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On this day, 16 April 2006, American-born naturalized British composer, musician and lyricist Jeff Wayne performed his masterpiece War Of The Worlds at Cardiff International Arena.
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, released on 9 June 1978 by CBS Records. It is a musical adaptation of the science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells in a rock opera style with a rock band, orchestra, narrator, and leitmotifs to carry the story and lyrics that express the feelings of the various characters.
The album features guest artists David Essex, Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott, and Julie Covington, with actor Richard Burton as the narrator.
The album became a commercial success in the UK, peaking at number 5 on the chart and selling over 2.7 million copies there since its release.
The 2006 tour finally began in UK and Ireland and featured Wayne conducting the 48-piece ULLAdubULLA Strings and 10-piece Black Smoke Band.
A "virtual" Richard Burton (a large bust of the Journalist onto which was projected an image of a young Burton with a super-imposed actor's mouth and jaw lip synched to the original Burton recordings) performed as The Journalist.
Hayward reprised his original role as The Sung Thoughts of the Journalist and Thompson returned as The Voice of Humanity. Also from the original recording were Spedding playing lead guitar and Flowers on bass guitar.
Other guest artists who appeared were the "People's Tenor" Russell Watson as Parson Nathaniel, Alexis James as The Artilleryman, and Tara Blaise as Beth.
Daniel Boys was understudy for all the roles sung by male artists.
A model Fighting Machine featured on stage. A short animated prequel to the story was also presented in the style of the upcoming feature-length film detailing the Martians' ecological destruction of their own world (which was originally made for the 1998 computer game) and their preparations to invade Earth, and including a short remix of "The Red Weed".
The show was produced by Wayne, Ray Jones, and Damian Collier.
