ULLA!
In what must be the greatest birthday surprise since Superman’s mum gave him his first pair of red y-fronts; Cesca took me to see the War of the Worlds LIVE show at the BIC.
I have been in a long term love and hate relationship with this musical masterpiece. Forced to listen to the Double LP through my formative childhood by my Step Father, I thought I would never again be tempted to EVER listen to the songs that haunted every damn Sunday morning for ten years. Boy was I wrong. Last year I surfed to the CD’s heavily flash branded website after seeing the slightly execrable Cruise Hollywood movie version and immediately the clips from the album that are streamed through the site grabbed something in me. I had to own it and so I bought the new release CD.
It is perhaps one of those things that as you get older your tastes change. For example I used to not like curry until I was 18 (amazing I know). Perhaps this is like that, or perhaps I simply lacked the ability to “get it” back then, the “it” in question being force fed to me at 100 decibels every Sunday…
Whatever it is; I am transformed. I love this music; I love the voice of Burton, the depth of the story and the sheer humanity of the Thunderchild. I have the tune dialled into the favourites in my MP3 player and listen to it often.
So this was a kick ass surprise. Cesca and I travelled down to her Father’s house for Easter, stopping on the way to renew our National Trust Memberships and enjoy a Tudor house. I fell asleep as the journey continued and was expecting to wake at Nick’s house, nestled deep in the New Forrest.
Instead I woke in the car park at the BIC.
Not a shock one takes likely as the BIC is a 60’s monstrosity of a building and ugly as a drunken prize fighter at his retirement party. The trap and surprise had been sprung!
So what is the War of the Worlds live?
Your chance to see for THE FIRST EVER LIVE PRODUCTION of the international hit album Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds …
Jeff Wayne will be conducting The Black Smoke Band, 48-piece ULLAdubULLA string orchestra featuring SPECIAL GUEST Justin Hayward and, IN SIGHT AND SOUND, Richard Burton as The Journalist
Basically it is a play-through of the album live. That is what I thought, but it is much more. The stage is slit into right and left, with the orchestra on one and the modern band on the other. Both are conducted at the same time by Wayne himself. Behind them is a very large screen on which is projected mixed live action and CGI footage in time with the music. Such things as the walkers attacking London, etc are projected through out the performance, including a new introduction to the tale that explains the Martians motives in launching the attack on Earth a little better.
Hanging above the stage, ready to be lowed at the appropriate time was a giant 30ft Martian Walker. Amazingly detailed and flashing lights and lasers as well as explosions during the battle with the Artillery men. It descended during the performance and added a real atmosphere to the proceedings. The songs were all sung live by performers who strutted around the stage in the correct dress and reacted to the screen and the model towering above their heads. This was excellently pulled off and the singing was of a very high quality. As the songs played, smoke was launched, lights flashed in various colours and lasers turned the auditorium into a battlefield at one moment and an underground shelter the next.
However, all of this was topped by Richard Burton. Hanging on the left of the stage was a large head; perhaps 10 feet tall. This face was blank and onto that canvas was projected the face of a young Richard Burton; who proceeded to speak his lines from the album.
It was an amazing technical achievement with his eyes blinking and the full range of expressions highlighting that deep melodious voice. Everything was just so and so well performed that you quite got carried away by the music and really found yourself enjoying the spectacle. I could feel Cesca’s breathing quicken at points and the emotions flowed as well, especially during the Thunderchild’s final moments.
After the final note was played the audience stood in an exult of their own and graced the performance with a well deserved standing ovation.
Simply brilliant. I am definitely going to get the DVD when it is released. This album deserves to live on and perhaps this time the combined multimedia presentation of the stage show will allow the next generations to “get it” as well.
Basho & Cesca are traveling with:
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