May 9: Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds'

The 80s saw some interesting releases which bridged rock and classical music to an extent.

One rock-classical crossover album was 'Variations' by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I loved this album at the time and played it a lot. There was a disco element to some of it, but also a lot of musicians who played other styles of music including rock and blues

Julian Lloyd Webber – cello
Gary Moore – Gibson Les Paul, Rickenbacker electric 12 string & Fender Stratocaster electric guitars, Guild acoustic guitar
Rod Argent – grand piano, synthesizers (Minimoog, Roland RS-202, Yamaha CS-80)
Don Airey – grand piano, synthesizers (ARP Odyssey, Minimoog, Solina String Ensemble), Fender Rhodes electric piano
Barbara Thompson – flute, alto flute, alto and tenor saxophone
John Mole – Fender Precision Bass, Hayman fretless bass guitar
Jon Hiseman – Arbiter Auto-Tune drums, Paiste cymbals and gongs, percussion

It also featured Phil Collins. Seek it out on Spotify.

Another crossover between rock and orchestral music came out in 1978. This is still going strong almost 50 years on.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.

The album was a huge success, and later spawned a long running stage show. I had the double album with gatefold sleeve and booklet.

It does have some wonderful moments.

Forever Autumn has a wonderful feel to it, along with Thunderchild.

I went to see a live performance of the album at the O2 - it was in 2014 and billed as 'the final Arena tour'.

Here's an image of mine from when I saw the show, with some well known musicians.

They were accompanied by the Ulla Strings, conducted by Jeff himself - he has now stepped back from conducting duties.

Image: Alan Parkinson

All together now.... ulla!!