Tubular Bells The 50th Anniversary Celebration is coming to Yorkshire and will feature an expansive live group, arranged by Mike Oldfield’s long-term collaborator Robin A Smith. Originally released on 25 May 1973, Tubular Bells will be performed in full, along with further Oldfield compositions, touring across the UK. And it all kicks off at York Barbican on 13 September.
Tubular Bells
Tubular Bells, created in 1971 and released in 1973, was the debut studio album by English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter Mike Oldfield. At just 17 years old when he started composing the music, Oldfield recorded and played almost all the instruments on the album, which gained worldwide recognition when the opening theme was used for the soundtrack of the horror film, The Exorcist. The album went on to become the highest-selling instrumental album of all time.
With this new tour, Smith is thrilled to be performing a work he’s loved since he first heard it in 1973. He collaborated with Oldfield on Tubular Bells 2 and 3 including live performances at Edinburgh Castle, Horseguards Parade, The Millennium Bell in Berlin and the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony. That was when he first talked to Oldfield about his idea for this re-imagined version.
The tour also features other works by Oldfield including Moonlight Shadow, Summit Day, Family Man and Ommadawn.
Interview with Robin A Smith
Ahead of the tour I chatted to Smith about the iconic album and forthcoming performances. I asked him whether he was always a fan of the Tubular Bells album.
“Definitely – when I heard the album it resonated with me, so as a musician I began to study the album and discovered the complexity of the album.
“Years after that, Mike asked me to perform Tubular Bells 2 at Edinburgh Castle where I met him for the first time. Then after that I did subsequent work as Tubular Bells 3 and the 2012 opening of the London Olympics where we performed some of the original album.”
He gave me a little insight into what people can expect when they attend one of the performances, and who the show is most likely to appeal to:
“The first half is a celebration of Mike as a composer as we perfume Tubular Bells in its entirety. The second half of the show contains some of his other songs such as Moonlight Shadow and Family Man – all performed by eight top class musicians where the audience will get a real sense of the band working together.
“We get a real cross mixture of people at the gigs, from the diehard fans, to those who have just discovered Mike Oldfield. We have even had a member of the audience travel all the way from Paraguay to see one of the shows. There is something for everyone to discover and I hope that everyone will enjoy it.”
In terms of the structure of the songs, Smith confirmed that they will remain the same, though he has tried to embellish them and bring out “even more magical colours”. But he stressed that “you cannot real tamper with them – this is a moment in time for many people, they often come up to me to chat at the end of the show to recount their memories of when they first heard the album”.
Tubular Bells as a whole composition
I was curious to know whether Smith thought Tubular Bells would be as successful if the album was released today. He conceded that with the advent of modern technologies and music streaming services such as Spotify, perhaps not. As he explained:
“These days there is so much throwaway music, and anything seems to go and to drift off into the haze. That era of classic albums with big gatefold sleeves has been eroded by time. Today’s music is a product, whereas Tubular Bells is a whole composition. You must remember that when he recorded the album, he did not do it on a computer and all the technology we have today.”
The tour is starting in Yorkshire, with the opening night on Wednesday 13 September at the York Barbican. Smith told me he’s visited Yorkshire many times, with York being one of his favourite cities. They will also be performing in Bradford on 27 September, at St George’s Hall. He told me that, “Bradford is a great place to perform, even more so when the new Bradford Live venue opens in the city in 2024. It would be an honour for me and the band to play there”.
The tour visits Yorkshire on the following dates:
Wednesday 13 September – York Barbican
Wednesday 27 September – Bradford St George’s Hall
