The audience rose to its feet, clapped and cheered at the closing bars of the fresh, new, exciting remix of War of the Worlds.
The Martians wreak devastation on the Earth
The rapturous applause was for two talented music technology students at Warrington Collegiate who dared to take on Jeff Wayne’s classic piece, updating it with the likes of hip hop, house music, drum and bass and dubstep.
26 year old Antony Vickers and 22 year old Nick Bromley collaborated on a project that saw the original version remixed and performed live, holding the audience spellbound as the story unfolded.
Appreciative audience member, Tracy Wood said, “It was simply epic; dazzling, truly impressive and thoroughly entertaining. I felt a shiver of excitement. I went home completely chilled; it certainly makes you think about what could happen in the future.”
Nick and Anthony rehearse for the evening performance
Antony spoke about the thinking behind the project, “There have been numerous remises since Jeff Wayne’s critically acclaimed 1978 concept album with various degrees of success. We weren’t too impressed so decided to do our own bigger and better version.”
Leaving behind the dated disco drums and dodgy seventies synthesizers, but keeping the sonic gems that created such a massive cultural phenomenon, such as the vocals from the Moody Blues and Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, great riffs, and those strings that made every child since the early 80’s quiver in terror, these two incredibly talented and creative music students retold the story in glorious detail.
Using original out-takes and deleted scenes interwoven with the original dialogue Richard Burton’s haunting narration guided enthralled, amazed and at times terrified audiences through a newly realised version of this classic tale.
Nick told us “Our tutor, Liam Maloney, was the inspiration for this piece, he has supported, guided and encouraged us to make it our own. It was an enormous challenge, the work is a classic, but we are confident that this performance won’t be the last.”
This iconic classic, based on the story by H.G.Wells, has never been far away from the imagination of creative industry. As well as the numerous remixes heard over the years, in 2005 extra-terrestrial invaders battled with Tom Cruise in a screen version that saw him as dock worker, Ray Ferrier, try to protect his children and flee to Boston to rejoin his ex-wife.
This is not the end for this talented duo and their new version of War of the Worlds, is just the beginning.
Already, interest has been shown by external organisations for performances in Warrington and a school tour is being planned for next year. War of the Worlds is far from over. A new generation has yet to become devotees and discover a veritable feast of live stage and musical brilliance.
Both students have ambitions to progress to University, before taking up careers in the music industry. Antony plans to study part-time whilst developing his career as a live artist in the studio, using the latest software and technology to create futuristic music and musical effects. Nick is planning to study music production and continue his career designing and performing live shows of the calibre and impact of War of the Worlds.
Students can find out more at www.warrington.ac.uk
