Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of 'The War Of The Worlds' - The New Generation

Ahoy
Rotterdam
The Netherlands

19th December 2012 (2012-12-19)


RECORDING:

Type: Audience master, recorded from centre seat in row 13, approximately
20 metres from the suspended PA.

Source: Factory-matched pair of Schoeps CCM 41V microphones (DINa mounted) ->
Marantz PMD661 recorder with Oade Concert Mod
(-18 dB gain/44.1 kHz/24 bit WAV)

Lineage: Audacity 2.0.2
* applied variable amplification for consistency across recording
* attenuation of sound of audience
* added fades
* split tracks
* converted to 16 bit
-> FLAC (compression level 8) [libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917]

Taper: Ian Macdonald (ianmacd)


SET LIST:

01. [03:10] The Prequel (Part 1)
02. [03:34] The Prequel (Part 2)
03. [10:15] The Eve Of The War
04. [12:26] Horsell Common And The Heat Ray
05. [11:53] The Artilleryman And The Fighting Machine
06. [07:54] Forever Autumn
07. [06:23] Thunder Child
08. [08:36] The Red Weed (Part 1)
09. [12:07] The Spirit Of Man
10. [05:19] The Red Weed (Part 2)
11. [03:21] The Artilleryman Returns
12. [12:14] Brave New World
13. [05:27] Dead London (Part 1)
14. [03:48] Dead London (Part 2)
15. [06:45] Epilogue (Part 1)
16. [02:58] Epilogue (Part 2) NASA

Total running time: 116:09


NOTES:

Tickets for this show had gone on sale in November 2011, more than a year in
advance. I somehow missed the announcement of the concert and didn't chance
upon it until March 2012, at which point I immediately purchased a ticket for
the event. Fortunately, I was still able to secure the centre block of row 13.

Thanks to the vagaries of Ticketmaster's allocation algorithm (which is more
concerned with furnishing the so-called secondary ticketing agencies with high
volume premium blocks than it is with serving the small-fry music-loving
proletariat), a quick check on the day of the actual concert revealed that you
could now purchase a ticket for a slightly better seat than the best available
to me some six months earlier. Obviously, some allocations had been returned
unsold to the central pool.

I didn't mind this, though. My placement in the centre of row 13 should prove
conducive to both viewing and recording the concert.

In fact, the only thing wrong with the location is that it's in Rotterdam.
It's not my favourite city at the best of times and I've had to drive here
once this week already. I also have to catch an aeroplane in the morning, so I
could do without the sacrifice of the hour it will take me to drive home after
the gig. I have a lot to do before I can board that plane.

On the two previous occasions that the Jeff Wayne circus had come to the
Netherlands, it had taken up residence in the Heineken Music Hall in
Amsterdam. That venue is about a third the size of Rotterdam's Ahoy.

The popularity of the show on the last two tours had necessitated multiple
performances in the Dutch capital, so perhaps the transfer to the larger Ahoy
was a deliberate move towards putting on only a single show in the country.

The War Of The Worlds has a very large entourage and the savings to be made
from avoiding a second night in a hotel for all of the musicians and technical
staff must be huge; and then there are the daily recurring costs of meals,
venue hire, drivers, etc.

If the tour were being booked now, perhaps the recently opened Ziggo Dome in
Amsterdam would be chosen over Ahoy, as the two venues are roughly the same
size, but the Ziggo Dome has much better acoustics and a more pleasant
ambience. Ahoy has the feel of a gigantic aircraft hangar that has been
converted into a makeshift music venue for the night.

If there is to be another tour that takes in the Netherlands, we'll find out
in due course which venue now enjoys the maestro's preference.

Anticipating heavy traffic, I arrive in plenty of time for the show, which
also allows me to accommodate a junk food dinner. It beats being hungry, at
least.

A pre-gig visit to the merchandise stand yields a T-shirt, a USB stick (with
exclusive content not on the album, don't you know?) and a signed programme.
Never one to miss a commercial trick, our Jeff is charging EUR 10 more for a
signed copy of the programme; and like the mug he knows I am, I stand for it.

Between petrol, parking (EUR 12.50!), a hot-dog and the merchandise, it's
already an expensive evening. Add in the ticket and it becomes a very
expensive night out. I suppose I can console myself with the thought that I'm
not a Rolling Stones fan, at least.

The lights slowly start to dim about fifteen minutes ahead of the scheduled
20:00 start. A couple, dressed in Victorian clothes, wander around the stage,
pointing upwards to what, with the suspension of disbelief, becomes the night
sky. It's a sight made familiar by the 2010 tour. This serves to prime the
audience and get things nice and quiet for the start of the show.

Once the Victorian couple have left the stage, the string section, known to
fans as the ULLAdubULLA Strings, file on. They are followed by the Black Smoke
Band, which includes veterans from the original 1978 album and previous stage
tours, guitarist Chris Spedding and bassist Herbie Flowers.

Last to arrive on stage is Jeff Wayne himself, who runs down the gangway in
that cheesy and unnecessary showbiz fashion beloved of middle-aged
entertainers. He takes up position at the conductor's stand.

The show will start at any moment and there's great anticipation in the air,
because the production has been overhauled since the last tour. After several
years of successful, sell-out tours on the strength of the original thirty
year old album, a new album, subtitled The New Generation, has just seen the
light of day. It features an entirely new cast and rerecorded music.

On the face of it, some of the casting choices give cause to raise one's
eyebrows. For example, Gary Barlow plays the 'sung thoughts of the
journalist', taking over from Justin Hayward. I never thought I'd find myself
purchasing an album with one of Take That on it, but life is full of little
surprises. To his credit and my further surprise, he actually does a decent
job of interpreting the role.

Joss Stone takes over from Julie Covington as Beth, the parson's wife. There,
however, we're not so lucky. Frankly, she's terrible, and I can't imagine what
Wayne was thinking when he cast her in the role. There's no accounting for
taste.

Oddly enough, the cast that has been assembled for the 2012 stage production
is not the same as the one that features on the brand new album.

Gary Barlow, for example, is presumably too busy coining it in with the
exhumed Take That to go on the road with Jeff Wayne, so his stage role shoes
are filled by former Wet Wet Wet singer, Marti Pellow.

Again, one wonders if it was anything more than pity that inspired Wayne to
pull this tired old has-been out from between the mothballs. Pellow delivers a
passable, but uninspired performance that probably qualifies him as the
weakest link in tonight's chain.

Similarly, Joss Stone is replaced on stage by Kerry Ellis. Ellis lays down a
competent Beth and, whilst not particularly thrilling in the role, she
thankfully doesn't feel the need to resort to the same strained fruit-and-veg
market warble as Stone, whose merciful absence tonight earns Jeff Wayne my
heartfelt gratitude.

Jason Donovan, another 'oh fuck, no!' moment at the time of his original
casting as the artilleryman, nevertheless earned our respect for his
performance in that role during the 2010 tour. Tonight, he demonstrates that
that there are further strings to his bow as he delivers a convincing Parson
Nathaniel. The role on the album was performed by the strangely named Maverick
Sabre.

Finally, replacing Alex Clare from the album, Will Stapleton of Jettblack
unquestionably possesses a strong 'voice of humanity', but is visually
distracting with his decidedly un-Victorian hair-metal coiffure. His presence
on stage is so short, however, that it scarcely matters.

With the introduction of additional narrative dialogue into the New Generation
album, the time had finally come to retire Richard Burton and find a new voice
actor to play the journalist, George Herbert.

Burton is therefore replaced on the new album by Liam Neeson, who I feel
delivers a rather dour, unimpassioned performance. Even at the press
conference organised by Wayne at the time of the new album's announcement,
Neeson had seemed unexcited at having landed the role.

As far as Burton's involvement in the stage production is concerned, previous
tours had taken the animated holographic head of the dead actor about as far
as it could go. A virtual Liam Neeson therefore also replaces Burton on stage.

Rather than turn Neeson into just another holographic head at the side of the
stage, there is a second translucent canvas on stage, positioned between the
band and the string section, onto which the image of Neeson can be projected
in fully body length, essentially allowing him to transition between the roles
of narrator and actor.

This facility is used to great effect when the two-dimensional journalist
appears to hand the flesh and blood artilleryman a glass of wine. The same
trick is pulled again later when the journalist floors the parson with a right
hook to prevent him from betraying their location.

Leeson's film performance, like his vocal album delivery, is a bit drab. He
is lacklustre and lacks Burton's gravitas. The latter's superior rendering is
all the more impressive when you consider that it was accomplished with voice
alone. Burton could have had no idea at the time of his death in 1984 that his
voice would one day be coupled with a holographic projection of his head to
reproduce his performance for a theatre audience.

Neeson's Yank on Irish twang doesn't really fit the part, either, in my
opinion. For me, the journalist is and always will be a Welshman (or perhaps
an Englishman). My vote would have gone to a distinguished actor like Anthony
Hopkins. Neeson possesses the solemnity, but lacks the drama. The sense of
foreboding, of utter dread, so ably conjured and conveyed by Burton, is
diluted in Leeson's rendering.

If this all sounds like harsh criticism, it's because Jeff Wayne's Musical
Version of The War of The Worlds is tightly woven into my past. Not only were
the singles, 'The Eve Of The War' and 'Forever Autumn', an indelible part of
the sonic landscape in their year of release, the whole album was played on
repeat during a school Latin class coach trip to Italy in 1980.

The music on the coach was the most enjoyable part of the trip for this then
awkward 13 year old. The combination of an H.G. Wells classic of
science-fiction literature set to atmospheric music brought the story to life
in a way that totally captured my imagination. The music fitted the story so
well that it seemed it could have been conceived at the time of the novel's
writing and in collaboration with its author.

As soon as I returned home, I bought the double LP, and every play since then
has reminded me of that trip.

I've listened to that album an awful lot over the last 32 years and I know
every note, every last word of dialogue. Any change, no matter how minor, is
sure to set off flashing lights and ringing bells.

If anyone is equipped or entitled to attempt to better the original, it's
surely the project's creator, composer and coordinator, Jeff Wayne. Even so,
he's treading on hallowed ground and his every move is "being scrutinised, as
someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop
of water".

I was therefore fully prepared to be annoyed at some of the changes to the
live show, and to be irked at the casting of what I saw as some weaker singers
and/or actors, but I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the show this time, as
I have on the three previous occasions that I have seen it.

You will likely note, as did I, that the snare drum was insanely loud during
'Horsell Common And The Heat Ray'. I had seen a complaint about this on the
official War Of The Worlds discussion forum, but didn't think much more about
it until personally confronted with the issue. It really is overwhelmingly
loud, overpowering the more subtle instrumentation. I can't imagine why it was
placed so high in the mix.

Speaking of 'Horsell Common And The Heat Ray', the piece now also features an
extended guitar solo by Chris Spedding. It's a treat to watch him perform it
live in the spotlight, after which Herbie Flowers takes a bow of respect as
Spedding steps back out of the limelight.

With all of the changes, the new show clocks in at 116 minutes, ten minutes
longer than the two shows I recorded in 2010. The changes are, for the most
part, very subtle, and so I'm surprised that they add up to that many minutes
of new material.

Ahoy wasn't sold out on this occasion, but those present were treated to an
unforgettable show. Warm applause was heard whenever song transitions provided
enough of a lull that clapping could occur without being distracting.

The morning after the gig, I had to fly to Ireland for a wedding, followed by
a few days visiting family before flying on to the U.S. for Christmas with my
in-laws. The recording was thus mastered in Irish hotel rooms at the end of
some very long days, and the text you are now reading was completed on the
flight from Dublin to Boston. I'm eager to release the recording before
another round of family obligations on this side of the Atlantic causes
further delay.

The recording itself is excellent. My location in the 13th row did, indeed,
prove excellent for both watching and recording the show. Due to my central
location, the recording also has a fine stereo image and various sounds can be
heard panning from one side to the other.

As always, samples are provided to help you decide whether this is worth the
share ratio depletion for you. If you're quick, however, you can download this
at no expense as part of DIME's Christmas freeloader days.

This is my last concert of 2012. In offering you this recording, I clear my
work queue and hereby close the book on the year.

It's been a busy one, with gigs from Ireland to Lebanon and many countries
in-between. I've stood in the rain of a muddy field in the north of England,
sat in an imposing German opera house, felt the warm breeze wafting through a
Roman amphitheatre on the Lebanese coast, enjoyed the dignified surroundings
of several ornate churches, and returned to my regular haunts of the Paradiso
and the Melkweg more times than I can recall.

I've seen artists as diverse as Lady Gaga and Philip Glass, witnessed
everything from lavish productions with a large entourage (Madonna) to one-man
shows with absolutely no frills (Billy Bragg) and everything in-between.
Whether it was Sufjan Stevens or Swans, each and every one of them¹ has been
shared with you, thanks to the power of the BitTorrent protocol.

There's lots lined up for 2013, too: The Joy Formidable, Sigur Rós, The xx,
Mumford & Sons, Roger Waters, Muse, Dead Can Dance, The Stone Roses and Bruce
Springsteen are just some of the artists I'll be taping during the next twelve
months. Stay tuned.

Cheers!

¹ = Except for MONO and Dirty Three at Le Guess Who in Utrecht on 29th
November. The bag I thought my microphones were in turned out to be empty,
so I was unable to record those performances.