Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds

War of The Worlds is back with a new star-studded cast. Jeff Hemmings spoke to its creator Jeff Wayne

War of the Worlds (WOTW) is truly a phenomenon; one of the biggest sellng albums of all-time, it has resided in the top ten album charts for 330 weeks, and was number one in 11 countries. And with a new version about to hits the streets and the Great Digital Platform In The Sky, it will continue to rack up ever greater sales.

“It came about after a tremendously enjoyable two year period, producing and arranging and touring with David Essex. David would write about 98 per cent of the songs that I would arrange and produce, and I would translate my studio arrangements for the live band. But what it did do was reduce a large part of my composing side, and because of the success with David my composing got diminished. And my Dad kept reminding; he said, ‘You know you always said you wanted to find a story that you could feel very passionate about and interpret it as a composer, arranger and producer. Don’t forget that at heart you are a composer,’” says Jeff, who already had an established career as a composer for theatre and TV including a CV that includes composing for more than 3000 commercials and working with the likes of Hugh Hudson, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott and Alan Parker, all movie directors who cut their teeth making commercials for TV. “So we agreed to read some books – a lot of them… My Dad came over one night and said he had a book that might excite me. It was HG Wells’ WOTW. I took it on tour with me (with David Essex) and he was right! It connected with me, there was a vibe about it that was exactly what I was looking for.”

Wells’ classic had originally been written as an episodic adventure before being stitched together as a book, going on to be a commercial as well as critical success. The story was given a further boost when an infamous version of it was broadcast to the American public in 1938 via radio, and with narration by Orson Welles.

“He set the story at a hotel, where there was this palm court music band playing, and all of a sudden there would be an interruption, with the announcer saying there had been a sighting… ‘but back to the music of Raymond Del Fuedo and his Palm Court Orchestra’, and you would hear a bit more music, and then another interruption, a bit more anticipation in the newscast… ‘There is this sighting not easily identifiable from Earth.. and now back to the music…’ and it just kept building and building until there was this invasion happening, theoretically in real time. It caused panic in the United States…”

Although Jeff Wayne had accrued many contacts within the music industry, he now wanted to make an album based on WOTW, something with no real precedent. “I signed with CBS for WOTW, who David Essex was with. I had signed David to my fledgling label, did a deal with CBS, and off we went and David was enjoying this great success. So CBS was keen to back me, but only to a point. They invested £70,000 but it ended up costing £240,000, so the rest came from my life savings and more. My family backed me: they said, ‘look, you may never get another opportunity to start with a blank page so just go for it the way you are hearing it.’ But, it was huge gamble…”

With that blank canvas Wayne eventually ended up enrolling the services of Richard Burton, Julie Covington, Justin Hayward (of the Moody Blues), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy), David Essex and others.

“I had a score, a cast of characters… Richard Burton was at the top of my list – his voice was incredible.”

After working out where he would be (doing a theatre show in New York) Wayne then sent him a letter, with the first draft of the script.
“I got a call from Robert Lance, who was his manager at the time, and he said, ‘Richard loves the idea of it’ and then said, ‘Count him in, dear boy’. My Dad happened to be there at the time of the call, and I handed the phone to him, stunned, who there and then did the deal. Looking back it was extraordinarily easy.”

As Wayne readily admits it was a case of right time, right idea. Sci-fi was enjoying a renaissance, and the album spawned two songs that would become big hits (‘Forever Autumn’, and ‘The Eve Of The War’) helping to make the album one of the biggest sellers of all time. In 2005 WOTW was given a new lease of life. “We remixed the album and repackaged it and Sony (who had inherited CBS by this time) released it as a catalogue album. It went in the top ten again for 11 weeks in a row. There were two consecutive weeks where it would have been number one if they had planned for it, but they had run out of stock! That triggered an offer for me to conduct a concert rendition of WOTW for one show at the Albert Hall, which sold out in two hours. The box office reported back to our promoters that there was enough demand for another 10 or 11 shows… the promoters came back to me saying that if I could provide something more than a concert rendition, that could incorporate something that shows the story, they could book more shows.

I said, ‘you fancy coming to my studio? It just so happens I can show you some animation that is fairly well developed, but I’ve also been working on a large scale multi-media production which had no target date’. They came over, and they said, ‘Wow! Thats incredible’. I had seven months to pull it off.” Which of course, he and his production team did, eventually selling out its 15 date run. Its been touring regularly here and abroad ever since… And now, the next phase of the WOTW phenomenon; a new album, and a new cast of charcters for the upcoming UK and European tour.

“It’s called ‘The New Generation’, a new musical version of the album. The cast is completely new, with Liam Neeson taking over the role of Richard Burton. “He appears in 3D holography,” says Jeff. “We recorded him in New York. He was a delight to work with, with an amazing voice; like Richard Burton’s but distinctive.

“The new cast includes Marti Pellow, Jason Donovan, Joss Stone, Wicked’s Kerry Ellis, Jettblack’s Will Stapleton and Ricky Wilson of The Kaiser Chiefs. “Ricky was an amazing discovery. I had seen him at a Kaiser Chiefs gig before he signed on to do WOTW. He commands the stage in a very special way, not as a trained thespian – that is not his thing – but he is magician on stage, you don’t take your eyes off him.” The album also features Maverick Sabre, Gary Barlow, Alex Clare and the aforementioned Ricky Wilson, Joss Stone and Liam Neeson.
With a large orchestra, band and a cast that includes many star-studded singers, War of the Worlds looks set to entice a new generation of fans.

War of the Worlds, Brighton Centre, 16 & 17 December. War of the Worlds: The New Generation has just been released.