Nige
Group: Members
Posts: 26
Joined: Sep. 2007 |
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Posted: Sep. 24 2010, 14:59 |
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1979: Royal Festival Hall, London/Kings Hall Manchester 1980: Oxford/Stafford Bingley Hall/Manchester Apollo/Wembley Arena/Knebworth 1981: Guildhall Yard, London/London Rainbow 1982: Oxford/Hammersmith Odeon 1983: Wembley Arena 1984: Frankfurt 1993: Royal Albert Hall x 2 1998: Horseguards Parade, London 1999: Berlin/Dresden/Wembley/Birmingham 2006: Cologne
As with the other posts, all were special but in many respects, the earlier ones stand out more as they were less reliant on electronic sound processing/sequencers than the later ones. The 1981 tour was particularly memorable as MO stripped everything down to the essentials and toured with just a six piece band (including him) and, apart from the guitars, played a number of other instruments including bass & mandolin. That said, the 1999 tour covered some of the greats including TSODE & Ommadawn.
Stand out pieces:
1979: Tubular Bells - a rather different version than we were used to at the time 1980: Ommadawn - first public airing and a great live version 1981: Taurus (great build up at the beginning with the mandolin), Ommadawn (the most complete version he's ever played), Incantations (at last he played the bit on side 4 with the bass which was missing from the 'Exposed' 1979 version & Tubular Bells (amazing how good it was with only 5 musicians and a singer) 1984: Tubular Bells pt 2 (beautiful arrangement), Taurus 3 & Shadow on the Wall 1993: Tubular Bells pt 2/Orabidoo encore 1999: TSODE & Ommadawn
While one of the earlier posts suggested that we may have seen the last of MO's live concerts, fortunately many of the tours exist, at least in part, on video:
1979: Exposed DVD 1980: The Essential Mike Oldfield (VHS, very rare but we can hope that it sees the light of day on DVD sometime soon. Failing that, try eBay!) 1981: Montreux DVD 1993: Tubular Bells 2 DVD 1998: Tubular Bells 3 DVD 1999: Millennium Bell DVD 2006: Night of the Proms vol 2 DVD
In addition a number of the other tours can be watched in full or in part on Google Video although, as they got there by dubious means, the quality isn't great.
On three occasions, I have been lucky enough to meet MO - on 15 May 1980 when myself and a number of other fans were invited up to his dressing room after the Manchester concert (probably in a good mood as it was his birthday), after the 1980 Wembley gig (not in a good mood and turned down my request for an autograph) and on 28 July 1981 after the free Guildhall concert in London (in a good mood and signed autographs).
Will we see MO play live again? Probably unlikely but certainly not impossible - he does have a habit of popping up after several years without playing live. And if he does - I'll see you there
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