The revered musical Jesus Christ Superstar turns 50 this year.
The rock opera about Jesus and his face-off with Judas has toured the world, with huge productions on the West End, Broadway and beyond.
But before it became a global hit on stage, it started life as a concept album – something Sir Tim Rice called a “godsend”.
Speaking to Sky News amid the launch of the album’s repackaged rerelease, Sir Tim, who along with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber was the brains behind the project, said that the record allowed the pair to do more than they could do in a theatre at the time.
“We were trying to get our idea into a musical on the last few days in the life of Jesus, as seen through the eyes of Judas Iscariot.
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“That was our ambition… but no theatrical producer showed any interest at the time, so we were kind of forced to make an album.
“But this turned out to be an absolute godsend, because we were able to use greater forces – we were able to make it more rock, we could have a huge orchestra, we could do wonderful things, even back then in 1970, wonderful things in the recording studio that you couldn’t do in a theatre and that made it a contemporary piece of music.
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“Had we gone to the theatre straight away, it might have been okay, but it wouldn’t have been possible to have had a rock band in those days and an orchestra and all that stuff in a theatre, and we probably would have started out of town where the facilities would have been even less for this new sort of show.
“So we put out the record and the record was an almost overnight hit in America.”
It was this album, with the likes of rock legends Ian Gillan (of Deep Purple fame) as Jesus, Manfred Mann’s Mike D’abo as King Herod and American singer Yvonne Elliman on it, that Sir Tim and Lord Lloyd Webber went on to score one of the first major stage successes of their careers.
“We had this thumping great hit record, a hit record of a show’s score without a show, and of course all the producers who said they [did not] want to do the show, now did want to do the show,” Sir Tim told Sky News.
“Superstar then grew in 1970, 1971, 1972 from an album, which became a hit all over the world, and only rather belatedly in Great Britain, and it became a show on Broadway first and then Australia and around Europe.”
But even before the album, which was recorded in the unassuming Olympic Studios in Barnes, southwest London, it was an idea Sir Tim had when he was growing up at Christian schools.
“I wasn’t sure if I was a believer or not, but I often thought when I was 15 or 16, Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, these guys were around at the time but they didn’t really have their views put forward, particularly Judas in the Gospels.
“Judas is just like a cardboard figure of evil whose role was to betray Christ, and I often wondered if I were in that situation and did not believe Jesus was God, even if I thought he was a terrific guy, what would my reaction be?
“Would you feel that he was a danger to other people… and that really was something that I found very intriguing.”
Sir Tim and Lord Lloyd Webber were also fresh off the back of their first biblical success – Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat – and had carved themselves out as people who could turn the story into something more exciting.
“This was something Andrew and I talked about to the dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, because he’d seen that we could do something from the Bible and make it fun and entertaining and also keep it serious… and he said, go for it – it’s a good idea.”
The album features tracks like Gethsemane (with that piercing high note), I Don’t Know How To Love Him, and of course Superstar, with Sir Tim saying it would be difficult “to take anything out of it without harming the whole piece” – a testament to the soundtrack’s importance on the story.
Reflecting on his memories of recording the album, Sir Tim said: “It was quite nice at the end… when we sent copies of the album out to all the people who’d been on it, and most of them hadn’t really heard very much of it.
“They heard their own songs, often unmixed, but they hadn’t heard the whole thing and in some cases weren’t quite sure what the whole thing was going to end up like at all – but when we sent the album out to them… everybody they called up and said, this is actually great.
“It was a very hot summer, I remember in 1970, and we were sometimes a bit annoyed at having to be stuck in a studio for most of that summer – but it was actually really a very good experience and it was because it was our first major recording sessions”.
The special anniversary editions of the Jesus Christ Superstar album are available now, featuring demos, commentaries, interviews and more.
Lily Tomlin, Morgan Fairchild and Ben Stiller have led tributes to “one-of-a-kind” actor Dabney Coleman following his death aged 92.
Coleman made his career playing comedic villains, mean-spirited bosses and villains in films including 9 to 5 and Tootsie, as well as playing Commodore Louis Kaestner in Boardwalk Empire.
Lily Tomlin, who starred alongside him in 9 To 5 with Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton, said: “We just loved him.”
In her post to X, the actress shared a photo of her character Violet Newstead dressed in a Snow White costume beside a tense-looking Coleman as her egotistical boss Franklin Hart Jr.
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Morgan Fairchild, who starred in Falcon Crest and Friends, described Coleman as a “great one”.
“So very sorry to hear of the death of the wonderful #DabneyColeman”, she wrote on X alongside a black and white photo of them together.
“We went out for a bit in the ’80s and I adored him. This town has lost one of a kind!”
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Coleman “took his last earthly breath peacefully and exquisitely” in his Santa Monica home on Thursday, his daughter said in a statement on Friday on behalf of the family.
“My father crafted his time here on Earth with a curious mind, a generous heart and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humour that tickled the funny bone of humanity”, she said.
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“As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery.”
Ben Stiller, Zoolander and Meet The Parents actor, praised Coleman for paving the way for character actors.
“The great Dabney Coleman literally created, or defined, really – in a uniquely singular way – an archetype as a character actor.
“He was so good at what he did it’s hard to imagine movies and television of the last 40 years without him.”
Coleman starred in a number of films and TV series in the 1960s, then made his breakthrough as a corrupt mayor in the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, in 1976.
His film credits include a computer scientist in WarGames, Tom Hanks’ father in You’ve Got Mail and a chief firefighter in The Towering Inferno.
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He won a best actor Golden Globe for The Slap Maxwell Story and an Emmy for best supporting actor in Peter Levin’s 1987 legal drama Sworn To Silence.
Coleman also won two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the cast of crime drama Boardwalk Empire and received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his starring role in the NBC sitcom Buffalo Bill.
Blue Peter’s youngest ever presenter has claimed disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris sexually assaulted her when she was a teenage host of the children’s show.
Yvette Fielding, who joined the long-running BBCprogramme aged 18, told the Sun newspaper how the paedophile predator squeezed and patted her bottom after finding herself alone with him in a TV studio.
The now 55-year-old also recalled an uncomfortable experience with “grotesque” Jimmy Savile, who was later revealed to be one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.
Fielding has questioned the role of the BBC in allowing their behaviour, arguing people in the industry “must have known”.
She became a Blue Peter presenter in 1987 and left five years later, going on to host a string of BBC programmes including The Heaven And Earth Show, The General and City Hospital.
Recounting the incident with Harris, she said: “It was very confusing and shocking – just bizarre to think Rolf Harris was squeezing and patting my bottom and I am standing there, thinking ‘I don’t know what to do’.
“Other people in the industry must have known what he was like and you left me alone in the studio with him.
“That shouldn’t have happened. I must have been 18 or 19.
He was also known to be associated with Savile, who managed to conceal his crimes until after his death in 2011.
On her meeting with the late depraved DJ, Fielding told the Sun: “He took my hand and started stroking it. ‘Look into my eyes’, he said, ‘And tell me what you’re thinking’.”
“He was grotesque,” she added.
“I just don’t understand why the BBC allowed him to get away with that for as long as he did.”
Savile worked for much of his career at the BBC presenting programmes including Top Of The Pops and Jim’ll Fix It.
Girls Aloud have taken to the stage for the first gig of their reunion tour with emotional tributes to their late bandmate Sarah Harding.
A 30-minute delay to the show blamed on “Dublin motorway closures”, did nothing to dim the delight of fans when Nadine Coyle, Cheryl, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh appeared on stage, standing on individual podiums singing their 2008 song Untouchable.
The comeback tour has been dedicated to Harding, who was diagnosed with cancer and died in September 2021aged 39.
During the show, the groupperformed a duet with Harding, whose vocals to I’ll Stand By You played as they joined in live on-stage.
They later sang one of their biggest hits, The Promise, during which the singers stopped and turned their backs to the audience to watch footage of Harding performing the song on her own.
A post on the official Girls Aloud X account said: “Show 1 done. Dublin you were absolutely INCREDIBLE. What a start to the #TheGirlsAloudShow tour.”
The singers won Popstars: The Rivals in 2002 and formed Girls Aloud, going on to achieve four UK number one singles and a Brit award.
They reunited with new music for their 10th anniversary in 2012, while a second reunion was planned for their 20th anniversary when Harding was diagnosed with cancer.
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Less than an hour before their expected arrival at the 3Arena in Dublin, the group issued an updated stage time on X. It said due to “Dublin motorway closures”, the band would arrive 30 minutes later than expected at 9.15pm.
Ahead of the show, a post on the official Girls Aloud X account said: “Rehearsals? Done. Choreography? Ready. Outfits? Fitted. Girls? Aloud.
“…We’ve been working so hard to make this show special for all of you.”
After two back-to-back opening nights in Dublin’s 3Arena, Girls Aloud will play two concerts at the SSE Arena in Belfast on Monday and Tuesday, before heading to the Manchester AO Arena from Thursday to Saturday.
In November, the group had to add six extra dates to their UK and Ireland 2024 arena tour due to “unprecedented demand” following ticket pre-sales.