Throughout this year there’s only really been one date in December I’d been truly looking forward to, and it’s one that may either surprise or cause eye-rolls across my readership, but it wasn’t Christmas; it was Saturday December 13th.
It should come as no surprise that I am a massive fan of Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds, an album that I came across almost by accident several years ago but have grown to truly adore. Seeing the live version of this awesome album has a chequered history with me personally; blizzards prevented me from seeing the 2010 show and I was determined not to let the opportunity slip again. Duly I booked some pretty good seats for the 2012 New Generation tour but I slammed a home run with my first-day booking at London’s O2 Arena – fourth row seats to the best show of the year!
The pre-show lunch at Nando’s was enjoyable but the anticipation was palpable – after thirteen months of patient waiting the show I’d been waiting for was minutes away. I quickly realised how good my Row D seats were; the O2 Arena is indeed gigantic and staring at the spectacle through binoculars would have spoiled the event somewhat. My frantic purchasing had been vindicated the minute I walked into the arena.
At pretty much launch time the show began with a new prequel featuring HG Wells which led into the the familiar (and somewhat appropriated from the 1998 PC game) prequel with the Martians planning the invasion of Earth. Then the stars take over and Liam Neeson’s hologram begins the famous opening monologue: “No-one would have believed…” and duly followed by the iconic opening strings of The Eve of the War that introduce the start of the invasion – though of course, the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one…
This summer, I’d like to write a 30,000 word novella (that will be available for free here) which has a working title of my Modern-Day Version of The War of the Worlds.
Richard Holliday 