JEFF WAYNE'S MUSICAL VERSION OF THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a 1978 concept album by Jeff Wayne, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Its format is progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration and leitmotifs to carry the story via rhyming melodic lyrics that express the feelings of the various characters. The two-disc album remains a bestseller, having sold millions of records around the world, and is the 39th best selling album of all time in the UK with sales of 2,561,286 by 2009. It has since spawned multiple versions of the album, video games, DVDs, and live tours. (More from Wikipedia)
In 1978, Chris Spedding was a key musician in one of the most ambitious concept albums of all time (and the best selling British concert/cast album ever), Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds. Actor Richard Burton handled the narration, and the musicians are a virtual Who’s Who of the British rock scene of that era: Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, Chris Thompson of Manfred Mann, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, bass guitarist Herbie Flowers (that's him playing the prominent bass line on Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"), David Essex ("Rock On"), and actress/vocalist Julie Covington; she and Essex had been appearing together in early performances of the rock musical Evita. The album tells the story pretty much as The War of the Worlds was written by H. G. Wells (much of Burton's narration is word-for-word from the novel) decades before Steven Spielberg's film basically did the same; I consider War of the Worlds to be one of Spielberg's best movies and certainly his most disturbing.
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The most infamous moment for the Ugly came when a punk rock concert called Outrage was being filmed in Toronto, and the Ugly were excluded from the bill. About midway through the concert, they threw a flaming guitar at the Viletones while they were singing "Danger Boy". Nazi Dog put out the fire; after a while, he busted up the guitar and threw it into the crowd. But the Ugly had the last laugh when they stormed on stage and snatched up the Viletones' instruments for an impromptu performance of "Disorder" that lasted less than a minute. After they pulled the plug, Mike Nightmare then fought it out with the Viletones' Freddy Pompeii until Mike was literally thrown back into the crowd by the bikers who were on security detail. It is all still on the film though, to this day. (Ironically, Mike Nightmare also got beaten up pretty badly by one of the musicians who worked with Chris Spedding on Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds, Phil Lynott). Spedding later remastered their compilation CD Disorder).
(November 2011)
