Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Sarah Loves... Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds


Composer Jeff Wayne created the musical version of The War of the Worlds based on the H.G. Wells novel of the same name. There were no pictures, only a few select paintings that were in the accompanying booklet sold with the music, the imagery was left to the listener's imagination.


From the very first time I heard "Eve of the War" I was hooked. I had never heard anything like it before and I'm not sure how old I was. I don't think I could even comprehend half of what the narration meant but I knew I wanted to know more. I first listened to the highlights version of the CD and I think it was only after expressing an interest in that CD that my Dad showed me the super duper 2 disc version!

Over the years it's become one of my favourite choices of music to listen to. When I worked in the record store I used my 25% discount wisely and bought the 7 disc collector's edition which has a wealth of unreleased material. I also bought the vinyl edition which has a great picture booklet with it. Money well spent! :-) Such a geek :-)

I also have the PC game (a reason why we keep an old computer in the spare room as it doesn't work on newer computers). Which I forget I have and then remember again and play for hours solid and then forget about again. Currently I'm alternating between WOTW and Black Ops, which is making me into a bit of a paranoid martian war hero!

I'm going to see the Live Tour at the O2 London in December, I literally cannot wait.


The Live Tour Cast

Richard Burton - The Journalist (virtual image)
Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues) - Sings the thoughts of the Journalist
Rhydian (X-Factor) - Parson Nathaniel
Liz McClarnon (Atomic Kitten) - Beth, Parson Nathaniel's Wife
Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann) - The Voice of Humanity
Jason Donovan - The Artilleryman


1 comment:

Jools said...

Thanks for the video - that's the closest I'll get to seeing the 'Live' tour. Going to put the whole album on now... Uuuulllaaaaa!!!