Tubular Bells 2003

Hi Ron

Is the Vivian Stanshall walk around included? I don't know if it was even on TB1 but it was on a boxed set which included TB. Not the voice over, but a little bit of sillyness tacked onto the end.

Cheers

Harry

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Is the Vivian Stanshall walk around included?

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I think it's done by John Cleese (seriously).

I like TB1. TB2 is Ok but you keep hearing the original theams and wishing it would go down the TB1 route. If you've never heard TB1, I would say TB2 is quite good though.

I've listened to a fair bit of Mike oldfield recently after buying TB2 about a year ago.
Anyway Herest Ridge is OK, but clearly in the shadow of TB1 with many similarities, but not nearly as Good.
Ommadawn is however IMO a masterpiece, I think it is a long way better than TB and probably up there in my top few dozen albums. Anyone without this album that like's this sort of think should buy it at once.

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Originally posted by greeny:

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Is the Vivian Stanshall walk around included?

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I think it's done by John Cleese (seriously).

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Nope, definately Viv Stanshall - and very funny it is, too.

see:
Boxed

Chris L

Viv vs Basil

You are both right... it was Viv doing the voices on TB1973. However on TB2003 it is John Cleese, Viv having successfully shuffled off this mortal coil some time ago.

Ron
Dum spiro audio
Dum audio vivo

That's interesting.

So does anyone know if Viv's 1973 rollock made it onto the end of TB2003? I'm thinking probably not.

Cheers

when depeche mode bleated about "just can't get enough" I'm sure mike oldfields "two, slightly distored guitars" did not enter the vacuum. You mean this is as popular as a Rocky I, II, III, IV or V?

I, II, III, and now v2003? Crikey, I might have to dig out the Sony BHF I plopped down so many years ago, whack it into the Nak, and see if it's stood the test of time.

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

PS - is it on V2?

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You are both right... it was Viv doing the voices on TB1973. However on TB2003 it is John Cleese, Viv having successfully shuffled off this mortal coil some time ago

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Yes this is what I meant, I've got to admit I quit elike the idea of a rerecording almost note for note. As I said TB2 I think suffers from being similar but not the same. However TB2003 was somewhat slated by Q who commented that Viv Stanshall must be spinning in his grave, and it was digitally antiseptic.

Anyway Ommadawn is better!!

And don't forget the bloody thing is copy protected. My CDX "hiccups" every 30 seconds or so - guess it's time to get PICed.

I got the extra DVD with mine to see what the 5.1 mixes sound like - not bad, even though they couldn't be bothered to run the video sequence with the 5.1 mixes - just with the stereo. How weird is that?

TTFN

Graeme

[This message was edited by Graeme Cree on TUESDAY 19 August 2003 at 20:41.]

Thanks for the heads up on the copy protection Graeme. I wasn't going to rush out and buy it immediately but now it's off my medium term shopping list.

Just dropping in on what looks like a topic that has been going on for some time so apologies if I am talking

about something already discussed.

Has anybody else heard the multi-channel SACD version of TB1?

I picked it up recently when I was out in the US. Setting aside the ongoing discussion on the relative merits of

multi-channel for "normal" music I feel it appropriate to quote from the sleeve notes that come with this Disc, by

Simon Heyworth, who mastered the SACD version

"Sony & Philips were planning 5.1 multitrack recordings. I said what about Tubular bells and they jumped on it.
Tubular bells was a ground breaker in stereo and the mere fact that a multi-channel mix was done in 1975 (for the

then to fail quadrophonic system) makes it all the more extraordinary. When I was mastering the Quad version I

realised TB is in many respects a perfect piece of music for this (multichannel SACD) format and shows off the

virtuosity of Mike as a multi instrumentalist.
It's fantastic to hear the 'air' around the acoustic instruments and all played by the same guy!"

I have listened to the disc several times now and have to agree with these sentiments. For the purists it will

never be correct but it is bloody good.

If you have the gear check it out!

Incidentally there are some interesting notes by Phil Newell who was responsible for the 1975 multitrack mastering

used for this SACD which include some description of corrections and recovery actions that had to be taken at that

time to get TB into multichannel at all.

I can "publish" these if there is any ineterest.

regards

GEOFFP

Sorry for the wierd line spacing. I wrote the text offline in notepad then pasted it in.

The formatting went screwy

regards

GEOFFP

Dee de de de dee.....

Rather splendid I reckon.

It's very easy for 'musos' to knock it; but it was musically brave and technically superb in its day.

OK; maybe it's lost some analogue soul; but is a pretty faithful re-recording of a 30 year old gem.

If you like the original; check out TB 2003 - the wobbly synth bass near the beginning is quite wonderful. M.O. has even managed to locate the same caveman, (who still sounds grumpy!)

I do wonder about the choice of John Cleese, when there are some wonderful male and female voices around. But maybe M.O. wanted to inject a note of whimsy into the proceedings to prove that he's not taking things too seriously?

Enjoy! (again)

Speaking of the voiceover, wasn't there a 1970s version of the original TB without the voiceover?

--J

Starter for ten, no conferring

Where did MO get the idea for the Viv Stanshall vocals?

Answers?

Mike

On the Yellow Brick Road and happy