I remember my Dad playing Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds when I was younger and I loved it.

I bought the special edition album when it came out 15 (?) years ago and I play it regularly. In fact I played it last weekend and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my 13 year daughter actually came through to the lounge and sat down with me to listen it! Luckily I was sat down, so I did not fall over!

I have heard about the live tours in the past, but never really looked into them. However, this evening I caught an advert on television for the 2012 tour, so I checked out the web and found that it is coming to Glasgow on December 11th and I quite fancy going (my birthday is December 20th, so I could position it as a birthday present).

Has anyone been to one? If so, would you recommend a fan of the album going?

Update – I pulled the trigger and bought two tickets earlier and it looks like I will be going with my eldest daughter.

Uuuullllaaa!

😉

I bought it first time around, great work very original then and now. You’ve made the right call.

It’s just brilliant.

I must dig it out, cheers.

I have very similar memories (double LPs) and very similar questions. Excellent thread, sir.

Love it, played it for my teenage boys, eldest put it on his birtday list a couple of years ago – regularly on here.

i used to play this on a tape deck many years ago.. at the press of a button all these years later im listening to flacs on my tv via the nas..

Have it on my iPod. Listen when I’m on the road and it never fails to keep me going, bit strange if its on shuffle though 😉

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCC9AePEHPE[/video]

Just – why?

Got it and utterly love it…

It’s brilliant.

I know he is roundly hated on here, but Jeremy Vine played some on the radio yesterday. Brilliant.

I know he is roundly hated on here, but Jeremy Vine played some on the radio yesterday.

Then he is only 99% evil.

……Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds ……. and I play it regularly ………. Glasgow…..

If you were the downstairs neighbour who used to get in from work at 1am then wind down with a couple of hours of hammer based DIY and a spirited blast of War of the Worlds then you shouldn’t have been surprised then I pulled the fuses out of the fusebox in the hall and chucked them into the front garden somewhere. (you don’t type with a columbian accent though)

Excellent, reminder – now waking up the whole house with OOOOOOLLLLAAAAAAA! 😆

Came across my original copy whilst recently rummaging through a box full of old vinyl, still in it’s plastic wallet with the booklet inside.
Now where did I leave my old turntable.

I remember listening to my dads double album and musing over the cover fantastic album but I don’t have a copy so after reading this thread I shall be visiting the iTunes Store.

What does everyone think of the new remastered version with Gary Barlow juries out with me seems like he’s not improved on what’s already a master peace.

I know he is roundly hated on here, but Jeremy Vine played some on the radio yesterday. Brilliant.

It’s ok, normality can be restored, he played the Gary Barlow version.

he played the Gary Barlow version.

Gather your pitchforks!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6nJHDktswY[/video]

Ww live in Horsell with a view of part of the common from out of the front window.

When we first moved in I fished out this CD and my wife listened to it whilst I was at work.

She knows the area and phoned me up at work saying that the CD slightly freaked her out as the narration of where the aliens were as they moved around made he feel like it was happening now and she was in the middle of it! Such is the power of Richard Burtons voice.

The common has a big dipped area on it which fills with water, they say that is where the ship came down!

At one point the house chain we were in looked dodgy as the seller of our house was moving onto a road that accesses the common.

There was a risk that horsell common preservation society could remove access, and so this offered problems for getting a mortgage.

Our estate agent, one of the older partners of the firm, said:

“The chances of that happening are about as great as the aliens landing again”

in a totally serious tone, as if the first visit was true 🙂

Brilliant album! Very find memories as a boy listening to it. Saved up and bought my own copy on double cassette which I played so much it wore out. Re-bought it a few years ago on CD/SACD. Still brilliant. Missed the first tour but did manage to buy a DVD of the concert at the O2. Really liked it and thought it worked well as a live show.

Not convinced by the re-working though. How can you get rid of Richard Burton?? I like Liam Neeson but not sure if it will work…

What are the chances of that?

Big fan of the original. Seen the stage show and it was an entertaining evening out. The reworked soundtrack to the stage show is hit and miss to my ears. Neeson is no Burton. His dialogue seems hurried compared to Burton.

And the drum sound is just HORRIBLE. 80s electronic sandwich boxes.

I remember playing this as a kid. One of my mates came round with his younger sister. He had to take her home after about 10 minutes as she was so scared. They’re not even American.

I’ve got tickets to see the show in London, can’t wait.

It used to get a regular airing in small chunks at a few SW free parties in the 90s

😳

I’m going to see the tour in Birmingham on the 7th and i am unbelievably excited!

It’s awesome. Been listening to it regularly since I was little. Used to spend hours looking at the vinyl double album’s illustrated book, quality stuff. Agree it doesn’t work on shuffle – I’d always end up ditching shuffle when it came on and listening to the whole thing!

+1, got the original on vinyl and daughter no 2 who’s music tastes mirror my own, got the double CD, which she left here and so was confiscated when she went to Uni. So yes go and see what is it a musical or live gig? Either way it can’t be any worse than having to sit through ‘The Bodyguard’ and have your ears bleed as a result.

No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, *they* observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of our empire over this world. Yet across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us.

8)

Listened to it as a teenager. Lying in bed with the headphones on and the lights off.
Just as it got to the bit when the first saucers lid unscrews and falls off, a neighbour drove into his driveway and lit up my room with his headlights.

Change of jammies please !!

I have got it on my laptop. And I also found a recording of the original radio show that I dowbnloaded and its really amazing. I recently also came across a copy of the vinyl original with the booklet and things. A first edition. Needless to say I bought it at a bargainous price.

Just got in after a road ride and decided to download the Spotify App and listen to it while having a bath bliss!

It’s ok, normality can be restored, he played the Gary Barlow version.

Thought it sounded odd. Put it down to hearing it over a squealing alternator belt.

Pitch forks at the ready. Arrest Vine and Barlow then burn the heretics!

Best I not comment 😕