Journey to the Centre of the Earth - re-recording
Discussion
So in the past week we have had the re-recording of Jeff Waynes 'War of the Worlds' and another progrock classic release within the last couple of weeks that almost slipped me by was the re-recording of Rick Wakemans classic 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth'.
People have been begging him to re-release/record/tour this recording but the answer was always the same, No, as there was no copy in existence of the orchestra/choir score. That changed 4 years ago when a cardboard box was delivered to his house that contained a load of sheet music, most of which was nothing to do with him. He kept looking in the box and at the bottom, water damaged was a copy of the missing score.
So 4 years later he's been in the studio and done a studio recording including the extra 20mins that was cut from the original release so it would fit on a single album. The original release was recorded live in 1974 (cheapest way to get it recorded), no rehearsals apart from on the day. Various technical problems occurred, timing issues, microphone problems, some audio having to be added in afterwards etc. It still went on to sell 14million copies worldwide.
So we finally have a studio recording.
This time around the narrator is Peter Egan (David Hemmings did the original). Ashley Holt is back to do the same vocals. On this recording he has brought in a female vocalist, Hayley Sanderson to do the vocals that were done originally by Gary Pickford-Hopkins. Again using the English Chamber Choir and this time the Orion Symphony Orchestra, instead of the London Symphony Orchestra
This is basically just an exact copy of the original (+ the extra 20mins), using the same score, Rick using the same type of equipment he used back in 1974. It sounds excellent especially the Choir parts.
At the minute it is only available as a Classic Rock Magazine Fan Pack, which includes the CD, 132 page magazine that covers the original album, the re-recording and Ricks life and career and a replica Programme from 1974.
I think it is to get a normal release at some point.
People have been begging him to re-release/record/tour this recording but the answer was always the same, No, as there was no copy in existence of the orchestra/choir score. That changed 4 years ago when a cardboard box was delivered to his house that contained a load of sheet music, most of which was nothing to do with him. He kept looking in the box and at the bottom, water damaged was a copy of the missing score.
So 4 years later he's been in the studio and done a studio recording including the extra 20mins that was cut from the original release so it would fit on a single album. The original release was recorded live in 1974 (cheapest way to get it recorded), no rehearsals apart from on the day. Various technical problems occurred, timing issues, microphone problems, some audio having to be added in afterwards etc. It still went on to sell 14million copies worldwide.
So we finally have a studio recording.
This time around the narrator is Peter Egan (David Hemmings did the original). Ashley Holt is back to do the same vocals. On this recording he has brought in a female vocalist, Hayley Sanderson to do the vocals that were done originally by Gary Pickford-Hopkins. Again using the English Chamber Choir and this time the Orion Symphony Orchestra, instead of the London Symphony Orchestra
This is basically just an exact copy of the original (+ the extra 20mins), using the same score, Rick using the same type of equipment he used back in 1974. It sounds excellent especially the Choir parts.
At the minute it is only available as a Classic Rock Magazine Fan Pack, which includes the CD, 132 page magazine that covers the original album, the re-recording and Ricks life and career and a replica Programme from 1974.
I think it is to get a normal release at some point.
Edited by Russ35 on Sunday 2nd December 16:10
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