Nolan & Wakeman

Tales By Gaslight

BURNING SHED Revisiting music based on classic literature.

In 1999, Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman created a rock opera inspired by Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem Jabberwocky. Three years later the pair did a similarly impressive job on

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel

The Hound Of The Baskervilles. Unfortunately, a third work, based on Mary Shelley’s

Frankenstein classic had to be abandoned due to lack of money.

Since then, the first two of those albums have become almost impossible to buy. So Nolan and Wakeman came up with the idea of this box set. To make it more enticing, they’ve added a third CD, titled Dark Fables, which is comprised of previously unreleased pieces, including 30 minutes of music composed for the abandoned

Frankenstein album.

Newly recorded, this half-hour suite whets the appetite for what might have been had the project gone ahead. And revisiting Jabberwocky and The Hound Of The Baskervilles proves to be highly enjoyable. The duo caught beautifully the essence of both literary master works.

Extensive notes from the protagonists give you insights into the way these were developed, and the new artwork from Peter Pracownik adds another atmospheric dimension.

Tales By Gaslight is a box set worthy of the quality inside. ■■■■■■■■■■