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Topic: Mike Oldfield in London for this Friday?< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Mix Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 04:47

Quote (tubular_trekkie @ July 28 2012, 11:15)
Sorry to be a party-pooper, but I was slightly disappointed to be honest.
It was nice that he was there and got to perform, and I'm sure he must have felt honoured to be taking part, but the BBC hardly gave him any screen time on their coverage. A few brief glimpses is all we got before cutting back to the dancing nurses and kids jumping about on hospital beds. Great to hear the music, but he (and the other musicians) were clearly there to provide a soundtrack to the spectacle and not to be the main attraction themselves.
I then felt even more disappointed when the Arctic Monkeys and Paul McCartney turned up later on and garnered a hell of a lot more attention (especially when McCartney wasn't all that great either! ).
Perhaps there's better footage of Mike on stage that's been produced by other media outlets that were covering the ceremony?

Well, to be honest, I wouldn't blame BBC for this.

Danny Boyle decided to give Mike the part in providing music for one very elaborate stage performance. When production is what it is (hundreds of dancers and child actors performing simultaneously), and the audience is over 1 billion worldwide instead of just Mike-fans, it is natural that the main attention is the whole and not the musicians on the platform. I'm happy that he was shown even in those short glimpses :)

If Mike had been given his slot at the end, instead of Paul McCartney, it would of course have been a different situation. Infact, he SHOULD have been given that slot in ADDITION to the performance he got. McCartney's part was a bit lacklustre IMHO.

By the way, it was Danny Boyle's crew that took care of directing the show of these performances (what camera-shots were shown at what time), not BBC.

But of course I do agree, that it would have been really great to see Mike more, performing this music. It's just that I didn't have any expectations of it so I can't be very disappointed. :)
And indeed, maybe something else gets released later, something that doesn't follow internation live direction, and the performance is constructed from other camera sources.
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Thea Cochrane Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:06

There is the fact that no one was actually playing live, and
it was about the whole spectacle rather than just being a Mike Oldfield concert.

The newest version of Tubular Bells incorporating In Dulci Jubilo was on the iTunes Store last night, by the way, but you have to buy the whole album to get it. The double album of music from the Olympic opening ceremony is released later this week.
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qjamesfloyd Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:09

I still can't believe OUR Mike was there :) It's an amazing honour for him to be given 11 minutes to perform in front of the whole world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, we would all have liked to see more of him, but that wasn't the point, the point was what was going on in front of him, so, we can't complain really. If he was not involved we would have all been saying, "Shame Mike wasn't there" the fact is HE WAS THERE :) Well done to Danny Boyle, and good on him for flying out the see Mike at home too. I am thinking this now explains why Fanny stopped her diary? to make sure it was all secret.
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timshen Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:09

It's been years since I've commented in the Tubular.net forum but I felt this was an occasion to break that silence and say how proud I am to be British and to be a Mike Oldfield Fan!

I thought Mike would just ring the bell at the beginning and have a few clips of his music added to a montage of many other songs. How wrong I was! He had a whole 11 plus minutes of musical performance.

True, we only got a few shots of him (and his son) playing on stage, but wasn't it awesome that he got so much time and an awesome airing of his music, especially FATC!

Wonderful! Well done Mike. We are proud of you :-)


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tubular_trekkie Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:28

Quote (Mix @ July 28 2012, 09:47)
Quote (tubular_trekkie @ July 28 2012, 11:15)
Sorry to be a party-pooper, but I was slightly disappointed to be honest.
It was nice that he was there and got to perform, and I'm sure he must have felt honoured to be taking part, but the BBC hardly gave him any screen time on their coverage. A few brief glimpses is all we got before cutting back to the dancing nurses and kids jumping about on hospital beds. Great to hear the music, but he (and the other musicians) were clearly there to provide a soundtrack to the spectacle and not to be the main attraction themselves.
I then felt even more disappointed when the Arctic Monkeys and Paul McCartney turned up later on and garnered a hell of a lot more attention (especially when McCartney wasn't all that great either! ).
Perhaps there's better footage of Mike on stage that's been produced by other media outlets that were covering the ceremony?

Well, to be honest, I wouldn't blame BBC for this.

Danny Boyle decided to give Mike the part in providing music for one very elaborate stage performance. When production is what it is (hundreds of dancers and child actors performing simultaneously), and the audience is over 1 billion worldwide instead of just Mike-fans, it is natural that the main attention is the whole and not the musicians on the platform. I'm happy that he was shown even in those short glimpses :)

If Mike had been given his slot at the end, instead of Paul McCartney, it would of course have been a different situation. Infact, he SHOULD have been given that slot in ADDITION to the performance he got. McCartney's part was a bit lacklustre IMHO.

By the way, it was Danny Boyle's crew that took care of directing the show of these performances (what camera-shots were shown at what time), not BBC.

But of course I do agree, that it would have been really great to see Mike more, performing this music. It's just that I didn't have any expectations of it so I can't be very disappointed. :)
And indeed, maybe something else gets released later, something that doesn't follow internation live direction, and the performance is constructed from other camera sources.

Oh, sure. I recognise that it wasn't designed to be a Mike Oldfield concert (why not? :p). I guess I was just a bit hamstrung by the fact that I didn't really care for the dancing nurses and the hospital beds. Nice idea to pay tribute to the NHS and Great Ormond Street Hospital, but I thought it looked a bit silly in places. Also wasn't sure it went with the music either. There were many, many parts of the show I did enjoy (the opening industrial revolution part, Kenneth Branagh, the James Bond bit etc.), but this wasn't my favourite. Which makes me sad.  :/


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- from 'Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib' by the Princess Irulan
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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:29

Quote (Mix @ July 28 2012, 09:47)
Well, to be honest, I wouldn't blame BBC for this.

Danny Boyle decided to give Mike the part in providing music for one very elaborate stage performance. When production is what it is (hundreds of dancers and child actors performing simultaneously), and the audience is over 1 billion worldwide instead of just Mike-fans, it is natural that the main attention is the whole and not the musicians on the platform. I'm happy that he was shown even in those short glimpses :)



I saw Mike's role at the ceremony as a part of the soundtrack,not like Macca,Dizzie Rascal and Arctic Monkeys,who all were performers without any direct relationship with the plot like MO.You can't compare this to a MO concert,even him at Night of the Proms 2006/2007.It's a different story and purpose,and it did fit perfectly for me.


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TOBY Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:33

Quote (Mix @ July 28 2012, 04:47)
By the way, it was Danny Boyle's crew that took care of directing the show of these performances (what camera-shots were shown at what time), not BBC.

That's not true actually. Danny Boyle apparently had a big falling out during the week and in the hours leading up to the event because of the direction of the BBC's coverage, including camera angles and the BBC's desire to have people commentating over the events of the night.

The BBC's coverage was definitely questionable last night but I'm not sure I'd single them out over their lack of coverage of Mike on stage. What was happening in the arena at that point was one of the most amazing, surreal and unexpected things I think anyone had ever seen, certainly at an Olympic opening ceremony. I'm glad it got most of the coverage. Mike was indeed there just to provide the music for it. Underworld weren't even shown at all in person and they worked on all of the original score for last night. Incidentally some people, including one famous musician who i won't name and shame thought Mike's music, outside of the TB riff, was in fact Underworlds.

It says an awful lot about it that that the whole NHS/MO section is the bit that people are talking about today as a huge triumph where as McCartney is the brunt of most of the jokes. His bit was definitely the weakest point of the night for a lot of people.
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tubular_trekkie Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:35

Quote (Tati The Sentinel @ July 28 2012, 10:29)
Quote (Mix @ July 28 2012, 09:47)
Well, to be honest, I wouldn't blame BBC for this.

Danny Boyle decided to give Mike the part in providing music for one very elaborate stage performance. When production is what it is (hundreds of dancers and child actors performing simultaneously), and the audience is over 1 billion worldwide instead of just Mike-fans, it is natural that the main attention is the whole and not the musicians on the platform. I'm happy that he was shown even in those short glimpses :)



I saw Mike's role at the ceremony as a part of the soundtrack,not like Macca,Dizzie Rascal and Arctic Monkeys,who all were performers without any direct relationship with the plot like MO.You can't compare this to a MO concert,even him at Night of the Proms 2006/2007.It's a different story and purpose,and it did fit perfectly for me.

Exactly. That's it in a nutshell. It's also why I was a tad disappointed. I think he deserved to get the same prominence as those other performers. Never mind, still nice to see and hear him there.


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Mix Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:45

Quote (Tati The Sentinel @ July 28 2012, 12:29)
Quote (Mix @ July 28 2012, 09:47)
Well, to be honest, I wouldn't blame BBC for this.

Danny Boyle decided to give Mike the part in providing music for one very elaborate stage performance. When production is what it is (hundreds of dancers and child actors performing simultaneously), and the audience is over 1 billion worldwide instead of just Mike-fans, it is natural that the main attention is the whole and not the musicians on the platform. I'm happy that he was shown even in those short glimpses :)



I saw Mike's role at the ceremony as a part of the soundtrack,not like Macca,Dizzie Rascal and Arctic Monkeys,who all were performers without any direct relationship with the plot like MO.You can't compare this to a MO concert,even him at Night of the Proms 2006/2007.It's a different story and purpose,and it did fit perfectly for me.

Exactly. That's why, given the circumstances, I was happy he was shown at all. And to me his performance was a definite high point of the opening ceremony, never mind if one is a Mike-fan or not. His music did fit perfectly to the proceedings on arena.

And I still think, with 20/20 hindsight, that he should have been given also the final musical number... With McCartney it fell flat.
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Mix Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:50

Quote (TOBY @ July 28 2012, 12:33)
Quote (Mix @ July 28 2012, 04:47)
By the way, it was Danny Boyle's crew that took care of directing the show of these performances (what camera-shots were shown at what time), not BBC.

That's not true actually. Danny Boyle apparently had a big falling out during the week and in the hours leading up to the event because of the direction of the BBC's coverage, including camera angles and the BBC's desire to have people commentating over the events of the night.

The BBC's coverage was definitely questionable last night but I'm not sure I'd single them out over their lack of coverage of Mike on stage. What was happening in the arena at that point was one of the most amazing, surreal and unexpected things I think anyone had ever seen, certainly at an Olympic opening ceremony. I'm glad it got most of the coverage. Mike was indeed there just to provide the music for it. Underworld weren't even shown at all in person and they worked on all of the original score for last night. Incidentally some people, including one famous musician who i won't name and shame thought Mike's music, outside of the TB riff, was in fact Underworlds.

It says an awful lot about it that that the whole NHS/MO section is the bit that people are talking about today as a huge triumph where as McCartney is the brunt of most of the jokes. His bit was definitely the weakest point of the night for a lot of people.

That's interesting, thanks for info. Earlier yesterday they interviewed the director working for Finnish YLE (our equivalent to BBC), Tapani Parm. His YLE-crew was commissioned to direct all the "official" parts of the opening for the international feed: parade of the ahtletes and flags, the speeches... etc.

In that interview he said that Danny Boyle's people takes care of directing all the "artistic" input of the show. Apparently Boyle wasn't given free hands then.
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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:58

And Mike talks about it:

http://www.mikeoldfieldofficial.com/news.php?item=10


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"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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nickko Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 05:59

We will not spoil the fun, Mike was there to participate to the soundtrack, and he did the job, he's one of the few artists to have been quoted last night ! I loved the Tubular Swing, but the end is a little weak, I expected something a bit like "the Tempest" ... But what joy to see Mike on stage, his biggest concert !
A little sad too, it was actually the lifetime project, it means that now there is not much hope of a new studio album in a reasonable time...

Beside McCartney is becoming an old man and frankly it sucks, Mike = 1 Paul = 0 !

Finally the iTunes version is well recorded in studio.
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Pat Gleeson Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 06:54

A few points:
1. This wasn't a MO concert of course, he played during the NHS tribute part of the ceremony. The cameras were quite rightly focused on the spectacle at the time.
2. MO was given *by far* the most time of any musician, since he was given the singular honour of playing live during the spectalce, rather than just playing a perfunctuary set to the crowd in the stadium.

I know I'd be a lot less happier to be a Paul Mc Cartney fan than a Mike Oldfield fan after last night  :)
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Cudsie Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 06:55

Quote (Tati The Sentinel @ July 28 2012, 05:58)
And Mike talks about it:

http://www.mikeoldfieldofficial.com/news.php?item=10

ha!

Great! He looks totally dumbfounded that he was asked at all!

and clearly it looks like this was filmed before he was asked to actually perform it Live!

wonder what his reaction to that was?!
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Clodomir Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 07:16

So we know from the interview that his work with John Robinson was for this London show. I fear he didn't work a lot on a new album the last monthes :-/ But I'm proud for him he had such a good exposure last night !

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TOBY Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 07:49

Interesting that he actually collaborated with Rick Smith from Underworld. Sounds like Rick remixed some of what Mike did.

Mike should really stop smoking. He's got a smokers cough. I seriously don't want him to go down the road of poor Tim Cross.

Here's how lazy and cheap journalism works -  
Watch interview with Mike on his own website http://www.mikeoldfieldofficial.com/news.php?item=10

Then write article about it as if you've actually personally interviewed him -http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9431694/Mike-Oldfield-interview-How-Tubular-Bells-led-me-to-the-Olympic-opening-ceremony.html
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zinc Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 07:55

Here's a nice clip of the NHS Great Ormond St with Tubular Bells soundtrack in case you want a reminder.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19024082
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Mix Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 07:56

This following piece isn't of the highest journalistic standards either...

BBC's "Arts journalist" Jasper Reed has written a review of the opening ceremony. He gives quite a bit of details, and describes the events mostly chronologically - and fails to make one single mention of Mike's contribution. Only thing he mentions of that section is J. K. Rowling reading Peter Pan...

BBC Review

Seems almost like an intentional snub at M.O.
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Mix Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 07:57

Quote (zinc @ July 28 2012, 14:55)
Here's a nice clip of the NHS Great Ormond St with Tubular Bells soundtrack in case you want a reminder.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19024082

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be viewable outside UK. I am in Finland and this is what I get:

"Cannot play media. Sorry, this media is not available in your territory."
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TOBY Offline




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Posted: July 28 2012, 08:51

I seriously recommend the Isles of Wonder album off iTunes. A lot of good tunes for a tenner. Mike's little TB mash up is great on its own.
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