Dan Dan daaaaa!
Jeff Wayne’s ‘The War Of The Worlds’ is 40 years of this year! #TWOTWis40
Last night I was thrilled to see the show at The Brighton Centre with Chris, complete with original musicians Herbie Flowers on bass, Chris Spedding on guitar and of course Jeff Wayne directing the humongous band of musicians.
If you haven’t heard this iconic score you really should googled it right now. The novel, about an alien 👽 👾 invasion from Mars, was adapted to a radio play with music by Jeff Wayne in the late 70s. It has become one of the best selling albums of all time in the UK 🇬🇧 and I really don’t understand why it hasn’t caught on as an artform. Absolutely wonderful.
Well last night we caught it live! After waiting since January when we booked our tickets, it was very exciting. We’d heard the rumour about fire being shot in the direction of the audience, holographic actors, incredible technicals and a model Martian fighting machine that was 25 feet tall, and fantastic performances.
We were not disappointed.
The music was just wonderful. That’s a given. The acting cast was brilliant too – the sung thoughts of the journalist performed by Newton Faulkner, the Spirit Of Humanity performed by Nathan James, who incidentally performed at an awards ceremony I attended a while back.
Jason Donovan, as Nathanial the Pastor was fabulous too. His voice was so strong, dark like oak and manly. His scene was one of the best parts, and I particularly enjoyed him getting pinched in the face by the hologram of Liam Neeson as the journalist. Fantastic acting.
I also enjoyed how much of the action was pushed out into the audience, not least because the stage was full of musicians! A bridge descended into the audience at one point from where the Artilleryman sang ‘we’ll start all over agaaaaain!’; during Forever Autumn thousands of autumn leaves rained into the auditorium, and the flame thrower was really quite impressive!
All in all it was an incredible experience and I feel so privileged to have been able to see this iconic piece of art performed live. Jeff is clearly not as young as he was but still giving it his all, Herbie Flowers had his bass lifted onto him by his tech, but still played out of his skin. Humbling to watch. I can only wish for the opportunity to work on a project anything like this at some point in my career. Inspirational.
What a great night out.
#TheEveOfTheWar
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