Jeff Wayne, composer

In the early 1970s, I had a very profitable and enjoyable run as David Essex’s producer and arranger, but my composing side had diminished. My dad reminded me that I’d always wanted to write some sort of musical story, so the two of us started reading books of all shapes and sizes. He came across one by HG Wells about a Martian invasion of Earth. I was hooked.

I envisaged my version of War of the Worlds as an opera: story, leitmotifs, musical phrases, sounds and compositions that relate to the whole. I handed my scribbles to my father’s wife, Doreen, and then started composing the score for the album while she wrote a script. It was 1976, early January, and I wanted to have a bit of pressure, so I booked a studio for May. It certainly kept me focused: I finished the first draft in six weeks.

During the composing period, I realised the Journalist character was the key – the thread that ran through the whole thing. I wanted someone with a voice that would take the listener right inside this world. In my view, Richard Burton’s voice was like a musical instrument, so I wrote him a letter – no emails in those days – addressed to the theatre in New York where he was doing Equus. A few days later, his manager called to say Richard loved the idea. “Count him in, dear boy!” he said. I’ll never forget those words. I was in shock. Richard was about to go to California to do The Exorcist followup, so I took David out there to record with him.

The Forever Autumn part – with its hook “Because you’re not here” – actually started out as a jingle for a Lego commercial, sung by Gary Osborne and Paul Vigrass. The advert got a great reaction, so we added lyrics and turned it into a single. The result was a big hit in Japan. Later, as I was writing War of the Worlds, I reached the bit where the Journalist discovers his fiancee is missing – and it reminded me of Forever Autumn. It was all about loss. Although I was trying to write an original work, I kept thinking the song was a perfect fit. I had my own little battle with myself, but I went for it. It’s the only piece on the album that pre-existed.

I wanted to use synthesisers to create the “ooll-la” sound the Martians make before they blast people with their heat ray. But things were pretty primitive back then, and we could only do the “oo” and “ahh” sounds, not the “l”. So we ended up having someone voice the sound, then treated it electronically, making it as dramatic as possible.

I started recording the score with the main band, while the guest artists – David, Phil Lynott, Julie Covington, Justin Hayward – came in when they were available. We did about a side per week. I gave handwritten parts to the band, and we just went through it. I was the keyboardist, and we did it as if was a live performance. There were no click tracks – we just had to groove together, and then move on to the next tune.

I had no real expectations as to its impact: my contract with CBS didn’t even guarantee release. I had to hand it in, and they had 30 days to decide. The reaction from CBS in the US was: we don’t know how to market this. It was a continuous recording, which didn’t make it easy to extract singles, but they hadn’t realised I had an alternative version that cut all the singing parts down to the traditional three- or four-minute length, meaning singles could be made. I felt we had to do that if it was to reach people, since in those days radio was king. The UK arm of CBS eventually went for it, backing it big time.

Forever Autumn was the first single, The Eve of the War the second. That started the ball rolling. Over time, though, The Eve of the War – with the line “The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one” – has become by far the bigger song, because it’s had so many club mixes. It’s like it’s our monument.

Richard Burton, Jeff Wayne and David Essex in the studio

David Essex, the Artilleryman

Jeff and I had done about five albums together. Then one day he said: “I’m thinking about doing this concept album, War of the Worlds.” I told him it was a great idea, because it had been very controversial when Orson Welles did it as a radio play in America.

I remember flying over to see the great Richard Burton with Jeff and his dad. We did our shared scenes together in the studio, then he did his narration on his own. One thing that was a bit of a nuisance was that Jeff and I had done a lot of work timing the background music that would play as Richard narrated. But the first thing he said was: “I don’t want to hear any music – it’ll put me off.” So we had to do it wild.

It took years to record. We were still doing it in late 1979. I remember recording the Artilleryman’s song Brave New World while I was on a big UK tour. My voice was a bit whacked. I needed a lot of warming up to hit those falsetto parts. I definitely sound different later on in the album. At one point, I was doing Evita: I’d finish the show, then go straight to the studio to record. There was a real family feeling about it, though: Jeff used all the musicians we’d worked with on my Rock On album.

It was a privilege to be part of such a great work. It’s extraordinary how it’s stood the test of time.

• Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds: The Next Generation, a stage-based rerecording of the album, is out now on DVD.