'War of the Worlds' hires Kaiser Chief

A full-scale Martian invasion will be enacted at arenas across Britain when Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds returns in a new stage show starring Ricky Wilson, the Kaiser Chiefs singer.

Wayne's album, based on the classic HG Wells story about an invasion from Mars, became one of the Seventies' best-sellers and was then adapted for the stage.

Wilson will join the cast of the new touring musical as The Artilleryman, a role made famous by David Essex. Liam Neeson will take the narrator's role.

The show opens in Dublin in November, moving on to 15 dates in England, Scotland and Wales.