Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds: The End Is Just The Beginning
Thursday, 20 November 2014
Written by Huw Baines
Jeff Wayne’s 'War of the Worlds' means different things to different people. To some, it’s a prog landscape that they’ve revisited time and time again, to others it’s a cassette that clattered around the glovebox of dad’s Montego. For one university friend, it was the only album he saw fit to bring with him when he left home.
Starting next week in Sheffield, Wayne’s current arena staging of his work - complete with a 3D holograph of Liam Neeson and a cast including Jason Donovan, Shayne Ward and Brian McFadden - will enter its final run. We caught up with the man himself to discuss the show’s future, Neeson’s take on a role made famous by Richard Burton, the march of technology and just what it is about HG Wells’ story that he keeps coming back to.
Why change things up now?
Early to mid next year we’re going to be announcing where our next direction for the 'War of the Worlds' is. Until that time I can’t take it any further than that, unfortunately, but it’s for a good reason. It’s a great and exciting new challenge but it means the end of the arena tours as we’ve known them since 2006. It’s exciting, but with heavy heart as it’s been a wonderful experience, not just in the UK but all around the world.
How did the arena tours change your relationship with your material?
I guess when any artist performs live you get a different impression from the studio environment. By the time we started these tours, so many years had passed that I was coming back to it with very fresh eyes and ears. That was very exciting. It meant we could build on what I started when I composed and produced the original and perform it in some of the biggest arenas in the world.
You get a feeling that’s different. It’s quite immediate. To see it go on in its many lives, and particularly these large scale arena productions, has been an amazing experience. You get a first hand view of how people have been feeling about it.
You’ve got a new cast on board - including Shayne Ward, Brian McFadden and Carrie Hope Fletcher - what are they bringing to the table?
Every tour we’ve done there’s always been some new artists playing the characters that are always there within the 'War of the Worlds'. The very best bring their own interpretation to the same material and it sounds fresh. With those that are new to our show, from what I’ve heard in the studio, they’re doing just that. They’re putting their own approach to the roles and I’m very excited about it.
One major change that’s occurred in recent years is Liam Neeson stepping into the role of George Herbert, the journalist, made famous by Richard Burton.
If I wanted to move the 'War of the Worlds' on as a complete piece, I eventually had to accept the fact that Richard’s original performance was finite. He passed away in 1984. We used about 74 sequences for the recording and, up to 2012 when Liam came on board, had a recreation in 3D of Richard. Liam does 90 sequences and it was the result, in fact, of me going back to the original recordings and the first script that Richard performed. It reminded me when I went back to it how much rich material had been adapted from the HG Wells novel. In the year that I composed the original version it was still the black vinyl disc. There’s only so many minutes of music or sound that you could put on one side. I had to edit.
I also felt, for the best creative flow, that things had to be edited, including a whole song that’s been chucked out. Ultimately, coming back to it at the end of a tour in 2010, I went on a family holiday and listened to the original recording by Richard. I read the script and thought there was a lot of rich material there that, if we went back to it, we could add into what became a new recording and production. With Liam doing 90 and Richard doing 74, you can see how much it’s expanded, which meant that the production itself, in any form that I wanted it, had the ability to be opened up. This next production has done that even more so.
Technology has moved on rapidly since the first arena tours, let alone the release of the original album back in the late ‘70s.
Technology changes in the blink of an eye. Even in the eight plus years we’ve been touring 'War of the Worlds', I’ve seen a lot of new ingredients or updates of things. There’s no doubt it helps you when you’re starting fresh with a new production each time. You can apply that which is newest, provided it really contributes something. It’s still the story, it’s still the musical score and the live performances, all of which the technology we use is built around. Liam, this time, is an improved 3D holography, which is up from the last tour.
How do you keep going back to, and finding new things in, this story?
What I first fell in love with hasn’t changed. If anything, in the world we live in today the core themes of the War of the Worlds are even more relevant. What I fell in love with is this very dark Victorian tale in which HG Wells used this amazing story of imagination and vision. But at the same time he was taking a pop at the expanding British empire.
Whether it was Martians invading Earth or one nation invading another or one faith against another, that’s the heart of what The War of the Worlds is about. In the mid-’70s, when I read and fell in love with it, the world was already in turmoil. It’s probably more relevant than it’s ever been.
I’m bringing HG Wells to life in this production. He’s in three different age groups, from age 33, the year after The War of the Worlds was published, then 20 years later, just after World War 1, and shortly before his own passing just after World War 2. And [it's] his own view: why did he write The War of the Worlds, the world he was living in each time and eventually realising that his Martians were just humans in another form.
War of the Worlds Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu November 27 2014 - SHEFFIELD Motorpoint Arena
Fri November 28 2014 - LIVERPOOL Echo Arena
Sat November 29 2014 - GLASGOW SSE Hydro
Sun November 30 2014 - MANCHESTER Phones 4u Arena
Tue December 02 2014 - NOTTINGHAM Capital FM Arena
Wed December 03 2014 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Metro Radio Arena
Fri December 05 2014 - BIRMINGHAM LG Arena
Sat December 06 2014 - LEEDS first direct Arena
Sun December 07 2014 - CARDIFF Motorpoint Arena
Mon December 08 2014 - CARDIFF Motorpoint Arena
Wed December 10 2014 - BOURNEMOUTH BIC
Thu December 11 2014 - BOURNEMOUTH BIC
Sat December 13 2014 - LONDON O2 Arena
Sun December 14 2014 - BRIGHTON Centre
Mon December 15 2014 - BRIGHTON Centre
Click here to compare & buy War Of The Worlds Tickets at Stereoboard.com.
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
