Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds concert

Just got home from an AMAZING event.

Pam and I travelled down to the South Coast town of Bournemouth to see the concert. We were not disappointed.

The venue was packed and the stage was huge. A large head was suspended stage left and when the lights went down it was obvious that it was a representation of the late, great, Richard Burton. It blinked and then spoke. "Who would have believed................" very clever and effective.

There was a big orchestra stage right and the rock band stage left. In the band were a number of guys known to you lovely people. They included Herbie Flowers, Laurie Wisefield, Chris Thompson, Justin Hayward and Chris Spedding. The whole ensemble was conducted from the p[odium by Jeff Wayne.

There was a film played throughout and I was amazed at how well the musicians were synchronised to the film (or vice versa ).

Those of you that know the album will understand when I say that live it is even more exciting than it is on record. The "Heat Ray" guitar and the menacing, terrifying "Ulla" screamed by the Martians were chilling.

The show was split, like the album, into two halves and I have to say that the two hour show flew past.

There is a song during the second half of the show that is sung by the character Beth who is the Parson Nathanial's wife. It is a very moving song about not giving up in the face of adversity. The chorus goes:

"There must be something worth living for
There must be something worth trying for
Even something worth dieing for.
And if one man stands tall
There must be hope for us all
Somewhere
Somewhere in the Spirit of Man"

On hearing these words, beautifully sung by the young Irish singer Tara Blaise, I was struck by the fact that even though this was released almost 30 years ago those words still ring true today.

Pam and I went back to the hotel along with a few other people from the gig and we all agreed, over a few bottles of dry white wine, that it was one of the best shows we had ever seen. Last night we both had rather odd dreams about martians. It really was that thought provoking an event.

I hope Jeff Wayne brings the show over to the US. If he does, I recommend you grab tickets the day they go on sale. You will be pleased you did I promise.

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Edit.
Someone at the gig took some photos. They give a pretty good idea of what we saw.

http://www.shooting-the-herd.co.uk/wotw/page1.html

[Rick and Roll]

Excellent, thanks! Great review and pics....