The Tubular Bells 50th Anniversary Tour (Double Disc) [DVD]

Product Information

Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells: A 50th Anniversary Celebration stopped off at The Sage Gateshead (Image: Manuel Harlan)

Smith’s arrangements of Oldfield were a memorable part of the iconic Opening Ceremony to the 2012 London Olympics. Here, in Tubular Bells 50 th Anniverary Tour, a film directed by Matt Hargreaves of a dramatic concert performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Smith is the musical director, conducting his arrangements from the keyboard on which he also performs.

Tour

The show was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in August 2021 to great acclaim as an early celebration of and tribute to Mike - who in my view is one of England’s greatest composers in the last century. Along with the musicians, it’s a real privilege to be performing this extraordinary work. It’s as fresh today as it was when Mike created it in 1971 - and I love having the chance to bring it to new audiences as well as those who, like me, are still captivated by it whenever they hear it. Robin was captivated by Tubular Bells when he heard it the first time. He once made the pilgrimage to climb Hergest Ridge to try and understand the heart of Mike’s work. Along with the musicians, I’m really thrilled to be offering this beautiful re-imagined version of Tubular Bells to a wider audience up and down the country. It amazes me how much can be achieved through fancy wording. All those promotion slogans that describe this absolutely desecrated version of TB as a ‘ground-breaking’ performance with ‘expressive’ singers and ‘intriguing’ arrangements…are as deceitful as those original ads that made hundreds of people believe that Mike Oldfield was actually playing there.

DO you know we had some people who came a second and third time. We met people who’d travelled from Croatia, Israel, Paris, Northern Ireland and Serbia just to see the show – how wonderful is that. An incredible work of studio engineering, remember this was before the age of digital recording, the various instruments, all played by the 19-year-old Oldfield, had to be overdubbed using analog tapes. It was an eclectic mixture of musical styles with nothing that even remotely resembled lyrics that could be used as a single. Despite that, Richard Branson used it to launch Virgin Records, those first few minutes found their way into Friedkin’s film and the rest is history. I was completely mesmerised and captivated by its ingenious uniqueness and how Mike wove together so many different genres into one complete work. I was training to be a classical musician at the time, studying composition at the Royal College of Music.” As for the acrobats and everything else, enough said elsewhere on the Internet. The 50th Anniversary of Tubular Bells at the Royal Festival Hall was, sadly, not worthy of the timeless music that Mike Oldfield’s original is. Some nice bits here and there, most musicians clearly skilled…but the overall impression not good, unfortunately. As I mentioned, the performance was set over two sessions. The first session delivered a brilliantly constructed listing made up of some of Mike Oldfield’s “Greatest Hits”. Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’ The 50th Anniversary Celebration, Brighton Dome 5.2.23 (pic Ian Bourn)

Joining us on the tour will be the renowned guitarist, Jay Stapley who performed with me at the iconic Tubular Bells II concert live from Edinburgh Castle in 1992. Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’ The 50th Anniversary Celebration, Brighton Dome 5.2.23 (pic Ian Bourn) The whole evening was wrapped up with an energetic arrangement of the ‘Hornpipe!’ I didn’t expect that. It had the crowd up, with feet tapping, clapping hands and happy smiling faces, thanks to the wave of nostalgia that had just been perfectly delivered and washed over us. Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’ The 50th Anniversary Celebration, Brighton Dome 5.2.23 (pic Ian Bourn) The performance also features other works by Mike Oldfield including Moonlight Shadow, Summit Day, Family Man and Ommadawn.