Martian Tripod Attacks Cardiff!

By John Freeman on December 3, 2008

Where are Torchwood when you need them? (Probably at a John Barrowman concert.)

The touring version of Jeff Wayne’s album The War Of The Worlds, complete with enormous Martian tripod, returns to British stages in June 2009 and they have just added concerts in Cardiff’s CIA and London’s O2 to their schedule. The tour will take in venues from Aberdeen to Bournemouth.

Based on the 1978 double album, the concert is a live performance of the story and music complete with CGI effects projected onto wide screen behind the orchestra plus an enormous talking head “hologram” representing the album’s narrator, the late Richard Burton. For anyone who enjoyed the album over the last thirty years, the concert is both an impressive live recreation of it as well as providing a CGI prequel set on Mars itself.

More details of the tour are on the War of the Worlds website.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.