced the power of the story. I used to pour over the details for hours.
Richard Burton of course is responsible for much of the heavy-lifting of the narrative in between the music and the songs. His sonorous Welsh tones drive everything forward and if you listen to the out-takes (available in the Collector's Edition) you can hear how much he was enjoying getting his lips round the various passages of text, many lifted directly from the novel. I particularly like his reading of the description of the hideous Martian creature, as it prepares to dispense death from the heat ray:
It's lipless mouth quivered and slavered - and snake-like tentacles writhed as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated".
There were other versions of the narration recorded for overseas language markets, including one featuring Anthony Quinn, but nothing can supplant Mr. Burton in my memory. He is as intrinsic to the success of the production as the music and lyrics.
He's not the only excellent voice on the album though. Jeff Wayne fills out the rest of his cast with some very talented vocalists, many of whom were / would go on to become musical legends. The previously mentioned Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues), Julie Covington, Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann's Earth Band), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) as Parson Nathaniel and not forgetting David Essex as the "The Artilleryman". Each voice adds something special to the story. Essex is steadfast at first as the loyal soldier and then increasingly deranged as he wants to rebuild the world underground. Lynott is perfect as the poor religious man who finds himself doubting his own faith in the face of the Martian's overwhelming alien superiority and believing that they are heralds from Satan.
I must have listened to the record over and over and over again in those first few weeks, the headphones glued almost permanently to my ears. If this was my introduction to the idea of the "concept album" then I couldn't have picked a better one! Yes it deviated from the source novel in a few areas, but I didn't care.
As time went by "War of the Worlds" was a constant companion and then in the early-80s, the music impinged on my other burgeoning interest - computer games. I was a big devotee of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum - a primitive machine by today's standards but with it's 48K of memory and 256 colours it was a revolutionary and ridiculously successful product at the time - spawning an entire industry of software houses and home programmers. In 1984, CRL released a Spectrum version of "War of the Worlds". I bought it of course, but to be honest it was a pretty poor arcade graphical adventure. I just kept wandering around various locations looking for the Martian base and dying of hunger. After a few days of getting nowhere (and I always considered myself pretty good at these kind of games) it was abandoned. I've found out since that you had to visit the locations in the same order as they were on the album, but even so, it's not something I have any desire to revisit.
In 1989 there was a resurgence of interest in the album when Ben Liebrand released a remixed version of the classic first track "The Eve of the War" and it got to number three in the singles charts. I still have the 12" around here somewhere. This led to other alternative mixes and eventually a double CD full of them in 2000 known as "ULLAdubULLA - The Remix Album". I think I borrowed a copy from somewhere but a few of the alterations were too extreme and it was veering into the club / dance genre - really not my thing. They re-released it in 2006 with even more versions but to me they are an interesting curio, nothing more.
2005 / 2006 was also the time when Jeff Wayne really began to ramp up his use of the material in the new century, partly to capitalise on the release of the Spielberg film starring Tom Cruise. First there was the 2-disc 5.1 Suround Sound Hybrid Super Audio CD set which was then included in the 7-disc collectors set along with a hardbound version of the booklet and 80 pages of behind the scenes photographs, the best of the remixes, hours of out-takes and rare unused tracks and songs (most never heard before) plus a "making of" DVD. It truly was the best set a fan could hope for and I quickly snapped up a copy. Just thinking about it makes me want to pull it down from the shelf and listen to everything again.
Jeff's next trick was a live stadium tour of the full work, complete with 48-piece string section and rock band. The centrepieces were a 11 foot high 'virtual' Richard Burton, which via image projection and lip-syncing moved along with the words of the Journalist, and a giant Martian fighting machine appearing on stage complete with heat ray. Some of the original musicians and cast returned, as wel and various other singing roles were taken by performers such as tenor Russell Watson, ex-pop star Jason Donovan and a host of former reality TV singers.The tour was so successful that it went to Australia and New Zealand and mainland Europe - and continued in one form or another right through to 2011. I never got to go sadly, but I do have the DVD of the 2006 Wembley Arena show. It's a great set of performances, even if the images they used of Burton for the huge virtual head were of his younger self rather than the craggier, older looking man I remembered from his later career.
During a break from touring, Wayne worked on a *new* version of the album. Dubbed "The New Generation". it 'allowed the composer to re-interpret his music and 'use more modern production techniques'. All the major roles were recast and in a moment of absolute sacrilege (at least to this listener), Burton was dropped in favour of Irish actor Liam Neeson. "Kaiser Chiefs" frontman Ricky Wilson became the Artilleryman and "Take That"'s Gary Barlow provided vocals for the sung thoughts of the Journalist. Soul singer Joss Stone was also cast as Beth. So big question - was it any good?
It was all still recognisably "War of the Worlds" with the brilliant songs and themes from before but to be perfectly frank it's been "tinkered with" a bit too much. Wayne had added lots of sound effects and extra "whoosh" noises and drumbeats - and they all stood out at right angles from the original score. It's a bit like the "updated" versions of the original "Star Wars" trilogy - the core is still there but the digital frippery around the edges detracts rather than adds to the experience - and like those CGI creatures, these additions will date very quickly. What was once a timeless classic became something...less.
Don't get my wrong, anyone who came to this for the first time would still be blown away by the power, excitement and vibrancy of Wayne's vision, but for those of us who grew up listening endlessly to the 1978 version, the "New Generation" version just reinforced how good that really was. Maybe it did introduce a host of younger people to the music - I would have just handed them a copy of the original...
This new take on the album also went on tour under the sub-title "Alive on Stage!" between 2012 and 2014 with some of the cast repeating their roles and Liam Neeson appearing via much improved holographics. Former pop stars Marti Pellow, Brian McFadden and Shayne Ward also popped up during various iterations of the round the country performances. There was more new material in the live shows which was not present on the CD (including new scenes), plus enhanced pyrotechnics and special effects. At one point they even had actor Callum O'Neill on stage as author H.G. Wells across three ages of his life. Again I did not go to any of these shows , but bearing in mind my less than high opinion of the "New Generation" in the first place, I don't think I even considered it, nor did I get the eventual DVD.
So on a cold Saturday in March 2016 we found ourselves in the fourth row of the Dominion Theatre, eagerly looking forward to a night of revisiting the greatest concept album ever made. Surrounding us were hundreds of other people of a similar middle-age, and as the curtain rose and Mr. Neeson spoke those opening words, there was a ripple of excitement the air...
Hmmm. Perhaps I'd been too excited and expected too much. It was more than the previous "live on stage" shows I'd seen on DVD, that was for sure, but less than a full blown musical, so it fell somewhere in between into a realm that was all a bit...odd. That's not to say the production team didn't throw everything at the wall. There were flame-throwers, lasers, alien tentacles, back projections of Victorian London, a full height Martian fighting machine clomping on and off stage at various moments, Liam Neeson popping in and out from all directions, diminutive Jeff Wayne sliding backwards and forwards on his podium as he conducted his heart out - and lots and lots of people running around.
Michael Praed looked and sounded great, but when most of his lines were given to holo-Liam, he ended up spending a lot of the time just staring up at a screen. They should just have dumped the pre-recordings and let Michael do the whole lot live. Jimmy Nail was suitably boggle-eyed and raspy as the Parson experiencing a crisis of faith and Heidi Range could hold the high notes - but the biggest surprise for me was Daniel Beddingfield who had a really excellent voice and belted out the songs originally performed by David Essex.
David himself had the more undefined role as the "Voice of Humanity" so didn't do a huge amount of solo singing, but his croaky fading voice probably wouldn't have been up to it anyway - after all he was 69 years old - and let's be fair - his name was really there to draw in the punters. My least favorite part of the second half was the interpretative dance sequence where red-clad ballet enthusiasts rolled around pretending to be the Red Weed. It seemed to go on for ever.
Despite these flaws it was still an enjoyable show and there was a deserving standing ovation for Jeff and the cast as they took their bows, The truth was, it didn't matter how much spectacle you threw at it, the main attraction was clearly the music. Even though it was the less-preferred "New Generation" version (with added bells and whistles), it was hard to deny the thrill of hearing it played live and at full volume. It took me right back to that Christmas in 1978...
So after all that, it's been a long and winding journey across the decades. "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds" has been with me for nearly forty years now and I have no doubt that I'll still be listening to it for the rest of my life.
ULLA !!
does last a long time - which for those who aren't a fan of the impressive interpretive dance Honourable Mentions:
- The Wild Geese - My second Richard Burton starring vehicle and what a film. What a cast. Richard Harris, Roger Moore, Stewart Granger, Frank Finlay. Hardy Kruger. I love the old ensemble war films like "The Guns of Navarone" and "Where Eagles Dare" and this has a similar feel, but with a harder, more modern edge. It tells the story of a bunch of older mercenaries contracted to rescue an African leader from imprisonment, with deadly results. Burton and Co are perfectly cast and I've lost count how many times I've seen it. An absolute classic.
- Blakes' 7 - After "Doctor Who" my second favourite Britsh SF show and for a while during it's four series run it held the top spot. I remember making my own teleport bracelets and ORAC computer out of cardboard so my friends and I could create out own adventures. But as much as Blake was the good guy, we all wanted to be Avon didn't we?
- Superman - The original Christopher Reeve movie and still the best despite todays's amazing special effects. Reeve embodied Clark Kent and the Man of Steel like no other actor before or since and was a personal hero of mine.
- Centennial - During the 70s we saw the rise of the historical blockbuster "event" TV mini-series, which my parents greatly enjoyed. First in 1974 there was the Burt Lancaster starring "Moses the Lawgiver". Then in 1977 there was "Roots" and "Jesus of Nazareth". The most ambitious of these (and the one I have the most fond memories of) was "Centennial" - the 26 hour story of the area around a fictional town in Colorado between 1795 and the then present day. Starring almost every well-known TV actor of the time, the world "epic" doesn't begin to do it justice. If you have any interest in the history of the American West, you owe it to yourself to seek it out.
- Starlord - 2000 AD's more colourful, short-lived sister comic - most notable for giving the world "Strontium Dog" and "Ro-Busters". Lasting a mere 22 issues it's legacy is huge. As good as those famous strips are, I personally loved "Mind Wars" - a complex space opera featuring telepathic twins, by Alan Hebden and Jesus Redondo. It really needs a collected edition.
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