Jeff Wayne was born in Forest Hills, New York and discovered early in his life two passions that have remained with him - music and tennis. He took classical piano lessons from the age of five, and later jazz piano with John Mehegan from the Julliard School of Music. Jeff was taught tennis by his father Jerry - a former college player turned singer, actor, writer, and theatrical producer, who played romantic gambler Sky Masterson in the original West End musical production of "Guys and Dolls", bringing the Wayne family to the UK for the first time.

Four years later returning to New York, Jeff graduated Stephen Halsey Jr. High then attended Forest Hills High for one year (including playing for its tennis team), before moving to California. Jeff graduated Grant High School, then Los Angeles Valley College with a journalism degree before switching to music as well as captained and played No 1 for their tennis teams. He also played keyboards in local bands and coached tennis to support himself through those years.

Returning to the UK, Jeff's musical career truly began when Jerry offered Jeff the opportunity to compose the score for his then upcoming West End musical "Two Cities" based on Charles Dickens "A Tale Of Two Cities". It ran at London's Palace Theatre winning for Edward Woodward the Evening Standard Award (now the Olivier's) for Best Male Performance in a Musical for 1968-69.

Since then Jeff has become an award winning composer, arranger, conductor and producer of music for just about every medium - film, television, records, a West End musical, advertising and interactive projects.

He has produced and written for a diverse range of artists including Richard Burton, The Who, Anthony Hopkins, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Catherine Zeta Jones, The London Symphony Orchestra and Choir (as well as conducting at the Royal Albert Hall) Justin Hayward, David Essex (US #1 "Rock On"), Apollo 440, Human League, DJ Zube, Acker Bilk, Tony Christie, Orbital, Todd Terry, N-Trance, Dario G, Sakin & Friends, Tilt, Hybrid, and more recently Croatian piano virtuoso Maksim for EMI Classics. His music has also been performed to by gymnasts, jugglers, dancers, ice skaters, magicians, fire-eaters and animals!

In June 1978, Jeff's Musical Version of "The War Of The Worlds" was released achieving international success, including worldwide hit singles "The Eve Of The War" and "Forever Autumn". It has also won two Ivor Novello Awards along with The Best Recording in Science Fiction and Fantasy, (the judges included Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Alfred Hitchcock).

In the summer of 2005 following over a year's work remixing in stereo and surround sound, The War of The Worlds was re-released in the UK and Internationally. The album became one of the big hits of the year occupying 10 consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the UK Album charts.

The new release pushed sales to over 3 million double albums in the UK, and approaching 15 million worldwide. It is now amongst the elite of the longest running albums in UK chart history having passed 300 weeks in 2005.

After 9 months of preparation, in April 2006 Jeff began a sold out 14-date arena tour - The War of The Worlds Live! - including London's Royal Albert Hall and Wembley Arena with Jeff conducting the 10-piece Black Smoke Band and the 48-piece ULLAdubULLA strings.

Guest artists Justin Hayward and Russell Watson who along with other top performers portrayed the roles as created for the original album. Other special ingredients included a 3D 10-foot high talking head of Richard Burton recreating his role as George Herbert, The Journalist.

While The Journalist is recounting his story of survival from the alien predators during the late 1890s in England, a 100-foot wide by 20-foot high screen projects a combined CGI animated and live action film produced especially for the show running in perfect synchronization to the live performances on stage. Surround sound for the audience's heightened aural experience is mixed live for each show as well.

Perhaps though, the single most exciting and unexpected moment in the show is the arrival on stage of the 3 tonne, 30 foot high Martian Fighting Machine firing Heat Rays at the audience while scanning them with its "bug-like" eyes.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds was recognized as one of the Top 5 live entertainments of 2006 by The Times and was nominated in several categories (including Best Live Entertainment of 2006) in the 2006 TPi Awards. A DVD shot at the Wembley Arena performance, directed by David Mallet and released by Universal Pictures, has become the biggest selling music DVD in the UK so far in 2007 having already reached No. 1 for over 7 weeks.

TWOTW is set to tour Australia and New Zealand in September and will include Australian artistes Michale Falzon, Rachel Beck and Shannon Noll. Shannon, in May, won for the third consecutive year MTV's Australian Male Artist of the Year.

And "Back by Popular Demand" - TWOTW will tour again throughout the UK in December 2007. Its final date is at the new 02 Dome on December 22 which alone holds up to 20,000 people.

A new Richard Burton will also be seen for the first time beginning on the Australian leg - now in the form of a true photo-real performance and projected as an 11 foot high hologram that "floats" above the stage - a first in live entertainment!

Other tours are currently being considered including Europe, the US and Asia for 2008.

Jeff's long held interests in subjects relating to Good over Evil, Master over Slave, have been expressed in his musical works "The War of The Worlds" and "Spartacus" (which featured Sir Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta Jones and Ladysmith Black Mambazo). Jeff is also currently developing Jack London's The Call of The Wild into another musical work that could lead into further multi-media productions.

His first television series, The Book Of Tennis Chronicles, began broadcasting worldwide in 2005 (distributed by Fox Sports) and parallels the lives and tribulations of the greatest tennis players, and events, set against the most dramatic and quirky moments in world history, starting in 1877 and up to present time. Jeff created and produced the 8 half-hours series as well as composed and produced its music.

Tennis has remained an active part of Jeff's life winning at club, county, and national level including the British National Indoor Veterans singles and doubles titles, and the National Clay Court doubles. In 1992 he partnered his long time friend and former Great Britain #1 and Davis Cup captain Roger Taylor at the European Veteran Championships.

1999 also saw Jeff represent Great Britain competing for the Austria Cup in Spain, and achieved an ITF world ranking in his age group. 2007 saw Jeff begin his 18th year as Hertfordshire County Men's Captain and recently was elected into the International Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain.

Jeff has also played many pro-am tournaments including for: Muscular Dystrophy, Olympic Games Fund Raising, and Save The Children. He is also a Patron for HAD (Hertfordshire Action against Disability).

Jeff and Geraldine live in Hertfordshire, England and have four children: Anna-Marie - an actress now based in California (annamariewayne.com), Jemma - an author and journalist with her debut book "Bare Necessities" published in late 2005 and two novels forthcoming, sons Zeb, DJ'ing on the London club scene as well as composing and producing music, and Joab (15) studying for his GCSEs while training and competing to become a professional tennis player.

May 1st, 2007