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

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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. People praised its new compositions, dialogue and re-arrangement of Wayne's original music, claiming it to be "less dated", but criticism was aimed at the overuse of the synthesizer elements, as well as some of the singers' performances, mainly by some fans of the original album. The production included a holographic projection of Richard Burton, giant fire-breathing aliens, and epic visual effects. In April 1979, the album exceeded platinum status in the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Australia, and gold certification in Canada, Spain, Israel, and Belgium. Believe me, if like me, you grew up and spent many a hazy evening with your personal headphones and cassette of WOTW,( ha ha, showing my age !

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. As a “standard edition DVD” there’s only minimal special features in the form of interviews with the major cast players; a couple of which have been available online for a while as it is. The album premiered at a launch party at the London Planetarium on 1 June 1978, and featured a playback accompanied by a laser show. Wayne had to convince the guest artists that they were the right performers for their role, and got them keen to carry out their parts.The reimagined story, which was first released in 1978 as a concept album by Jeff Wayne, is narrated by Liam Neeson and includes performances by Jason Donovan, Marti Pellow and Ricky Wilson.

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. It features both all new footage as well as footage seen on the CGI 100-foot wide screen used during the live shows. Music Week commented that the album is "superb" and predicted it will become "one of the biggest sellers.The process involved a re-fit of Wayne's home studio, including the installation of a high end Pro Tools rig and a surround sound monitoring system. At first, this irritated me, but they are small and negligible, and they also add much more depth - Let go your inner fan boy and embrace the changes as they do work for the majority.