xthread: (Tigger)
[personal profile] xthread
Back in the late 70s, Jeff Wayne organized the production of a musical version of H.G. Well's War of the Worlds. He got Richard Burton to voice the lead character and Justin Hayward (of the Moody Blues) to perform on it, and Elton John's lyricist wrote most of the music.

It did not suck. [livejournal.com profile] kevinelong introduced me to it in 1986, and I've been inflicting it on people ever since.

In 1995, owing to the vagaries of UK copyright law, Sony rereleased the album, including some additional remixes and radio versions of tracks, to maintain the existing copyright. Copyright laws that require that the rightsholder actually continue to deliver some ongoing social benefit in return for the privelige of government sanctioned protection of intellectual property rights rock. I narrowly missed obtaining a copy of the special edition promotional EP that Sony released at the time, sadly.

Earlier this year, I noted that someone had pulled together an actual musical stage production of the piece, and seriously contemplated going to Britain to see it. Unfortunately, it was close to closing in London when I found out about it, and seeing it outside of London didn't seem like it would really be the same.

However, it appears that they also took video, and will be releasing a dvd of it in November.

The trailer is here.

Baby.

Just wow.

I am looking forward to it with antici-

Date: 2006-08-11 01:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xthread.livejournal.com
pation!

(By the way, Happy Belated Birthday!)

Date: 2006-08-11 05:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ula1066.livejournal.com
Very cool. I'll have to find that, it has always been one of my favorite stories.

A million to one...

Date: 2006-08-11 07:07 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] unseelie23.livejournal.com
Now I have "Spirit of Man" stuck in my head...

Date: 2006-08-11 07:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] unseelie23.livejournal.com
Oh, for the record the computer game was, sadly, pretty much unplayable.

Date: 2006-08-11 10:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rmd.livejournal.com
oh how cool.

Date: 2006-08-11 03:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] twistle.livejournal.com
I have loved that musical ever since I first found out about it, I have trashed 2 copies of the CD by overuse....

Date: 2006-08-11 04:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jeffpaulsen.livejournal.com
I must now find my copy and crank up Forever Autumn.

Forerver not quite Autumn

Date: 2006-08-22 10:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kevinelong.livejournal.com
But the best version of that song was on the promo single not on the double album. Perhaps that rerelease has it in the extra stuff. Odds are its the version you want since you listen to Portland radio.
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