Mike Oldfield’s 50-year-old multi-million-selling, multi-award-winning Tubular Bells to be performed live across the UK
Following last years 50th anniversary celebrations of Mike Oldfield’s iconic Tubular Bells, it has been announced the multi-million-selling and multi-award-winning album will be performed live in concert across the UK this autumn on a 29-date tour.
And it’s coming our way, with dates in Reading, Oxford and Basingstoke.
Tubular Bells was the debut studio album by the multi-instrumentalist, composer and songwriter who was born and grew up in Reading until he was 13.
Oldfield conceived the album in 1971 and finally released it in 1973. Oldfield who was just 17 years old when he started composing the music, recorded and played almost all of the instruments on the album.
It gained worldwide acclaim when the opening theme was used for the soundtrack of the horror film The Exorcist and went on to become the highest selling instrumental album of all time.
Its legacy was cemented with Oldfield’s performance of the album’s main theme at the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, one of the rare performances of the project he has given.
A bold and progressive fusion, Tubular Bells is a journey through classical, jazz, folk, prog rock and electronica. It won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition in 1974.
The Tubular Bells UK Autumn tour will feature an expansive live group, conducted and arranged by Oldfield’s long-term collaborator Robin Smith, which will see the iconic album performed in full, as well as other works by Mike Oldfield, including Moonlight Shadow, Summit Day, Family Man and Ommadawn.
Tour dates include
Reading Hexagon - October 6
New Theatre Oxford - October 8
The Anvil, Basingstoke - November 6
Tickets are now on sale at mikeoldfieldofficial.com
The tour show MD Robin Smith was completely mesmerised by Tubular Bells the moment he heard it. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School High Wycombe and then studied Composition at the Royal College of Music. He spent several years working as a piano/keyboard player in Africa, the Caribbean, US and Europe before coming back to UK to join National Youth Jazz Orchestra. He quickly became the principal pianist and spent most of his free time composing new jazz compositions.
Robin has collaborated with Mike Oldfield for more than 30 years, with performances of Tubular Bells including at Edinburgh Castle.
He said: “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 of 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.
“The wonderful thing about Tubular Bells is that it never seems to age.
“It takes you on a journey through progressive rock and electronica, blues, folk, jazz and classical and along the way evokes such melodic beauty and drama.
“We’ve had plenty of tears from the audience throughout the UK and Europe, with so many wonderful stories of their first experience with Tubular Bells.”
