Le monde des musicals

Musical (1978)

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Musique: Jeff Wayne •
Paroles: Gary Osborne •
Livret: H. G. Wells •
Production à la création:

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds est un album concept, composé par le musicien britannique Jeff Wayne (en), inspiré du roman La Guerre des Mondes de H.G. Wells. Sorti en 1978, l'album deviendra culte au Royaume-Uni.

Disk 1: The Coming of the Martians
In a prologue, the Journalist prepares to recount the experiences he had in the late 19th century. He notes that few had even considered the possibility of alien life, but that they were observed across space by advanced beings who regarded Earth with envy.
In the Journalist's story, several masses of green gas erupt from Mars. For the next ten nights, they continue towards Earth. Ogilvy the astronomer assures the Journalist there is no danger, convinced that no life could exist on Mars. The first missile lands in Horsell Common. In a sand pit, Ogilvy discovers a glowing cylinder whose top begins unscrewing. A crowd gathers, drawn by the spectacle. The cylinder lid falls off, and a Martian creature emerges. Several men move closer, but are incinerated by the Heat-Ray—an advanced Martian weapon. The Journalist flees with the crowd. Hammering sounds are heard from the pit: the Martians are constructing machines. A company of soldiers is deployed at the common. Later, an Artilleryman arrives at the Journalist's house, telling him that his comrades were killed by Martian fighting machines—tripod vehicles armed with Heat-Rays. They set off for London—the Journalist to ensure his lover Carrie is safe, and the Artilleryman to report to headquarters—but are separated when caught in the crossfire between soldiers and fighting machines. Three days later, the Journalist arrives at Carrie's house to find it empty. Depressed, he attempts to escape London by boat. He sees that Carrie has boarded a steamer, but the gangplank is raised before they can reach each other. Fighting machines approach the steamer, but the Royal Navy battleship Thunder Child engages the Martians in a naval battle, taking out one fighting machine in the process. The steamer escapes, but Thunder Child is destroyed by the heat-ray, taking with her not only her entire crew—but humanity's last hope of victory as well.

Disk 2: The Earth Under the Martians
The next day, the wandering Journalist finds that red weed—the vegetation giving Mars its colour—has taken root on Earth, rapidly overgrowing the landscape. In a churchyard, he encounters the Parson Nathaniel and his wife Beth. Delirious, Nathaniel believes the invaders are not Martian creatures, but demons arising from human evil. The trio take refuge in a nearby cottage, where they are trapped by black smoke—a Martian chemical weapon. Nathaniel despairs, blaming himself for the invasion. Beth attempts to restore his faith in humanity. A Martian cylinder lands on the cottage, killing Beth. The Martians outside construct a handling machine: a squat spider-like vehicle used to collect humans. After nine days hiding in the ruined cottage, the Journalist and Nathaniel see the Martians "feeding"—harvesting human blood and injecting it into their own veins. Nathaniel resolves to confront the "demons", believing himself chosen to destroy them with his prayers and holy cross. The Journalist knocks him unconscious to protect them both. Hearing the noise, the Martians send a mechanical claw to explore the cottage. It drags away Nathaniel's unconscious body, but the Journalist evades detection. Later, finding that the Martians have disappeared, the Journalist leaves. On his way back to London, he encounters the Artilleryman once more. The Artilleryman shares his plan to start a utopian civilisation, located underground, where humans can evade the Martians, and ultimately strike back with reverse-engineered Martian technology. The Journalist leaves, realising the Artilleryman's ambitions far exceed his abilities. He reaches London, finding it desolate and empty. Driven to the point of suicide by his own loneliness and the city's silence, the Journalist surrenders to the Martians, only to find the fighting machines are lifeless. The Martians were killed by Earth's bacteria, to which they had no immunity: from the moment they arrived and fed, they were doomed.
In an epilogue, the Journalist concludes his story: humanity recovered from the invasion, and he was reunited with Carrie. The Journalist wonders if Earth is safe, or if the Martians have learned from their failure and are preparing a second invasion. In the modern day, a NASA mission to Mars encounters trouble when the control centre loses contact with the craft. The controller sights a green flare erupting from Mars's surface.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds was created by composer Jeff Wayne based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Wells. It features Academy Award nominated actor Richard Burton, Justin Hayward (of The Moody Blues), Chris Thompson (of Manfred Mann), Phil Lynott (of Thin Lizzy), Julie Covington (of Evita and Rock Follies), and David Essex (Evita, The China Plates). Wayne conducts what would come to be known as the Black Smoke Band and the ULLAdubULLA string orchestra.
"Forever Autumn" was a UK Top 5 single, sung by Hayward. The album itself spent 290 weeks in the UK album charts. It was in the top 10 in 22 countries and reached #1 in 11 countries. In Canada, it reached just #73. Most of the lyrics on the album were written by former Elton John lyricist Gary Osborne.
The album was one of the first recorded on 48 tracks, using two synchronised 24 track Studer A80s at Advision Studios in London. It was engineered by Geoff Young, who brought the recordings together with only a 16 track desk. (He later worked with George Michael to record "Last Christmas" and "Careless Whisper" using the same studio and equipment).
The repetition of "Ulla!", the cry made by the Martians, and certain musical refrains throughout the musical act as leitmotifs.
The official album comes with several paintings by Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim that illustrate the story.

Other versions of the album
To promote the 1978 release, an abridged album containing "Radio edits" was distributed to radio stations. Special intros and endings had to be added to certain tracks because they simply were not written with radio in mind. The "air play" album turned out so well that in 1981 CBS decided to release it commercially under the title Highlights from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.
Two Spanish versions of the album were released in 1978, one featuring Anthony Quinn in the role of the journalist, and the other for Spain featuring Teófilo Martínez in the same role. A version in Dutch was recorded for Radio Veronica in the Netherlands, but never released as an album. A German version was released in 1980 with Curd Jürgens taking the part of the journalist.
A 1989 version of "The Eve of the War" remixed by Ben Liebrand reached number 3 in the UK singles chart. A 1995 edition of the album featured additional remixes of some tracks and additional conceptual art. Australian progressive metal band Alchemist released a version of "Eve of the War" on a 1998 EP.
In 2000, a collection of remixes of tracks from the original album—including several used in the 1998 computer game—were released on a double CD titled The War of the Worlds: ULLAdubULLA—the Remix Album. While most of the contributors are relatively unknown,[5] the album includes two versions of a remix of "Dead London" by Apollo 440 and other remixes by house-music pioneer Todd Terry.
On 23 June 2005 the original album was re-released in two forms: one in a remastered 2-disc Hybrid Multichannel Super Audio CD set; another in a 7-disc "Collector's Edition" featuring additional remixes, outtakes, the actors reading from the unabridged script, excerpts from the Anthony Quinn and Curd Jürgens performances as the reporter, as well as a seventh disc being a DVD showing the making of the album, produced by Phoenix Film & Television Productions.
While the original ULLAdubULLA album had a limited run and went out of print, following the success of the 2005 re-release of the original album, ULLAdubULLA II was released on 17 April 2006. This single CD release was largely made of tracks from the original remix album, with some additional new remixes by Tom Middleton and DJ Keltech, and hip-hop versions of two tracks by DJ Zube. Middleton's remixes of "The Eve of the War" were also released on CD and vinyl.

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant War of the worlds (The)

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant War of the worlds (The)