Review of Jeff Wayne`s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds: Live On Stage!

Introduction

In 1978 a young man who had made his name working as a producer for the likes of David Essex released a concept album. The age of prog rock was coming to an end in a big way with the advent of punk rock, but he had been working on this thing since 1974. It was an album based on the H.G Wells story The War Of The Worlds.

Released in a gatefold sleeve with some stunning artwork on the cover and in the accompanying booklet, the album boasted a mix of vocalists that included Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy), Justin Haywood (The Moody Blues), Julie Covington (Evita), David Essex and Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann`s Earth Band). The style was a mix of synthesisers and more traditional rock elements with experienced musicians such as Herbie Flowers, Chris Spedding and Jo Partridge adding depth to Wayne`s compositions.

The album sold well during the year of it`s release and has gone on to sell in excess of 700,000 copies in the US alone where initial response was quite muted. Worldwide sales of the album are reported to be about 14.5 million to date, with the re-release of the album in a 5.1 Surround mix back in 2005 seeing a resurgence in interest. With this in mind, plans for a stage show finally came to fruition and the inevitable DVD release of said show.

Filmed at Wembley Arena in 25th April 2006, the show brings The War Of The Worlds to both new and old fans using new and old performers. Old hands Justin Haywood and Chris Thompson slide effortlessly into familiar songs alongside new performers Alexis James (the Artilleryman), Tara Blaise (Beth) and Russell Watson (Parson Nathaniel) with the monumental presence of the late Richard Burton looming literally overhead. The music is conducted overall by composer Jeff Wayne and performed by the 10-piece Black Smoke band and the 48-piece ULLAdubULLA Strings.

Video

Presented in an anamorphic 1.78:1 aspect ratio, the picture is fantastic using a mixture of live performance footage, CGI projections and on-screen SFX. The editing is quite fantastic with a brilliant range of shots provided by 23 cameras, a really professional production.

Audio

Quite powerful DTS soundtrack that really vibrates and also gives some nice separation on the various instruments played. There`s also a choice of 5.1 and Stereo soundtracks as well as subtitles in a variety of languages other than English.

Features

There`s a nice detailed booklet with text from Jeff Wayne and some of his team plus some nice shots of the live perfomance.

Short-ish extras on disc 1:

Interview with Jeff Wayne - about 5 minutes on bringing the album to the stage and on the casting.

Bringing Back Burton - a look at how the face moulding and then CGI animation was done to ensure Richard Burton was seen as well as heard on stage.

Making A Martian Fighting Machine - examining the construction of the centrepiece of the stage set.

Carrie And The Cannons - showing how the CGI was done for these two sequences using blue screen, lights and upturned chairs.

The Tour 2006: The Journal - The major extra on disc 2, this documentary covers the last 12 weeks or so before the first live performance. Covers rehearsals, CGI disputes, model making and discussions of Russell Watson`s ankle and time keeping.

The rest of the extras are between 5 and 8 minutes long and the titles are self-explanatory:

Sculpting The Richard Burton Head

Rehearsing `Thunder Child`

Rehearsing `Forever Autumn`

Mars Comes To Wembley

Jeff Wayne In Conversation With Russell Watson

Animating The Martian Machines

The Tour 2006

Interviews With The Cast

Conclusion

I remember getting my hands on a copy of this album probably back in `79 or `80, not quite a teenager, when I was really getting into the synthesiser music of the time that still stirs me now. This was completely different and I`d never heard a `concept` album before, the whole package was simply stunning. I remember looking at the impressive artwork and then reading the biographies of the performers and wondering who on earth they all were. Very soon though I didn`t care, the first words of Richard Burton took me to a different time and the music just took me to an entirely different planet.

Although sales have been respectable (at the very least) since 1978, there`s been a resurgence of interest in the last couple of years. The official website first hinted at a possible animated film, then a re-release of the album in 5.1 Surround and then finally the tour. This DVD amply captures not only the spirit of that album but also reproduces the audio experience of both the live environment and the studio album. It`s quite a feat and a lot of planning was clearly involved to make it a performance worth seeing, the combination of band/strings, vocalist, CGI backdrop and models all combine to make a quite unique and incredible performance for what was in effect a proper tour rather than a West End type show, which would have been the natural setting for something of this scale.

The DVD capturing of this is just fantastic, in some respects I think it might even top the live performance due to the impressive editing, lacking only the atmosphere of actually being there. Even without that though, it`s still quite powerful to sit through and I was actually quite emotional at the end of nearly two hours of music. I`m not quite sure how I can describe the full range of emotions that ran through me, but I was quite choked when Jeff Wayne got his standing ovation at the end. It was breath-taking.

Everything that was great about the album is still there, the music just sounds even better but still faithful to how you remember it, the vocal performances of everyone are spot on and it just wouldn`t have been the same without Richard Burton`s narration. I think it would probably have been enough just to hear the voice, but the way they produced a talking version of Burton on a polystyrene head above the stage is just magic. They`ve used a younger image to keep it in line with the age of the character rather than the iconic image of the actor of the time but it works beautifully.

This is not just a keepsake for those who were there, this is something just as impressive to watch in the comfort of your front room, bringing to life the original album in a way that just listening to it can`t quite do. There`s another tour planned for the back end of 2007 and I definitely don`t want to miss it after seeing this. There are concerts and then there are events. Gary Numan doing Telekon a month ago, OMD doing Architecture And Morality later this year; these are events, and The War Of The Worlds is another one. Events shouldn`t be missed if you can help it. I saw Numan and it was superb, I`m now hoping to make it three out of three by December.

Superb stuff.