When I was a little girl, living at the bottom of Risk Road on the beach in Barbados, my Auntie Gillian lived a few houses down the beach at Alvaro.
Alvaro was a big house, I forget how many bedrooms, but I seem to remember six for some reason. The living room of the house stretched the length of the house and had a twenty foot ceiling (at least it seems that way in my memory). There were French doors that led out to the verandah, and doors that led out into the yard.
My brother and I spent a lot of time with Auntie Gillian when we were growing up. Her and UT. It is mostly at Alvaro I got to know UT. It is mostly at Alvaro, UT and I were at the height of our 'war days'.
This is all stage setting.
In truth I want to tell you that this evening I found a key to my memories of Alvaro. And it was, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds. Based on H.G. Wells' novel of the same name, this is an interesting take.
Auntie Gillian had a copy of it--in those days it was vinyl--and my brother and I played it almost every time we went over there. We'd sit there, listen, read, play, whatever, but I remember it being in the background during many of our visits (many times many) to Auntie Gillian's house.
In fact, it is when we were teenagers and Auntie Gillian and UT were living in Tog Tip in Holder's Hill, that I think I last heard it.
So today when I went to Tesco's to get toilet paper and a new toothbrush, I happened to pass the shelf with all the music on it, and there it was... a collector's edition of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds.
Article comments
1 - Jason Arn
When i was a young boy i was living with my father and he had an lp version of this. The first Time i heard it the music scared me then i loved it even since. Once the lp's were a thing of the pasted and cd's were for the future i was sad not listening to the War of the worlds. Now So many years later i finally found the Music that i grew up with when i was a child, thanks. Hey jeff Wayne keep up the work, ya great!
2 - zooop
Have been looking for the music score of this, and can't quite believe how rare it is! The few copies in existance seem to sell for over £50!!!
3 - sungoddess
I was lucky... the day I bought it was around the same time that "War of The Worlds" was being released, so this was re-issued.... I got it for a mere 14quid at the aforementioned Tescoes... sadly, I haven't seen it since.
4 - catherine
We're listening to it right now, as my 14 year old son has ripped my CD version to his computer so he can take it with him and listen. We were talking about the artwork on the old LP version and how compelling it was, and that led me to this website. When I first heard it around 30 years ago, I was the same age as my son is now. I loved Justin Hayward and the Moody Blues, and wore deep grooves in my album back in the day. Yeah, it's prog rock. Yeah, it's dated. But it's also fantastic and spooky. And Richard Burton's storytelling is magnificent.
Thank you everyone who worked on this project!