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

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a 1978 concept album by Jeff Wayne and others, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

About the album

The War of the Worlds stars Richard Burton as the narrator-protagonist, Justin Hayward (of The Moody Blues), Phil Lynott, Julie Covington, David Essex and Chris Thompson.

"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 recorded on 48 tracks at Advision Studio, London.

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.

Despite being a self-contained progressive rock album in its own right, rather than an accompaniment to a film or show, the album is frequently and erroneously to be found in the "Soundtracks" section of record shops.

Other versions of the album

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 weren't 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. 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.

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, the album includes two versions of a remix of "Dead London" by Apollo Four Forty.

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.

Whilst the original ULLAdubULLA album had a very limited run and has since gone 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.

Beyond the album

Video Game

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.

Computer Game

A 1998 computer game version, Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds, was created by Rage Software. Jeff Wayne 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 illustrations found throughout the original album booklet, and some of Burton's dialogue as the journalist is used in the opening scenes.

Animated Version

In late 2004 the ULLAdubULLA II production had been commissioned for an animated CGI film version set for a 2007 release, although as of 2008, the film is still in its production stages. Test footage of some of the Martian machines has been released to War of the Worlds online.

Live Tour

A live tour, based on the album, took place in the UK and Ireland in April 2006. A 'virtual' Richard Burton (a projected image of a picture of a young Richard 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 playing bass guitar. Other guest artists who appeared were Alexis James as The Artilleryman, Russell Watson as Parson Nathaniel and Tara Blaise as Beth. Daniel Boys (known from BBC's Any Dream Will Do) is understudy for all the roles sung by man. 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 and their preparations to invade Earth, and including a short remix of "The Red Weed". The show was produced by Damian Collier and Jeff Wayne, who also conducted the 48-piece ULLAdubULLA Strings and 10-piece Black Smoke Band.

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. 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 marks the 30th anniversary of the original album release, and a number of events will be taking place, including a "30th Anniversary" UK tour, which starts on 2009-06-10 in Aberdeen. Jeff Wayne says that he and the show's producer, Damian Collier, will be attempting to "make it the most exciting production yet".

DVD

A 2 Disc DVD Special Edition of the 2006 Wembley Arena, London show was released November 6, 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.

Track listing

All dialogue written by Doreen and Jerry Wayne, based upon H.G. Wells's original text. Music and lyrics by Jeff Wayne except as noted.

LP

Side A

1. "The Eve of the War" – 9:06
2. "Horsell Common and the Heat Ray" – 11:36

Side B

1. "The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine" – 10:36
2. "Forever Autumn" – 7:43 (Wayne, Vigrass, Osborne)
3. "Thunder Child" – 6:10 (Wayne, Osborne)

Side C

1. "The Red Weed (Part 1)" – 5:55
2. "Parson Nathaniel" – 1:55
3. "The Spirit of Man" – 9:46 (Wayne, Osborne)
4. "The Red Weed (Part 2)" – 6:51

Side D

1. "Brave New World" – 12:13 (Wayne, Osborne)
2. "Dead London" – 8:37
3. "Epilogue (Part 1)" – 2:42
4. "Epilogue (Part 2) (NASA)" – 2:02

Compact disc

Same as LP, reorganised as a double CD. Original CD release date October 25, 1990:

Disc one

1. "The Eve of the War" – 9:07 (Wayne)
2. "Horsell Common and the Heat Ray" – 11:35 (Wayne)
3. "The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine" – 10:27 (Wayne)
4. "Forever Autumn" – 7:55 (Wayne, Vigrass, Osborne)
5. "Thunder Child" – 6:03 (Wayne, Osborne)

Disc two

1. "The Red Weed (Part 1)" – 5:51
2. "The Spirit of Man" – 11:45 (Wayne, Osborne) [the LP's tracks "Parson Nathaniel" and "The Spirit of Man" indexed as one track]
3. "The Red Weed (Part 2)" – 6:19
4. "Brave New World" – 12:36 (Wayne, Osborne)
5. "Dead London" – 8:36
6. "Epilogue (Part 1)" – 2:42
7. "Epilogue (Part 2) (NASA)" – 2:01
8. The Spirit of Man (Dubulladub)
9. Forever Autumn - Remix'96
10. Forever Autumn (Dark Autumn Dub)
11. The Eve of The War (pi-r2h Mix)

Tracks 8 - 11 are only on the 2000 re-release

When bought through iTunes the lay-out is slightly different:

iTunes disc 1

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

iTunes disc 2

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 (on physical CD, this is a part of The Red Weed (Part 2))
5. Brave New World - 12:14
6. Dead London - 8:35
7. Epilogue (Part 1) - 2:30
8. Epilogue (Part 2)(NASA) - 1:50

Chart positions

Year	Chart	Position
1978	Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart	1

Additional artists

• Richard Burton – spoken words (The Journalist)
• David Essex – spoken words and vocals (The Artilleryman)
• Phil Lynott – spoken words and vocals (Parson Nathaniel)
• Julie Covington – spoken words and vocals (Beth)
• Justin Hayward – vocals (The Sung Thoughts of The Journalist "Forever Autumn")
• Chris Thompson – vocals (The Voice of Humanity "Thunder Child")
• Jerry Wayne – spoken words ("Epilogue, Part 2")
• Ken Freeman – keyboards
• Chris Spedding – guitar
• Jo Partridge – guitar (The Heat Ray)
• George Fenton – santur, zither, tar
• Herbie Flowers – bass guitar
• Barry Morgan – drums
• Barry da Souza, Roy Jones, Ray Cooper – percussion
• Paul Vigrass, Gary Osborne, Billy Lawrie – backing vocals

See also

• Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds computer game

References

External links

• Official site
• Mike Trim Art
• Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds review (album and DVD) at War Of The Worlds Invasion website
• Electric Sky - 'Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds Live - A Journal'
• War of the Servers movie page at litfusefilms.com