Minutes ago, Steffi Graf announce the brutal death of Her….
I was told by Andrew Lloyd Webber, “I have this story.” The plan was to make an animated movie based on Thomas the Tank Engine, but early in the 1980s, animation was quite expensive, therefore that plan was never carried out. After that, we got to work on the Rocky Mountain Railroad project. To determine who would have the honor of accompanying Prince Charles and Diana on a royal tour, there was going to be a train race across America. For you, there is history. In his attic, Andrew owned a train set. As a boy, I had one. It didn’t appear to be a stupid notion. It wasn’t such a big leap to have people pretend to be trains after doing a presentation where we had people pretend to be cats.
Composing Starlight Express
was a teaching tool. I had always composed my own music until that point. I had to pick up the skill of fitting words to other people’s music rapidly. If I wrote the first and third verses on my own, I could write anything I wanted in the middle. But everything has to work out well with Andrew.
Even though the first night was hardly audible, the critics weren’t above being nasty about the song’s lyrics.
One glorious day in 1983, Andrew, our director Trevor Nunn, our designer John Napier, and I stood in the wreckage of the Battersea power station, deliberating intently about whether Andrew ought to purchase the structure in order to house Starlight Express. It was among the numerous occasions when If
