Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds Alive on Stage! The New Generation

Obviously some people don't appreciate just how great this is absolutely brilliant with great performances from all involved. I was a fan of the original with Richard burton,Phil lynott and co but this version is great too Liam neeson always great Ricky Wilson did a great job too that guys seriously talented the guy who rated this 2 you have no idea about decent productions and boring? No idea what you saw it certainly wasn't this.

Amazing I loved it!! So much to keep you entertained not to mention great music! Highly recommend a watch if you like Sci-fi or just a good show for that matter.

Jeff Wayne's original album is without a doubt 10/10 perfect timeless classic. It was a totally original concept album featuring legendary narration by Richard Burton and wonderful electronic music while also telling a faithful and enjoyable adaptation of H G Wells story. Many years after its first release, and by which time it was a classic album in many households, Jeff Wayne created a live tour to perform his work live to the masses. The 2006 recording of the original tour was a lot of fun too and brought to life the classic sounds which for many years were 2-dimensional only. The singers were excellent and the musical performers excellent. There is a video that runs behind the performers which helps visually tell the story. This helped bring the actual heart of the story to life in a way that always seemed secondary to the music when one is listening to an album. So watching the live tour is another way to experience and to bring to life the wonderful classic piece of musical work.

However, in 2012 Jeff Wayne rerecorded the album under the title of War of the Worlds - The New Generation. The music is the same but rerecorded with different arrangements and instrumentation. This album was largely criticised by fans because nothing was broken so why did he decide to fix it? He only rendered it worse? Well I thought so too, I never listen to the New Generation album as it is inferior to the original. However, after watching the 2013 blu ray recording of the New Generation live tour I now understand why jeff felt he needed to redo it. It is because it was about reworking the live show to include more of the H G Wells narrative so as to make the liver performance more impactful to the audience, particularly in regards to conveying the story. And I have to say that watching the 2013 recording of the New Generation live tour was much more engaging than watching this 2006 recording of the original tour. The staging is better with better visuals and effects and narration and the Wells story comes through in a more complete way. And this in turns heightens the experience of the music that accompanies it. So in the end, while the original album is by far the superior to listen to, the 2013 live recording is by far the better one to watch. It is just a shame that in the 2013 recording you have the inferior musical arrangements as accompaniments and some rather dreadful vocals by Marti Pellow.

The album was amazing, unlike anything, and very listenable, although Disc 1 (on vinyl) was far superior to Disc 2.

There have been numerous live re-incarnations, which have received great reviews generally. This version, with a 3D Liam Neeson (that really works and he has a great voice) dates from 2012-2013, and was the only version (of 9 live productions) that has the risible Marti Pellow destroying "Forever Autumn", the wonderful song that Wayne adapted from a Lego advert for the incredible voice of Justin Hayward (Moody Blues; Blue Jays; solo).

I have to admit that Pellow destroying this song, with his horrific teeth emotionless delivery and fake sincerity was where me and this DVD parted company. I gave up in disgust. Adding to the general meh factor was Wayne supposedly "conducting" by doing Dad Dancing whilst being hilariously ignored by the various highly talented session musicians. Special credit must be given to the guitarist / vocoder / mandolin ? Balalaika) player, he is truly amazing, his tone, technical accomplishment and general IDGAF attitude was the best thing about this show, I think it is Huw Edwards and the bassist also was superb, who knew some of those sound effects came from a bass guitar?

Even after seeing this I'd probably still go to a live show, but not if tombstone-teeth is singing, and I'd be more than happy if they just did a 3D version of Wayne to fist punch from the sidelines, like a Travis Kelce style interpreter for the deaf.

The music is HORRIBLE

And does Liam Neeson really need the money? It's absurdly boring.