The War of The Worlds (CD)

[Stevenj214]

I'm a huge fan of The War of The Worlds.

Are there other, similar, CDs that might be worth a listen to?

[pidsy]

Have u got the remastered version?
Its got dodgy dance remixes at the end of the second cd. Kind of ruined the original for me.

Btw, thunderchild is one of my favourite pieces ever.

[Russ35]

If you haven't seen it try and see the Live show of it. It's brilliant.

No future dates as yet, so maybe next year till they tour again.

[Seeker UK]

pidsy said:

Have u got the remastered version?
Its got dodgy dance remixes at the end of the second cd. Kind of ruined the original for me.

Btw, thunderchild is one of my favourite pieces ever.

I've got all 3 versions of this (I know, I know).

The remaster that came out in 2005 is rubbish; not because of the dancy remixes (I can just about cope with those) but because Jeff turned down the synths and turned up the orchestra and that kind of misses the point IMHO. The late 90s version is probably best as it's a lot clearer than the original CD but retains the original mix.

As for similar things, er, tricky.

Jeff did do a musical version of Spartacus in the early 90s and it bombed. TBH, it's not quite the same as WotW again, less synthy more lush orchestrations (and Katherine Zeta Jones).

Some other thoughts:

David Essex's self titled album and "Rock On" are close - they feature Jeff Wayne's orchestrations and Ken Freeman's synth work.

The Vigrass and Osborne album, "Queues" is an interesting one, if you can find it (it's as rare as rocking horse poo), as it has the original version of "Forever Autumn" and features Jeff Wayne and Chris Spedding (one of the WotW guitarists).

You might also check out early Manfred Mann's Earth Band (Roaring Silence and Watch are good starts) as they feature Chris Thompson, the vocalist on "Thunderchild".

After that, I suppose The Alan Parsons Project come closest with their 'concept' albums. Check out "Eye in the Sky", " Robot" or "Pyramid" as good starters.

[PaulHogan]

Pretty much anything by Rick Wakeman

[Seeker UK]

PaulHogan said:

Pretty much anything by Rick Wakeman

Good call - "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" is a good start.

[2volvos]

When WotW first came out in '78 I think, I was 10 and the other albums being played by my parents at the time were Variations by the Lloyd Webber brothers (think South Bank Show theme) and Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.

Neither gave me the collywobbles like WotW did though...

[rhinochopig]

There's a version of holsts planet suite that has synths and sound effects. Can't remember the version though-sorry.

[SeanyD]

I can recommend the War of the Worlds show DVD, stunning live musicians recreating the original soundtrack. Also unfortunately is two halves, the first half stunning, the second half not so impressive, much like the original was.