This is Tubular.net, an open website dedicated to Mike Oldfield.
Ingredients: organic fan input, a touch of fresh official news.
Warning: may contain slightly distorted comments.

Members of the Mike Oldfield Forums have known about the tubular.net presence in Second Life for quite awhile. This message especially goes out to everyone else, including the 10,000+ Tubular.net fans on FaceBook.

Tubular.net has started to host weekly meet-ups on Saturdays from 12-1 PM PST/8-9PM GMT.  The locations of the meet-ups may move around inworld, but for now we're at Vigdorova 151,75,93. To reach the sky house, use the teleporter near the stones: click on the spinning ...lavendar disc; or, IM Morrighan Heron for a TP. To join the Tubular.net SL group and receive future announcements, search under Groups for tubular.net or Mike Oldfield.

Hope to see you there!

Saturday, 6 February 2010 1 comment

There was some concern amongst Music VR fans when the Music VR sections were removed from mikeoldfield.com in its redesign last year.

We're pleased to say that Music VR has a new home here at tubular.net - we've been given permission to act as the new official source for all things Music VR. You can download Tres Lunas and Maestro via the links on the front page for now. They're both completely free to download and use.

You can visit the Music VR area on the forum for support.

Wednesday, 27 January 2010 10 comments

We've had word from Universal that the new editions of Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn will be out in April. We ought to have more details shortly.

For those concerned about the disappearance of mikeoldfield.com, we're told it'll be back soon.

Saturday, 16 January 2010 94 comments

Esoteric Recordings is reissuing two Pekka Pojhola titles at the end of January, including The Mathematician's Air Display. Produced by and featuring Mike, this remastered reissue will be released on 25 January.

Thanks to Christian Maguhn and Vicky Powell!

Monday, 11 January 2010 36 comments

Happy New Year 2010!

2009 has been rainy for us Mike Oldfield fans, we can be proud of our patience. Let's not try to predict how 2010 will be packaged, and wish we'll ultimately be rewarded.

We have started to work on the tubular.net backend in 2009, you can see the first results in the articles section. This will allow us to easily search, translate, and share any data about Mike. But the best part of the site cannot be modelized: the forums. Thank you so much for visiting and participating, welcome to the new 2009 members and admin, and we always keep a sweet little spot for people who may want to come back say hi.

Friday, 1 January 2010 18 comments

Maggie Reilly's latest album, Looking Back, Moving Forward, contains re-recordings of Moonlight Shadow, To France, and Family Man. Order from Voiceprint, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca.

Thanks, manintherain.

Thursday, 5 November 2009 41 comments

The UK's Royal Mail is planning on releasing a Tubular Bells first class stamp as part of a series featuring classic album covers on January 7th 2010. The Royal Mail website currently carries no mention of them, but details and pictures are available on the Norvic Philatelics website.

Thanks, Andy White

Update January 2010: The stamps are now on sale. As well as the usual outlets in the UK, you can buy them from the Royal Mail online store

Sunday, 11 October 2009 32 comments

The 50th Anniversary edition of Music Week features Tubular Bells in the official Top-Selling UK albums 1959-2009 at No. 35, noting it as the only entry that did not yield a hit single. Sales in the UK are listed as 2,630,000. There are also other mentions of the early days of Virgin and Tubular Bells throughout the magazine.

Thanks, Chris Simmons

Tuesday, 22 September 2009 6 comments

Tony Palmer's All You Need Is Love documentary covering the history of popular music is soon to be available to buy as individual DVDs. Previously available as part of a box set, the "Imagine - New Directions" volume featuring interviews with Mike Oldfield is available for pre-order from voiceprint and Amazon.co.uk.

Thanks, Yanouch65

Thursday, 13 August 2009 9 comments

The grounds of Mike's former South Gloucestershire home near Bristol are now open to the public aimed at being "a great day out for all the family". The grounds were used as the setting for many of the publicity photos for Music of the Spheres. The house itself is not open to visitors. Details are available at http://www.olddownpark.co.uk/.

Thanks to Kelvin Davies for the information

Wednesday, 29 July 2009 6 comments

The National Film Theatre on London's South Bank will be showing The Space Movie (which includes otherwise unreleased music by Mike Oldfield) on the 28th and 29th of July.

Tickets are £6.40 for the 28th (18:20 in the smaller NFT 3) and £9.00 for the 29th (17:50 in NFT 1).

Many thanks, Bob Smith

Sunday, 19 July 2009 22 comments

We've been investigating ordering problems reported with signed copies of the Tubular Bells Ultimate Edition.

The main problems appear to be:

• Items still not despatched, despite credit cards having been charged as far back as mid May.
  
• Inadequate packaging leading to damage in transit, despite a premium having been charged for postage and packaging due to the item's value and weight.
  
• Signed copies arriving without signed certificates, possibly linked to...
  
• Signed copies being sold by Amazon, contradicting the claim that they would only be available through the official website.
  
• A general lack of communication from Completely Independent Distribution Ltd, who are running the official online store.
  

We've decided to take this into our own hands, so we'd like to hear from you if you've had any of the problems listed above. Please send an email to contact@tubular.net, giving as much detail of the case as possible, including details of:

• Your name and order number.
  
• The problem(s) you've had (including, if you've not received your copy yet, when your credit card was charged).
  
• The steps you've taken to report the problem and details of communication you've had about it.
  

Your details may be shared with Completely Independent Distribution Ltd and Universal Music Group as part of an effort to get these problems solved. General details of the case may be shared with the press, but your individual details (name, order number, email address) will remain private unless we ask your permission.

Update June 30th: We're now in communication with Completely Independent Distribution and Bravado in an effort to resolve the reported problems

Update July 6th: People who have reported damaged copies should all have been offered a replacement. People who have reported problems with late delivery should also have been contacted.
If you're having problems, please contact customerservices@bandstores.co.uk before contacting us (though by all means copy contact@tubular.net into the mail if you want).

Thursday, 25 June 2009 405 comments

The Tubular Bells Collection has entered the BBC Radio 1's top 40 album chart at no 25. Check it out at BBC Radio 1.

Update 06/21: no. 11

Thanks, Chris Simmons!

Sunday, 14 June 2009 21 comments

The people at UK Hi-Fi store Richer Sounds tell us that by signing up to their 'VIP Club' mailing list in June, you can win one of several Tubular Bells-themed prizes.

Top prize is a £1000 Cambridge Audio/Mordaunt Short hifi system, a signed ultimate edition, a t-shirt and a canvas print. Second prize is a deluxe edition, t-shirt and a print, and there are also 15 Mike Oldfield Collection CDs to be won.

More details on their website.

Saturday, 6 June 2009 19 comments

To celebrate the re-release of Tubular Bells, Mercury Records is holding a special event on June 6th at the British Music Experience at the O2 in London.

The event will feature the 29 piece Handbell Ringers of Great Britain and an Orbular Bells DJ set by The Orb.

There will also be bell ringing workshops, competitions and more!

The event will be from 2 until 6pm and admission is £15 for adults, £12 concessions and children go free (details in the press release).

Update (29th May): Download the press release

Monday, 25 May 2009 104 comments