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Topic: Mike Oldfield Concerts, experiences and stories< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Gambit Offline




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Posted: Aug. 04 2010, 00:56

How many here have had the lucky chance of seeing Oldfield perform live?

Sadly, I am only 20, and i know that i will never be able to see him play live. But ive gotten to listen to my dad tell me stories about how he got to see him preform in germany for his Five Miles Out tour.
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CuNimb Offline




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Posted: Aug. 06 2010, 03:19

I saw the five miles out tour in Manchester.....

Was brilliant :)


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Happy? ha ha ha....
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yanouch65 Offline




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Posted: Aug. 06 2010, 04:11

1984 Lausanne
1993 Zürich
1999 Zürich
2006 Stuttgart
2006 Frankfurt
2007 Madrid
2008 Bilbao
2010 Martigny

:)


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Ray said : "it is a shame you don't play"

manintherain said: "You´d better ask Mr. Y who was first"

yanouch65 says: "I am in love with Scotland"
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Bell Boy Offline




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Posted: Aug. 06 2010, 14:29

Cardiff 1980 ( Platinum)
London Wembley (Crises 10th anniver)
Edingbugh Castle : Tubular Bells II
London Horseguards  : Tub Bells III
Birmingham NEC : Guitars ...

The 1st gig Cardiff warm up to the Knebworth gig....
2 hours set of bits off all his albums to date.... right at the front....  met all the band and got autographs..

I so hope he does get the urge to play once more..with a proper band.... and no backing sequences...Like the old days...
I can dream......................

P>S
I also sat 10 seats away from Mike at a Pink Floyd concert at Wembley Stadium ... Mike sat 3 seats from Kate Bush... I couldn't believe my eyes !!!!
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semaniaci Offline




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Posted: Sep. 20 2010, 13:48

i have never had a chance to see his performance live. Do you know when will be his next concert (if will)?
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Philippe Tavares Offline




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Posted: Sep. 20 2010, 14:13

Quote (yanouch65 @ Aug. 06 2010, 10:11)
2010 Martigny

lol T'es vraiment un blagueur ! you're really a joker !  :D

...but why not in Reims into the Cathedral of French Kings !
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yanouch65 Offline




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Posted: Sep. 21 2010, 03:15

Quote (Tubular Tos @ Sep. 20 2010, 20:13)
Quote (yanouch65 @ Aug. 06 2010, 10:11)
2010 Martigny

lol T'es vraiment un blagueur ! you're really a joker !  :D

...but why not in Reims into the Cathedral of French Kings !

You are the first one to understand...

:D


--------------
Ray said : "it is a shame you don't play"

manintherain said: "You´d better ask Mr. Y who was first"

yanouch65 says: "I am in love with Scotland"
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captainjjb Offline




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Posted: Sep. 21 2010, 12:25

Manchester Kings Hall 1979: mind boggling
Manchester Apollo 1980: wonderful
Sheffield City Hall 1980: stood right in front of the man for the whole 2nd half - was in heaven and completely blown away by his guitar technique.
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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: Sep. 22 2010, 06:08

Cologne 2006 - first ever concert,fantastic
Frankfurt 2006 (x2)

But I do wanna see a proper MO concert...dunno if the man would go back and tour sometime in the future.


--------------
"But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014

"I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011
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bugular tell Offline




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Posted: Sep. 23 2010, 16:44

Tubular Bells 3 @ Horse Gaurds Parade

Then and Now Tour @ Wembley Arena :)


--------------
Light travels faster than sound, thats why some people appear bright until you hear them speak
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manintherain Offline




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Posted: Sep. 24 2010, 08:33

19.03.1981 Köln, Sporthalle
16.12.1982 Köln, Sporthalle
17.06.1983 Essen, Georg-Melches-Stadion (Midsummernight Festival)
08.10.1984 Köln, Sporthalle
04.09.1992 Edinburgh, Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle
26.03.1993 Dortmund, Westfalenhalle
27.03.1993 Kassel, Eissporthalle
02.04.1993 Frankfurt am Main, Festhalle
04.09.1998 London, Horse Guards Parade
20.06.1999 Hanau, August-Schärttner-Halle
28.06.1999 Bonn, Museumsmeile
09.12.2006 München, Olympiahalle
15.12.2006 Köln, KölnArena
22.12.2006 Frankfurt am Main, Festhalle
07.03.2008 Bilbao, Museo Guggenheim

Every single gig is worth a mention but the ones that stick out are Cologne 1982, for it was the very last concert during his world tour, the Premieres in Edinburgh, London and Bilbao and the Munich concert in 2006, where I had the chance to meet and talk to Mike.
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Reena Offline




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Posted: Sep. 24 2010, 13:59

1993 The Hague, Tubular Bells II
1999 Rotterdam, Then and Now
2006 Hamburg, The Night of the Proms

The concert in The Hague was absolutely marvelous, with Loreena McKennit to warm up the audience, the sound was brilliant !
The Then and Now - concert was very quite good as well, certainly with the Tubular Bells, that were the same as the Horse Guards Parade Pemiere - concert. These where quite overwhelming.
The gig in Hamburg I remember that in my opinion Mike was somewhat uneasy at stage...
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Nige Offline




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Posted: Sep. 24 2010, 14:59

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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captainjjb Offline




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Posted: Sep. 25 2010, 06:03

Yo nige, what an impressive list!  Yeah I was there too on Mike's 27th birthday backstage - I remember some guys asking a load of questions about his SG (was that you? LOL) and Mike getting a bit fedup with them, but otherwise he was quite calm.  I got a load of autographs that night, probably even yours!
the following week in Sheffield he let us on the tour bus, which was fantastic, but we got chucked off as they left (I would have just stayed on it!  Doh!;)
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Nige Offline




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Posted: Sep. 26 2010, 03:46

Quote (captainjjb @ Sep. 25 2010, 06:03)
I remember some guys asking a load of questions about his SG (was that you? LOL)

Nope - not me!  I was the starstruck teenager who went up to him and gushed about how amazing the concert was and he just looked up at me with a bemused look and said nothing!  Finally, he put me out of my misery by replying to my comment that I was also going to see him in Wembley a couple of weeks later by saying 'yes, should be a good gig'.  The maestro had spoken to me!!

Sadly it all went wrong after the aforementioned Wembley concert.  Waited by the back gates for over an hour with three other guys.  Most of the band came out and signed autographs and Nico Ramsden (guitarist)suggested that we just walked in and joined the party!  Decided not to as the security guys and roadies were bigger than us and when MO finally emerged, our requests for an autograph were met with a terse 'er...no'

Can't win 'em all, I suppose!
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captainjjb Offline




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Posted: Sep. 26 2010, 04:22

Quote (Nige @ Sep. 26 2010, 03:46)
he just looked up at me with a bemused look and said nothing!  

yeah there was a lot of that.  I'd taken a birthday card backstage at the begining of the gig but couldn't get to him directly so just left it with one of the band members, it wasn't from me but from MO fan I was writing to at the time (Trudi B - are you still around?) and so when I got right in front of Mike I asked him if he had the card and we spent ages going through the cards he had to eventually find it, saying nothing at the time, which for him was probably easier than talking!

I think the best thing is NOT to meet your stars, but at 15 I wanted to meet them all, and tried every time.  Actually Mike was great because I don't think he gave a toss about all these over enthusiastic people in front of him and therefore genuinely didn't show any interest.
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wiga Offline




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Posted: Sep. 27 2010, 02:50

Quote (captainjjb @ Sep. 25 2010, 11:03)
Yo nige, what an impressive list!  Yeah I was there too on Mike's 27th birthday backstage

Wow, - you were both backstage at the same time. :cool:

--------------
Barn's burnt down - now I can see the moon.
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Nige Offline




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Posted: Sep. 28 2010, 02:30

As far as I can recall, there were about 20-30 of us hanging around at the stage door.  As it was 15 May (MO's birthday), we periodically sang 'Happy Birthday'.  Finally, after around one hour, the guard on the door said that if we sang it once more, we could all go in.

So we sang!  At the end, the guard said 'sorry, not loud enough, sing it again'.  By this stage, I think most of us thought that we were being conned but went for it anyway.  When we'd finished, the guard said 'OK you can come in, four at a time, don't touch anything, get your autographs and then go straight out'.

We were led across the stage, up a flight of stairs and into the dressing room.  MO was sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by a collection of birthday cards chucked onto the stage by fans (including me) and the rest of the band were milling around.  The rest of the story is related above in my previous post.

What struck me was how nice and unassuming the rest of the band were.  I recall that we'd seen a couple of them in the pub outside the venue before the concert and had a chat with them and all of them were happy to oblige with autographs afterwards even though a bunch of overexcited teenagers was probably the last thing they wanted to see at nearly midnight!  If only camera phones had been invented in 1980!

There were three other notable things about the concert:

1.  Wendy Roberts, the singer (very nice and put a kiss after her signature on my programme - these things are important when you're 19!)!

2.  The ticket price  - £5 as far as I remember (the exposed tour tickets were going for £4 the previous year though so it was a bit of a price hike!)

3.  The stage set had a couple of large butterflies (from the Platinum cover).  One of the guys I went with said 'wouldn't it be funny if they fell down during the concert' - guess what happened half way through the concert!

CaptainJJB - anything to add?
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captainjjb Offline




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Posted: Sep. 28 2010, 17:11

I had conned/bribed my music teacher at school to go with me and a mate so we could get to Manchester for the event.  My teacher was impressed though.  He was less impressed with us dissapearing after the gig for an hour and a half without saying where we were, but hell I was with my musical hero Mike Oldfield for some of that time, so I didn't care.  
The gig that most impressed me was Sheffield, but that was really because I got stood in poll position right in front of MIke to watch him play for the entire 2nd half - with around 1 foot between us.  Now that is a cherised memory!
I got Mike to sign a bit of paper I had and also got lots of the other guys/gals to sign, but years later binned the lot along with heaps of other Oldfield stuff.  Shucks!  At Sheffield I got him to sign the program on the inside back cover when in the tour bus, and gave that away years later to a Spanish fan.

It was £5.  Here is the ticket stub to prove it.
 
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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: Sep. 28 2010, 21:07

5 quid nowadays = an arena ticket for BBC Proms 2010 at Royal Albert Hall.

--------------
"But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014

"I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011
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