Destined to be out of this world

Jeff Wayne

Casting a rogue rock star as a demented vicar was perfect.

Composer Jeff Wayne knew Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott was the perfect person to play the mad Parson Nathaniel in his musical version of H.G. Wells' 1898 alien invasion novel The War of the Worlds.

"It was the quality of his voice, it had this hypnotic quality that I thought would be brilliant to interpret a parson who is going totally mad," remembers Wayne.

Lynott plays his part almost too well. You want to reach into the speakers and shake him out of his manic tirades about the coming of Satan. Because, afterall - as his wife Beth tries to tell him - they're not demons, they're Martians, you crazy man.

The War of the Worlds, a double 90-minute album, was originally released in 1978 but last month it was reissued in a new and improved 5.1 Surround Sound format. Wayne was in New Zealand this week doing interviews as part of a worldwide promotional tour.

Lynott's part as the parson brought one of rock'n'roll's hardest-living stars together with one of the world's most famous actors, Richard Burton, who plays the journalist.

Wayne admits it was a coup to secure this unlikely pair. Sadly, both men are dead now - Burton died from a brain haemorrhage in 1984 while Lynott's body gave up on him in 1986 after years of alcohol and drug abuse.

Burton was the first to be cast in the production. "We wanted a voice that would have a quality that the second you heard it you were sucked into The War of the Worlds," says Wayne. "We assembled a not particularly long list but Richard [Burton] was at the top of it."

They didn't fancy their chances of getting Burton, who had a reputation as a hellraiser and was a man of many marriages (most notably to Elizabeth Taylor) and many famous acting roles. But while Burton was performing in a play in New York, Wayne sent him a copy of The War of the Worlds script and an explanation of the project. Burton loved it.

Wayne scheduled four days to record Burton's part but the actor finished it - aided by a few cigarette breaks and a couple of beers to "keep his lips wet" - in one day.

"He was totally the opposite of what I knew of his reputation as a hellraiser.

"He was there dead on time, a real charismatic bloke and he got on with it and did it beautifully."

Lynott, on the other hand, was a rock'n'roller and he behaved like one but Wayne also saw his softer side.

"I hung out with him at some Thin Lizzy gigs to get to know him a bit and he lived the rock'n'roll lifestyle. But the flipside was he was a really sensitive soul, he wrote poetry, and when we finished working together he gave me a book of poetry that he had just had published, he signed it for me and then off he went and then however long after that, he died. It was a great pity."

In 1978, few people thought a member of Thin Lizzy would be up for doing a musical. Then again, few people probably thought Wayne could pull off a hair-brained rock opera about alien invaders from Mars.

"It's been called a rock opera, it's been called a concept album, but I never saw it in either of those categories," he says. "I just set out to do a musical interpretation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. I did it against the tide of what was out there musically."

Back then, the music that was big was punk. But really, Wayne's musical creation - be it the creepy "Ulla" sound the martians make, or the camp disco beats of The Eve of the War - was more radical than any punk tune.

"I just tried to write an honest work and what came out, just came out. I was fortunate to work with great musicians, great guest artists, and it worked."

On May 18, 1976, some of Britain's best session players, including Herbie Flowers (bass), Chris Spedding and Jo Partridge (guitars), Barry Morgan (drums), and Ken "Prof" Freeman (synthesiser), gathered at Advision Studios in London to start recording.

They were the "governors of the session world" according to Wayne. And they had to be because it was all recorded live. The epic - and possibly the highlight of the album - The Spirit of Man is nearly 12 minutes long and took 16 takes to record.

On the 15th take, after more than eight hours, Wayne was satisfied but bass player Herbie Flowers insisted they play it again - one last take.

Despite working on projects related to The War Of The Worlds, Wayne had not revisited the original recording of the album since it was first released. That is until he started working on the 5.1 Surround Sound remix of the album.

Surprisingly, 27 years on, it still stands up. "It still has the ingredients to entertain people," says Wayne, distinctly unsurprised. "And once you get caught up in the story, right from where Richard Burton, our journalist, starts recounting the story for his newspaper, it takes you into its own world, The War of the Worlds".