Music at its best !!

Todays blip is a glimpse of what's playing in my car stereo during the mundane trips to work and back, such a historic album it deserves a mention every time I dig it out and turn the volume up just that little bit louder. In my opinion any serious music junkie should have this in their cd/download collection !!!!

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 38th 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 shows

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds was created by composer Jeff Wayne based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Wells. It features Academy Award nominated actor Richard Burton, Justin Hayward (of The Moody Blues), Chris Thompson (of Manfred Mann), Phil Lynott (of Thin Lizzy), Julie Covington (of Evita and Rock Follies), and David Essex (Evita, The China Plates). Wayne conducts what would come to be known as the Black Smoke Band and the ULLAdubULLA string orchestra.

"Forever Autumn", "The Eve of the War", "Thunder Child", and "The Spirit of Man" are the most recognised individual songs on the album. "Forever Autumn" was a UK Top 5 single, sung by Justin Hayward. The album itself spent 290 weeks in the UK album charts. It was in the top 10 in 22 countries and reached #1 in 11 countries.

Most of the lyrics on the album were written by former Elton John lyricist Gary Osborne.

The album was one of the first recorded on 48 tracks, using two synchronised 24 track Studer A80s at Advision Studios in London. It was engineered by Geoff Young, who was instrumental in bringing the recordings together with only a 16 track desk. His skill in this regard was later recognised by George Michael, who worked with him to record "Last Christmas" and "Careless Whisper" using the same studio and equipment.

The repetition of "Ulla!", the cry made by the Martians, and certain musical refrains throughout the musical act as leitmotifs.

The official album comes with several paintings by Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim that help to illustrate the story from beginning to end.
A re-recorded version subtitled The New Generation was released on CD, vinyl and iTunes on November 30, 2012. It features narration from Liam Neeson and new versions of the original songs, now sung by Gary Barlow, Joss Stone, and Maverick Sabre.

The New Generation
Main article: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds - The New Generation
In 2011 after a short hiatus from touring, Jeff Wayne announced a new Musical Version of The War of the Worlds album to be released in June 2012 entitled The New Generation. The release date was later pushed back to November, due to problems with scheduling recordings with guest artists. With the album release, The New Generation will also cross Europe on a major arena tour.

Wayne explained that the idea was to return to the original album and explore H. G. Wells' characters in more detail, as well as develop the love story between the story's main character, George Herbert, and his fiancee Carrie. Wayne also explained that it would allow him to re-interpret his compositions with the new production techniques of today.