Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

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"War of the Worlds (album)" redirects here. For the New Generation album, see Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds – The New Generation. For other uses, see Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds (disambiguation).
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
Studio album by Jeff Wayne
Released September 6, 1978 (1978-09-06)[1]
Recorded May 1976–July 1977
Genre Progressive rock, symphonic rock
Length 94:54
Label Columbia/CBS Records
Producer Jeff Wayne
Jeff Wayne chronology
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
(1978)		 Highlights from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
(1981)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4/5 stars[2]
Clip of Jeff Wayne The War of the Worlds
20 second sample showing narration and song. During narration, the leitmotif plays strongly in background. The part of Ogilvy is sung with instrumental pauses between lines.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a 1978 concept album by Jeff Wayne, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.[1] Its format is progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration and leitmotifs to carry the story via rhyming melodic lyrics that express the feelings of the various characters. The two-disc album remains a bestseller, having sold millions of records around the world,[1] and is the 38th best selling album of all time in the UK with sales of 2,561,286 by 2009.[3][4] It has since spawned multiple versions of the album, video games, DVDs, and live tours.

Contents

Plot summary [edit]

The Coming of the Martians [edit]

In a prologue, the Journalist prepares to recount the experiences he had in the late 19th century. He notes that few had even considered the possibility of alien life, but that they were observed across space by advanced beings who regarded Earth with envy.

In the Journalist's story, several masses of green gas erupt from Mars. For the next ten nights, they continue towards Earth. Ogilvy the astronomer assures the Journalist there is no danger, convinced that no life could exist on Mars. The first missile lands in Horsell Common. In a sand pit, Ogilvy discovers a glowing cylinder whose top begins unscrewing. A crowd gathers, drawn by the spectacle. The cylinder lid falls off, and a Martian creature emerges. Several men move closer, but are incinerated by the Heat-Ray–an advanced Martian weapon. The Journalist flees with the crowd. Hammering sounds are heard from the pit: the Martians are constructing machines. A company of soldiers is deployed at the common. Later, an Artilleryman arrives at the Journalist's house, telling him that his comrades were killed by Martian fighting-machines–tripod vehicles armed with Heat-Rays. They set off for London–the Journalist to ensure his lover Carrie is safe, and the Artilleryman to report to headquarters–but are separated when caught in the crossfire between soldiers and fighting-machines. Three days later, the Journalist arrives at Carrie's house to find it empty. Depressed, he attempts to escape London by boat. He sees that Carrie has boarded a steamer ship, but the gangplank is raised before they can reach each other. Fighting-machines approach the steamer, but the ironclad Thunder Child attacks them. The steamer escapes, but Thunder Child is destroyed–humanity's last hope of victory is lost.

The Earth Under the Martians [edit]

The next day, the wandering Journalist finds that red weed–the vegetation giving Mars its colour–has taken root on Earth, rapidly overgrowing the landscape. In a churchyard, he encounters the Parson Nathaniel and his wife Beth. Delirious, Nathaniel believes the invaders are not Martian creatures, but demons arising from human evil. The trio take refuge in a nearby cottage, where they are trapped by black smoke–a Martian chemical weapon. Nathaniel despairs, blaming himself for the invasion. Beth attempts to restore his faith in humanity. A Martian cylinder lands on the cottage, killing Beth. The Martians outside construct a handling-machine: a squat spider-like vehicle used to collect humans. After nine days hiding in the ruined cottage, the Journalist and Nathaniel see the Martians "feeding"–harvesting human blood and injecting it into their own veins. Nathaniel resolves to confront the "demons", believing himself chosen to destroy them with his prayers and holy cross. The Journalist knocks him unconscious to protect them both. Hearing the noise, the Martians send a mechanical claw to explore the cottage. It drags away Nathaniel's unconscious body, but the Journalist evades detection. Later, finding that the Martians have disappeared, the Journalist leaves. On his way back to London, he encounters the Artilleryman once more. The Artilleryman shares his plan to start a utopian civilisation, located underground, where humans can evade the Martians, and ultimately strike back with reverse-engineered Martian technology. The Journalist leaves, realising the Artilleryman's ambitions far exceed his abilities. He reaches London, finding it desolate and empty. Driven to the point of suicide by his own loneliness and the city's silence, the Journalist surrenders to the Martians, but finds the fighting-machines lifeless. The Martians were killed by Earth's bacteria, to which they had no immunity: from the moment they arrived and fed, they were doomed.

In an epilogue, the Journalist concludes his story: humanity recovered from the invasion, and he was reunited with Carrie. The Journalist wonders if Earth is safe, or if the Martians have learned from their failure and are preparing a second invasion. In the modern day, a NASA mission to Mars encounters trouble when the control centre loses contact with the craft. The controller sights a green flare erupting from Mars's surface.

Cast [edit]

About the album [edit]

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds was created by composer Jeff Wayne based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Wells. It features Academy Award nominated actor Richard Burton, Justin Hayward (of The Moody Blues), Chris Thompson (of Manfred Mann), Phil Lynott (of Thin Lizzy), Julie Covington (of Evita and Rock Follies), and David Essex (Evita, The China Plates). Wayne conducts what would come to be known as the Black Smoke Band and the ULLAdubULLA string orchestra.

"Forever Autumn", "The Eve of the War", "Thunder Child", and "The Spirit of Man" are the most recognised individual songs on the album. "Forever Autumn" was a UK Top 5 single, sung by Justin Hayward. The album itself spent 290 weeks in the UK album charts. It was in the top 10 in 22 countries and reached #1 in 11 countries.

Most of the lyrics on the album were written by former Elton John lyricist Gary Osborne.

The album was one of the first recorded on 48 tracks, using two synchronised 24 track Studer A80s at Advision Studios in London. It was engineered by Geoff Young, who was instrumental in bringing the recordings together with only a 16 track desk. His skill in this regard was later recognised by George Michael, who worked with him to record "Last Christmas" and "Careless Whisper" using the same studio and equipment.

The repetition of "Ulla!", the cry made by the Martians, and certain musical refrains throughout the musical act as leitmotifs.

The official album comes with several paintings by Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim that help to illustrate the story from beginning to end.

Other versions of the album [edit]

To promote the 1978 release, an abridged album containing "Radio edits" was distributed to radio stations. Special intros and endings had to be added to certain tracks because they simply were not written with radio in mind. The "air play" album turned out so well that in 1981 CBS decided to release it commercially under the unwieldy title Highlights from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.

Two Spanish versions of the album were released in 1978, one featuring Anthony Quinn in the role of the journalist, and the other for Spain featuring Teófilo Martinez in the same role. A German version was released in 1980 with Curd Jürgens taking the part of the journalist.

A 1989 version of "The Eve of the War" remixed by Ben Liebrand reached number 3 in the UK singles chart. A 1995 special edition of the album featured additional remixes of some tracks and additional conceptual art. Australian progressive metal band Alchemist released a version of "Eve of the War" on a 1998 EP.

In 2000, a collection of remixes of tracks from the original album—including several used in the 1998 computer game—were released on a double CD titled The War of the Worlds: ULLAdubULLA—the Remix Album. While most of the contributors are relatively unknown,[citation needed] the album includes two versions of a remix of "Dead London" by Apollo Four Forty and other remixes by house-music pioneer Todd Terry.

On 23 June 2005 the original album was re-released in two forms: one in a remastered 2-disc Hybrid Multichannel Super Audio CD set; another in a 7-disc "Collector's Edition" featuring many bonuses such as various remixes, outtakes, and the actors reading from the unabridged script as well as the seventh disc being a DVD showing the making of the album, produced by Phoenix Film & Television Productions.

While the original ULLAdubULLA album had a very limited run and went out of print, following the huge success of the 2005 re-release of the original album, ULLAdubULLA II was released on 17 April 2006. This single CD release was largely made of tracks from the original remix album, with some additional new remixes by Tom Middleton and DJ Keltech, and hip-hop versions of two tracks by DJ Zube. Middleton's remixes of "The Eve of the War" were also released on CD and vinyl.

A re-recorded version subtitled The New Generation was released on CD, vinyl and iTunes on November 30, 2012. It features narration from Liam Neeson and new versions of the original songs, now sung by Gary Barlow, Joss Stone, and Maverick Sabre.

Beyond the album [edit]

Video games [edit]

In 1984 CRL Group PLC released Jeff Wayne's Video Game Version of The War of the Worlds for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum home computer. It was also released in Germany as Jeff Wayne's Video Version von Der Krieg der Welten.

In 1998, a real-time strategy game, Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds, was created by Rage Software and released for the personal computer. Jeff Wayne himself produced the musical arrangements for the game, consisting of 45 minutes of material re-scored and remixed in a newer electronica style with techno beats. The game's artwork was based on the Michael Trim, Geoff Taylor and Peter Goodfellow illustrations found throughout the original album booklet, and some of Richard Burton's dialogue as the journalist is used in the opening and closing scenes.

In 1999, a third-person shooter, also entitled Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds, was developed by Pixelogic and released for the Sony PlayStation. It used much of the 1998 game's music and graphical elements, but featured an entirely different campaign with a focus on vehicular combat.

Animated version [edit]

In late 2004 the ULLAdubULLA II production had been commissioned for an animated CGI film version. Test footage of some of the Martian machines was released, but the film itself was never released.[5]

Tour [edit]

A live tour, based on the album, began in the UK and Ireland in April 2006. Jeff Wayne returned to conduct the 48-piece ULLAdubULLA Strings and 10-piece Black Smoke Band. A "virtual" Richard Burton (a projected image of a young Burton with a super-imposed actor's mouth and jaw lip synched to the original Burton recordings) performed as The Journalist. Justin Hayward reprised his original role as The Sung Thoughts of The Journalist and Chris Thompson returned as The Voice Of Humanity. Also from the original recording were Chris Spedding playing lead guitar and Herbie Flowers on bass guitar. Other guest artists who appeared were the "People's Tenor" Russell Watson as Parson Nathaniel, Alexis James as The Artilleryman, and Tara Blaise as Beth. Daniel Boys (known from BBC's Any Dream Will Do) was understudy for all the roles sung by male artists. A model Fighting Machine featured on stage. Also presented was a short animated 'prequel' to the story in the style of the upcoming feature-length film detailing the Martians' ecological destruction of their own world (which was originally made for the 1998 computer game Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds) and their preparations to invade Earth, and including a short remix of "The Red Weed". The show was produced by Ray Jones Damian Collier and Jeff Wayne.

The live show toured Australia and New Zealand in 2007, with dates in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Auckland. The Australian tour featured Australian Idol runner-up Shannon Noll as Parson Nathaniel, actress Rachael Beck as Beth and Michael Falzon as the Artilleryman, alongside Justin Hayward and Chris Thompson from the original cast with Chris Spedding and Herbie Flowers in the band.[6] A further UK live tour took place in December 2007 with Justin Hayward, Chris Thompson, Alexis James, John Payne as Parson, and Sinéad Quinn as Beth.

2008 marked the 30th anniversary of the original album release and a number of events took place, including a "30th Anniversary" tour which started on 7 June 2009 in Dublin.[7] The 30th anniversary saw Justin Hayward, Alexis James and Chris Thompson reprise their respective roles, with Shannon Noll taking the role of Parson Nathaniel and Jennifer Ellison as Beth. When Noll had to leave the show halfway through its 2009 tour, the role of Parson Nathaniel went to Damien Edwards, who completed the run. The virtual Richard Burton was also improved; the whole face was animated (an actor was found with a similar facial structure, all of Burton's narrative parts were mimed, and his face was super-imposed onto the face of the actor). In November 2009 Wayne announced on his website dates for another tour in the UK, Ireland, Germany, and Holland, and for the first time, Belgium, in late 2010–early 2011. Justin Hayward and Chris Thompson reprised their roles as The Sung Thoughts of the Journalist and The Voice of Humanity respectively, with Rhydian Roberts as Parson Nathaniel, Jason Donovan as The Artilleryman and Liz McClarnon as Beth.

DVD [edit]

A two disc Region 2 DVD of the 2006 Wembley Arena, London show was released 6 November 2006 by Universal. Disc 1 contains the live show and Disc 2 contains extras and a documentary of the making of the live show. It is titled Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds - Live on Stage.

The New Generation [edit]

Main article: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds – The New Generation

In 2011 after a short hiatus from touring, Jeff Wayne announced a new Musical Version of The War of the Worlds album to be released in June 2012 entitled The New Generation.[8] The release date was later pushed back to November, due to problems with scheduling recordings with guest artists.[9] With the album release, The New Generation will also cross Europe on a major arena tour.

Wayne explained that the idea was to return to the original album and explore H. G. Wells' characters in more detail, as well as develop the love story between the story's main character, George Herbert, and his fiancee Carrie. Wayne also explained that it would allow him to re-interpret his compositions with the new production techniques of today.

Along with the new album will come a new voice of the Journalist, originally played by Richard Burton in the 1978 album. The role will now be played by Irish actor Liam Neeson, appearing in 3D holography on stage for the Arena tour. On 1 March 2012, Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson was announced as the Artilleryman for both the Album release and the tour version while Kerry Ellis will play Beth for the arena tour only.

Later, Marti Pellow was added to the tour cast and announced as the Voice of Humanity and it was confirmed that Jason Donovan would return to the production but as Parson Nathaniel rather than the Artilleryman, which he played on the previous tour. Later it was announced that Marti Pellow had switched roles to the Sung Thought of the Journalist, Jettblack's lead singer and guitarist Will Stapleton will take his place as the Voice of Humanity. Two new characters were also introduced for the prologue, William (Michael Falzon) and Vera (Lily Osborne).

Both Wayne and Neeson were interviewed at the album's press conference where a clip of Neeson playing the journalist was shown. It was explained that Neeson will appear on stage as Journalist George Herbert in three ways: First as an 11-foot holographic head and shoulders (much like the Richard Burton image on the 2009 tour). Second, as a full body hologram, interacting with live performers on stage without actually being present during the show. And third: Neeson will appear in the 2-hour CGI film displayed on a 100-foot "animation wall" played throughout the show.

Jeff Wayne will again conduct the ULLAdubULLA Strings and Black Smoke Band as he has done in the tours before.

In mid September the cast for the new album was released casting Ricky Wilson as the Artilleryman, Joss Stone as Beth, Alex Clare as the voice of Humanity, Maverick Sabre as Parson Nathaniel and Take That singer Gary Barlow as the Sung thoughts of the Journalist as well as Liam Neeson as the voice of the Journalist. The release date for the New Generation album was set to be November 12, 2012 but moved to November 26 to coincide with the Arena tour.

Track listing [edit]

LP and tape [edit]

All dialogue written by Doreen and Jerry Wayne, based upon H.G. Wells's original text.

All songs written and composed by Jeff Wayne, except where noted. 

Compact disc [edit]

Same as LP, reorganised as a double CD. Original CD release date 1985:

All songs written and composed by Jeff Wayne, except where noted. 

Seven-disc box set [edit]

Discs one and two of this set are hybrid SACDs and include a 5.1 channel mix; they are identical to the standalone 2-disc SACD edition.

All songs written and composed by Jeff Wayne, except where noted. 

Disc Seven – Deconstructing The War of the Worlds (DVD Documentary)

This DVD accompanies Jeff Wayne in the memories of the intensive work while making the original album, featuring footage and an abundance of information about the participating crew and the workflow behind the album.

iTunes / SACD version [edit]

When bought through iTunes or on the 2005 5.1 channel SACD version, the track layout is slightly different:

Disc 1 (The Coming of the Martians)
  1. The Eve of the War — 9:09
  2. Horsell Common and the Heat Ray — 11:35
  3. The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine — 10:36
  4. Forever Autumn — 7:41
  5. Thunder Child — 6:16
Disc 2 (The Earth Under the Martians)
  1. The Red Weed (Part 1) — 5:55
  2. The Spirit of Man — 11:37 (tracks Parson Nathaniel and The Spirit of Man are combined)
  3. The Red Weed (Part 2) — 5:24
  4. The Artilleryman Returns — 1:27
  5. Brave New World — 12:14
  6. Dead London — 8:35
  7. Epilogue (Part 1) — 2:30
  8. Epilogue (Part 2) (NASA) — 1:30

Chart positions [edit]

Year Chart Position
1978 Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart 1
Dutch Top 40 LP Top 50 1
UK Album Chart (Official Chart Company)[10] 5

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b c Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds website, The Story, Chap.14.
  2. ^ "Allmusic review". 
  3. ^ BPI Top 40 albums
  4. ^ The Official Charts Top 40 biggest selling albums of all time
  5. ^ Jeff Wayne's Musical Animated Film
  6. ^ Showbiz.com.au
  7. ^ "30th Anniversary of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds". Official Website. 2008-06-09. 
  8. ^ "The War of The Worlds...The New Generation". Official Website. 2011-11-18. 
  9. ^ http://www.thewaroftheworlds.com/news/newsstory.aspx?id=166
  10. ^ http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/jeff%20wayne/ JEFF WAYNE'S AL VERSION OF THE WAR OF THE WORLDS JEFF WAYNE (CBS 96000). OCC Chart Archive. 01/07/1978.
  • Flynn, John L. (2005). "Chapter 6:The Jeff Wayne album". War of the worlds: from Wells to Spielberg. Galactic Books. pp. 75–84. ISBN 0-9769400-0-0. 

External links [edit]

Preceded by
Grease (soundtrack) by Various artists		 Australian Kent Music Report number-one album
2 October - 19 November 1978		 Succeeded by
Dire Straits by Dire Straits
Martians
Radio
Films
Jeff Wayne
TV series
Sequels
Miscellaneous
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