Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds'

[Mike Davis]

Big orchestra, 3 or 4 KB players, Justin Hayward, video . . . I like this.

 

 

[Synthoid]

I've watched a few videos of that production. Looks interesting.

 

Funny... I bought the original album in vinyl back in the 70's.

 

http://the-coa.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/waroftheworlds1978.jpg

 

 

[Odyssian]

A few years back, I bought the surround version on SA-CD. It's great!

 

I just wish it was easier (and cheaper) to get a DVD of the concert in the link above. Also, I don't know if those region 2 DVDs will play on my home theater setup. I think they will play on the computer, but I'd rather watch it on my main system (old DVD and old CRT TV, but great 5.1 sound!).

[MAJUSCULE]

Check out the Performing Musician article from December 2008:

 

-Quote-

 

Keyboards:

There are four keyboard rigs in TWOTW production.

Keys 1 and 2

"Each of these rigs consists of one Receptor unit, two CME UF6 keyboards, two sustain pedals, two expression pedals and a volume pedal. Both keyboard's MIDI outputs are connected to the Receptor via a MIDI Merge box. There are two keyboards, as both players play layered or consecutive lines in a number of places."

Keys 3

"This rig was different in 2006, but since 2007 is also using a Receptor unit, but with a single CME UF8 fully-weighted keyboard and sustain, expression and volume pedals. I chose the CME keyboards for a number of reasons. The most important one was that they had dedicated MIDI channel change buttons, something I needed in 2006 because of the way the Receptors had to be programmed. I liked their keyboard action, their clear and simple controls, and the fact that they offer eight knobs and eight faders too. They are well built and withstood the first three tours with no problems."

Keys 4

"This is my rig. I use a single Yamaha DX7 MkII as my keyboard. Whilst I play a few lines in some of the songs, most of my parts are triggers for sounds that could not easily be played or reproduced live. As a sound source, I use an Akai S3200XL sampler, in which I sampled and programmed all the appropriate sounds. I also use a Voice Box pedal identical to the one used by lead guitar two to reproduce the Martian cry 'Ulla' sound.

Separately, I also play the Persian tar in one song. This interesting instrument was used in the original recording and plays the lead line in 'Horsell Common And The Heat Ray'. When we first put the live show together in 2006, I realised that none of the guitar players could play this part, as they were busy with other parts that could not be put in the backing track without the show suffering from a visual point of view. So I found a tar on eBay, bought it, started practising, and found that I could play this part myself, as it wasn't very difficult, even though I am not a guitar player."

 

-End quote-

 

That's engineer, programmer, remixer and musician Gaëtan Schurrer speaking. It seems they used GMedia's Oddity for ARP Odyssey, Arturia's CS80-V for the Yamaha CS80 and Spectrasonics Atmosphere for the Freeman String Machine.

[therealvicz]

He's still touring it around the world, played near me in Birmingham (UK) a few weeks ago, unfortunately I was away on business - damn - and the video has popped up on Sky Arts a couple of times. Great fun to be had playing along, and there is a decent sheet music book around if you can get hold of it. Mostly just about the right level for me (easy, cough!). There is also a great documentary covering the build up to a recent tour, with Russell Watson being accused of being a diva for missing rehearsals - turned out he had a brain tumour - and Herbie Flowers and some great session musicians bemoaning their lack of riches despite appearing on so many hit records. Priceless!

[Mark Schmieder]

I first heard a couple of songs from WOTW on a Justin Hayward sampler a decade or so ago. When I found out there was more than just those two songs, I did some research and learned about the movie/etc. I was lucky a few years ago in tracking down the two-disc vinyl original. Still haven't seen the movie, but a friend says he made a copy years ago on VHS.

[Theo Verelst]

Rmember from the radio, interesting orchestra/band, good test to get dramatic string sound working on a synth.