Tubular.net :: Mike Oldfield Forums Discussion, news, reviews, fan music, and more.
	Search :: Members :: Help :: Guidelines

Question: Vocalists you'd hire for the upcoming album :: Total Votes:28 Poll choices Votes Statistics Maggie Reilly 7  [25.00%] Anita Hegerland 0  [0.00%] Barry Palmer 1  [3.57%] Cara 1  [3.57%] Luke Oldfield 0  [0.00%] Bonnie Tyler 0  [0.00%] Mike Oldfield 5  [17.86%] Sally Oldfield 0  [0.00%] Aled Johnson (the kid who sung on 'Pictures in the Dark') 1  [3.57%] Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music fame) 1  [3.57%] Roger Waters (Pink Floyd fame) 0  [0.00%] Bob Dylan 0  [0.00%] Paul McCartney 0  [0.00%] Bono 0  [0.00%] Susan Boyle 0  [0.00%] Robert Smith (The Cure fame) 1  [3.57%] Julio Iglesias 0  [0.00%] Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues fame) 3  [10.71%] Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits fame) 1  [3.57%] Jeff Lynne (ELO fame) 0  [0.00%] José Carreras (famous Italian tenor) 1  [3.57%] Christopher Cross 1  [3.57%] Alan Parsons 0  [0.00%] Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet fame) 0  [0.00%] Sting 2  [7.14%] Chris Martin (Coldplay fame) 0  [0.00%] Enya 2  [7.14%] Roger Hodgson (Supertramp fame) 0  [0.00%] Plácido Domingo (famous Spanish tenor) 1  [3.57%] Ringo Starr 0  [0.00%] Guests cannot vote

Pages: (4) < 1 [2] 3 4 > [ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ]

Delfín Group: Members Posts: 667 Joined: Nov. 2000 Posted: Aug. 08 2012, 19:55 Mike sang half of 'Speak (tho´ You Only Say Farewell), which means he's able for most anything     . I should say I prefer his occasional vocal works on the '70s and '80s than on 'Heaven's Open'. He could give it a try still tho'. -------------- The most precious thing I possess, is knowing the answer's yes Back to top

Delfín Group: Members Posts: 667 Joined: Nov. 2000 Posted: Aug. 08 2012, 19:58 Can't edit the José Carreras thing!!! Well, I'll have to leave it like that. He's Spanish everyone   -------------- The most precious thing I possess, is knowing the answer's yes Back to top

Milamber Group: Musicians Posts: 2263 Joined: Feb. 2010 Posted: Aug. 09 2012, 02:03 I love Mike, but as a vocalist he's just passable and live even worse. I remember reading his vocal dutys on HO was a cost cutting exersise. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Aug. 09 2012, 07:34 Quote (Delfín @ Aug. 09 2012, 01:55) Mike sang half of 'Speak (tho´ You Only Say Farewell), which means he's able for most anything     . "Speak" has always sounded to me much more like two friends having fun than anything close to professional singing. Maybe David was more drunken than Mike when they did that. And anyway, that was 1976, so the doubts still linger on about whether Mike is still capable or not of actually singing at a professional level, and in an acceptably middle range [i.e. not too high à la "Heaven's Open" and not too low à la "Shiva" ]. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Aug. 09 2012, 07:50 Quote (Delfín @ Aug. 08 2012, 11:40) I think I was trying to say the name of a very famous Italian tenor. I think it was Pavarotti I was wanting to quote. Pavarotti is unfortunately dead, and, even more unfortunately, he is passé IMHO. if you were aiming for a great Italian tenor voice, I'd have said Andrea Bocelli. But again, he's much too famous on his own. If he sang on a Mike Oldfield-composed-and-produced song, maybe with some dramatic Oldfieldian guitar playing, I'm afraid it would sound a lot like "Andrea Bocelli featuring Mike Oldfield", and we don't want that, do we? -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

3Wheeler Group: Members Posts: 828 Joined: Aug. 2007 Posted: Aug. 09 2012, 09:30 Five Miles out where he Does the Pilots vocal with Maggie is one of the Big Highlights of His Discography IMO,,  No other Song I can think of Sounds Like it..    A true Mike Oldfield Track   .. This is the Type of Work that makes his Stuff stand out from the Crowd...   He had to Work Hard to get the Track Sounding Right.. More of this Please.. -------------- We're Flying Aeroflot, We've Got Reservations. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Aug. 09 2012, 10:29 @ 3Wheeler: you mean more Vocoder? The pilot's voice was Mike through a Vocoder, which was a fashionable gadget at the time, but now sounds a bit out-dated - at least to me. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

3Wheeler Group: Members Posts: 828 Joined: Aug. 2007 Posted: Aug. 09 2012, 12:11 No I mean the Basic Originality of the Song..   Probably a Big Headache to perform Live as well.. But one of my all time Favs of Mikes -------------- We're Flying Aeroflot, We've Got Reservations. Back to top

GusFogle Group: Members Posts: 198 Joined: July 2011 Posted: Aug. 09 2012, 13:41 Mike was never able to do Five Miles Out justice live, in my opinion. It lacked his enthusiastic vocals for one, but I simply think there was too much studio trickery in that piece to make it sound the same way live. The drums, and bass guitar especially are extremely processed in that song, not to mention the vocals. Back to top

Philippe Tavares Group: Members Posts: 1612 Joined: Feb. 2005 Posted: Aug. 09 2012, 15:12 Quote (Ugo @ Aug. 09 2012, 16:29) @ 3Wheeler: you mean more Vocoder? The pilot's voice was Mike through a Vocoder, which was a fashionable gadget at the time, but now sounds a bit out-dated - at least to me. Please no , don't tell us to replace our nice old vocoder by the f.. Autotune effect ala Will.iam.   Back to top

Cavalier (Lost Version) Group: Members Posts: 598 Joined: Nov. 2010 Posted: Aug. 12 2012, 15:51 I clicked for Aled, hoping Mike remembers the radio interview from a little while back! As for my wishlist name?  Sia Furler - higher profile now, a killer lyricist and a voice to punch through the sound barrier once the mumbling's done with. -------------- "Who was that?" "That was Venger - the force of Evil!  I am Dungeon Master - your guide in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons!" Back to top

Delfín Group: Members Posts: 667 Joined: Nov. 2000 Posted: Aug. 20 2012, 05:58 The only collaboration in an Alan Parsons (non-Project) album from vocalist Christopher Cross. What a golden silky voice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_gojNXbyH8 -------------- The most precious thing I possess, is knowing the answer's yes Back to top

First_Excursion Group: Members Posts: 279 Joined: Aug. 2012 Posted: Aug. 20 2012, 20:31 I love the Robert Plant idea but his voice sounds too fragile these days IMO. I suggest... David Coverdale Roger Chapman Dallas Green Mike Patton Serj Tankian Bruce Dickinson Rob Halford Deborah 'Skin' Dyer Gwen Stefani Deborah Harry Yeah, I'm getting old. Back to top

gths Group: Members Posts: 26 Joined: April 2009 Posted: Aug. 29 2012, 09:09 his voice was OK on Heaven's Open, he actually sung in tune and was expressive and all that. I've heard worse from more lauded singer/songwriter types. I think the thing where he's not had much confidence in his voice is that he more or less self-produces himself most of the time, even a lot of the best singers have trouble dealing with the sound of their own voice. Anyway he's probably shot his voice with all that damn smoking he does. It helps that he'd been able to get good but unheralded singers on the strength of his reputation. I wouldn't mind betting that's what he does this time around. Someone like Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals, does a lot of solo stuff and guesting) might make an interesting fit. He probably wouldn't care how daggy Mike is as long as the music was interesting/ Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Aug. 29 2012, 09:41 Quote (gths @ Aug. 29 2012, 15:09) It helps that he'd been able to get good but unheralded singers on the strength of his reputation. I wouldn't mind betting that's what he does this time around. This is what I was recently saying in this topic. Someone who is very famous, and with a very well-known, instantly recognizable vocal style, would end up owning whatever song he/she sings:  that song would become theirs, not Mike's, and it'd end up as "XX featuring Mike Oldfield", which IMHO is not nice. (I've seen it for "Islands" on a KuschelRock compilation, and it was definitely not nice, at least to me.) Mike won't run into such a risk if he chooses unknown people with great voices. Bruce Dickinson? Nah! Whatever he sings sounds like Iron Maiden. "Tears of the Dragon" is the greatest Iron Maiden song that Iron Maiden never recorded. @ Delfín: that song sounds just like Christopher Cross (do you remember "Arthur's Theme"?). It has absolutely nothing of Alan Parsons' style. See what I mean? Although I must admit that he does still have a great voice, and of course a Mike Oldfield collaboration would certainly benefit good ol' "velvet voice" Christopher. But isn't Mike's album going to be "rock" in the traditional sense of the word "rock"? Christopher Cross is surely not "rock". -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Dragon Eustace Group: Members Posts: 1 Joined: Aug. 2012 Posted: Aug. 29 2012, 17:56 Hi! Mark Knopfler vocals? Knopfler beatiful guitar on Knopfler&Oldfield rock project? Bob Dylan vocal is terrible now. Back to top

Delfín Group: Members Posts: 667 Joined: Nov. 2000 Posted: Aug. 29 2012, 20:01 Hi Ugo, I agree with you about the singer being the real "artistic image" of a song. Even myself spent certain time, after being completely astounded watching the 'Moonlight Shadow' video for the first time (on a b/w TV), spent a certaing amount of time thinking Mike Oldfield was the woman who sang the song. So I agree. Months later, watching the 'Crime of Passion' video (on a color TV) found out there was no woman but the same ugly guy that was killed in the other video, was playing guitar and swaying from one side to the other. HE was Mike Oldfield. I would agree as well about the Christopher Cross song, but only partially. That song wasn't written by Alan Parsons, but by guitarist Ian Bairnson, and certainly it keeps a lot of the atmosphere from other songs written by him, like 'Blown By the Wind' (from the same album) or even form earlier 'Project' songs like 'Let Yourself Go' (amazing song, by the way) sung and composed by Eric Woolfson. But generally I'd agree hiring a famous singer would make people think the song is from the single. Even then, I think Mike managed making 'Islands' or 'Man in the Rain' real trademark songs from him. I wouldn's speculate with his fame being damaged by the singer of any song. Mike's always been the artist, the creator, the guitarist, and the man on the guitar on stage. It wouldn't change now. Any goos singer would do the thing for me. Better if it's good ol' Barry Palmer. -------------- The most precious thing I possess, is knowing the answer's yes Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Aug. 29 2012, 20:25 @ Delfín: you've just reminded me of a very amusing period in my early youth, when everybody who'd heard "Moonlight Shadow" (which of course had hit big, down here) told me how good this Mike Oldfield was, and what a good voice she had. It was useless explaining to people that "Mike Oldfield" was not the lead singer's name. Re. the Parsons/Cross song, I know that Alan Parsons didn't write it... he wrote very little on the On Air album, just one instrumental track and some lyrics. Ian Bairnson did most of the composing work. But that particular song, which (I agree) is very good, is not even remotely close, from a strictly stylistical point of view, to anything Alan did with Eric W. Even if he didn't write "So Far Away", I'd have expected Alan, as a producer, to put some sort of stamp on the song. He didn't, and unfortunately he didn't on the rest of the album as well. He managed to find himself again only on his next album, The Time Machine. All of this is always IMHO, of course. Re. Mike O. collaborating with famous people, I don't think that Mike will ever risk suffering any "damage" to his fame by working with famous people. The only risk he'd face, as I was saying before, is that someone who is currently more famous or more popular than him may overshadow him - people would look at the famous guy or girl and not at Mike Oldfield. This is what, to a certain extent, happened with "Islands": Mike got a great lady, Bonnie Tyler, to sing it; she was very big at the time, and as a result the song (of course) was a fair-sized hit. But it also got inextricably associated with Bonnie Tyler, and people who found and enjoyed that song outside of its original context (e.g. on various artists' compilations) generally tended to give all the merit of its success to Bonnie Tyler, and they tended to forget Mike O.'s importance in the song as the writer, composer and main instrumental performer of it. This, I think, is what could possibly happen if a very famous vocalist gets to sing on Mike's new album. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

GusFogle Group: Members Posts: 198 Joined: July 2011 Posted: Aug. 31 2012, 14:47 Listening to the version of "Incantations" from the Platinum deluxe release, I had forgotten how good of a singer Wendy Roberts was. I wonder if she still sings. Back to top

kazav Group: Members Posts: 136 Joined: Oct. 2010 Posted: Sep. 01 2012, 09:32 Well, Mike can hire me if he wants then. -------------- The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one. Back to top

[ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ] Pages: (4) < 1 [2] 3 4 >

Forums | Links | Instruments | Discography | Tours | Articles | FAQ | Artwork | Wallpapers
Biography | Gallery | Videos | MIDI / Ringtones | Tabs | Lyrics | Books | Sitemap | Contact


Mike Oldfield Tubular.net