Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds: The New Generation [DVD]

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The album features guest artists David Essex, Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott, Chris Thompson, and Julie Covington, with actor Richard Burton as the narrator. Wayne produced the musical arrangements for the game, consisting of 45 minutes of material rescored and remixed in a newer electronica style with techno beats. It was important for Wayne that the different voices on the album sounded "convincing and believable".

In 1979, the album was named Best Recording in Science Fiction and Fantasy, in a panel of judges that included George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Alfred Hitchcock. O'Neill appears a final time at the end of the show, just before the NASA epilogue, this time as a 79-year-old Wells, elderly and in a wheelchair. In 2018, it was the UK's 32nd best-selling studio album of all time, and has sold an estimated 15 million copies worldwide. Casting Announced For Jeff Wayne's Musical Phenomenon The War Of The Worlds With Liam Neeson In 3D Hologram".

A positive review was published by Ben Ostrander in the science-fiction magazine The Space Gamer, who thought the album was "magnificent" and despite some differences between the record and the original novel, it "is a kind of rock/radio play with modern interpretations" and is "better than most crap on TV, and makes for a fun evening around the stereo.

First I must state a fair warning that this is region locked for PAL 2,4 (meaning if you live in the US, you will have a difficult time finding a device that will play this DVD). The string section consisted of violins, violas, cellos, and double basses, totalling 50 players and led by violinist Patrick Halling. A live tour based on the album began on 29 November 2012 and began playing across the UK and Europe. Elsewhere, it charted in 22 countries and reached number one in 11 of them including Australia, where it was top for seven weeks.The new Liam Neeson hologram planned for the tour was demonstrated at the press conference with Neeson and Wayne and was also shown on The Alan Titchmarsh Show, on which an "Eve of the War" and "Forever Autumn" medley was performed with Wayne conducting. Burton had already committed to start work on Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) in Los Angeles after the Equus run, so Wayne organised to record the narration there to avoid further delays. Later, just before Act II begins, O'Neill appears again as a 53-year-old Wells, discussing the end of World War I and speaking about the destructive capabilities of humankind. In early 2018, Jeff Wayne announced that The War of The Worlds would be touring again with a special limited two month UK Tour celebrating the album's 40th anniversary. Although Wayne had not previously met the other voice actors: Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott as Parson Nathaniel, Moody Blues vocalist Justin Hayward singing the Journalist's thoughts, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band guitarist and vocalist Chris Thompson as the Voice of Humanity, he was "thrilled" that they took part "because they each brought their own sort of magic, their style and performance and singing.

In the second epilogue, set 80 years later, a NASA mission to Mars flounders when the control center from Pasadena loses contact with the uncrewed spacecraft. The show also includes effects used previously on tours including the use of pyrotechnics, now much improved, in which the audience is blasted by real heat rays, leaves fall upon the audience during "Forever Autumn", and a levitation effect is used after Beth is killed during the Spirit of Man. He resolves to escape London by boat and later catches sight of Carrie aboard a steamer, but the gangplank is raised before he can join her.The newly arrived Martians construct a handling machine: a squat, spider-like vehicle used to capture and collect humans. The Journalist's account begins later that year, with the sighting of several bursts of green gas which, for ten consecutive nights, erupt from the surface of Mars and appear to approach Earth. A short animated prequel to the story was also presented in the style of the upcoming feature film detailing the Martians' ecological destruction of their own world (originally made for the 1998 computer game) and their preparations to invade Earth. Throughout mid to late 2012, tracks from The New Generation were released through various radio shows, which included all the guest artists tracks and a premier of "The Eve of the War". Liam Neeson - Even as a Hologram, was a perfect choice to replace Richard Burton, and it was also wonderful to hear Marti Pellow (Wet Wet Wet) perform once more.

In March 2020, Jeff Wayne announced a new tour of The War of the Worlds for 2021 with new technological advances being added to the production.It was announced that The War of the Worlds was to make its theatrical debut in a "re-imagined" West End production at the Dominion Theatre in London's West End, produced by Wayne and Bill Kenwright. It originally featured Wayne sharing the dialogue with his father Jerry, but "the gulf between his performance and mine was too great, so we sacked me!