Tubular Bells 50th Anniversary - Review

Royal Albert Hall, London

****

For one night only and under the baton of Simon Dobson, the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra marked the 50th anniversary of the release of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. In some ways any orchestral performance of Oldfield’s groundbreaking album will always be ersatz, as back in the 1970s it was the composer himself who played every instrument in the work layering the recording together over weeks, track by track. When one considers that this was in pre-digital times, with Oldfield only having access to multi-track analogue recording equipment, this makes his original album all the more remarkable. Dobson however is a gifted musician with an intimate understanding of Oldfield’s work. His arrangements of the two Tubular Bells pieces, together with a collection of Oldfield’s other lesser-known recordings, make for an evening of fine music.

The concert initially comprises the first parts of both the Ommadawn and the Hergest Ridge albums with the music and perfectly hazed lighting plots creating an atmosphere of wonderfully mellifluous melody. Moonlight Shadow, Oldfield’s chart-topping single concludes the pre-interval proceedings with Ella Shaw powerfully delivering the vocal honours.

The second half kicks off with the hallmark opening bars of Tubular Bells, the 15/8 time melody that was to define not only The Exorcist's score but also lay the foundations of Richard Branson’s Virgin Records fortune. The RPCO are augmented by featured soloists throughout the performance, with Pete Callard’s Lead Guitar work particularly stunning through many of Tubular Bells’ challenging riffs.

Tubular Bells of course requires a charismatic Master of Ceremonies. Oldfield’s original MC, Vivian Stanshall set the bar high (it was Stanshall’s distinct pronunciation of “tubular bells” that prompted Oldfield to name the album thus) and there are few finer voices than that of Brian Blessed to provide the wry bombast that the role demands. Proud of his 86 years, Blessed bestrides the stage like a colossus through Part One of Tubular Bells, with his Caveman in  Part Two proving an equal delight.

If there is one criticism of the gig it is of the video projections that are (sometimes dimly) shone onto a screen above the orchestra. Ranging in style from what looks like a Lloyds Bank black horse advert through to what could be a Microsoft screensaver based on the Tubular Bells 50 logo, the imagery is tacky. The Royal Albert Hall is one of London’s grandest venues and while the players magnificently fill the space with their music, the video work proves to be an uninspiring detraction, dwarfed by the hall’s imposing grandeur. If projections are to be used going forward they should be grander and LED based or not used at all. A waggish suggestion, overheard on leaving the venue, was that maybe scenes from The Exorcist could be shown!

 

The whole affair is wrapped up with Dobson’s energetic arrangement of the Hornpipe – sending the audience out into an autumnal Kensington with feet tapping, hands clapping and grinning at the evening's wave of nostalgia that has flooded over them.

Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells 'For Two'

Spiegeltent at the Wonderground, London

****

Daniel Holdsworth and Aidan Roberts

It is almost 40 years to the day since young promoter Richard Branson persuaded his wunderkind signing Mike Oldfield to perform from the Tubular Bells opus, live at London’s South Bank Purcell Room. (Legend has it that Branson had to throw in the keys to a Bentley to convince Oldfield to take the stage.) The album was to prove an astonishing work for its time. Stretching the analogue capabilities of 24 track recording, Oldfield had meticulously created his piece almost solo, famously playing nearly all of the 30 instruments himself and layering them track by track. In so doing, he was to create what an admittedly biased Branson has since described as “one of the most influential records in modern music”. That the opening piano melody was then taken up as The Exorcist’s theme only added to the album’s stratospheric success.

Fast forward to 2008 and two talented young Australians, Aidan Roberts and Daniel Holdsworth acquired the performance rights to the work. They went on to develop their consummate understanding of the piece as a live show, with just the two of them playing a glorious collection of string, percussion and keyboard instruments, free of all digital trickery whatsoever save for the occasional layered loop (each of which is freshly laid down on the night). Domestic tours and a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe followed, before this year’s gruelling tour of the UK that finishes with a further month’s residency at Edinburgh. So it was a touching gesture that saw the London gig, on this 40th anniversary, take place just a very short swim up the Thames from the Purcell Room, in the Spiegeltent at the pop-up Wonderground festival site.

From the moment those haunting bars of the the first movement were played spines started to tingle,  but as the movement played out, with its wonderful Celtic recurring motifs and awesome rock riffs, the tingling spines gave way to dropping jaws as the sheer audacious brilliance of these talented antipodeans held 500 people in the palm of their hand. Viv Stanshall’s memorable Master of Ceremonies instrument intros. are replicated on the night by Roberts and as he introduces the various sounds (including the 8 members of the guitar family,  one of which includes the famously and daintily delightful mandolin) the trip back in time is complete. A brief pause, not unlike the real life experience of turning the vinyl over and then the guys canter through the album’s B side, a chapter of the work that has always proved a tad unfamiliar to most, reflecting the fact that whilst millions wore their side one grooves down to smoothness, Oldfield’s second movement was to languish in comparative obscurity.

Branson recounts how back in 1973 Oldfield told him of all the instruments he needed to record the album. Branson was surprised at how expensive tubular bells were to buy. “£20 for tubular bells?” he asked. “They’d better be worth it.” Last night’s standing ovation suggests that they were.

Currently touring the UK and Ireland

Details at www.tubularbellsfortwo.co.uk