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Guest Unregistered Posted: Mar. 22 2009, 09:27 playing/singing alongside Mike Oldfield? For singing, is it to sing his songs so his "entended" emotions come out in the performance or maybe as a part of a choir when having to make repetitive sounds or crazy noises for a lengthy number like e.g. Ommadawn and such? For musicians..examples like... guitarists keeping up with MO in speed and variety or keyboard players having to create the "background" atmosphere (even if computer is helping).. or maybe drums...even the very skilled Simon Philips may had to work  "out-of-the-box" to help create MO´s universe on the live scene? Who has the hardest/most difficult work playing with MO?   Back to top

Holger Group: Members Posts: 1506 Joined: Feb. 2003 Posted: Mar. 22 2009, 12:02 The guy who gets his face slapped? Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Mar. 22 2009, 17:44 Pianists and keyboardists. Without a doubt. Mike, who by his own admission is not a proficient pianist/keyboardist, has employed various kinds of studio trickery to record his piano and keyboard parts (just to mention two of them, the synth part on "Blue Peter" was played at half its actual speed, and the piano part at the end of "Sunjammer", which was painstakingly edited together from lots and lots of takes). Playing those difficul parts live is definitely a challenge for keyboard players. Or at least it was until very recent times, when Mike started using MIDI equipment and pre-recorded tracks in live shows, so everything that keyboardists had to do was pushing the appropriate buttons at the appropriate moments - which may be be a bit hard and nerve-wracking, but never as hard as playing the whole of the piano/keyboard parts. @ Holger: on Amarok, Mike apparently sampled himself slapping his own face. So there is no 'guy who gets his face slapped'. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

ex member 419 Group: Members Posts: 1177 Joined: April 2008 Posted: Mar. 23 2009, 06:10 mike slapped his face? gee...oh yeah thats right, i thought it sounded like clapping! but i suppose mike  wanted that particular sound,  it worked, deb Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Mar. 23 2009, 15:06 @ Deb: of course the instruments list on Amarok says "Face Slap", but I always assumed that it was Mike slapping his own face. I don't think Paddy Moloney or anyone else would have been willing to let themselves be slapped by Mike so that he could get a sample of a face-slapping noise. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Holger Group: Members Posts: 1506 Joined: Feb. 2003 Posted: Mar. 23 2009, 16:40 Or someone else slapped his face... maybe he happened to record it by accident?   Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Mar. 24 2009, 04:41 The only reason Mike slapped the guy in the first place was because he dropped the contents of his aeromodeller`s toolbox all over the floor.Which in itself maybe wouldn`t have been so bad had he not already accidentaly kicked over a bucket full of glass that had been left lying around the place.At the end of the day the guy was asking for trouble brushing his teeth on the studio floor.What the hell was he thinking of?Just as well no one from Health & Safety was around at the time or they would`ve had an absolute field day. The first time I read the sleevenotes to Amarok,I could`ve sworn it read Glass Hammer and Bucket..."Oh yeah, Glass Hammer"..I thought at the time.."Now I know for sure he`s making this stuff up.What`s next on the list A Long Stand??..Two Dozen Tins Of Tartan Paint"??? Anyway to answer the question it can`t be easy being a guitar player for Mike Oldfield.So ok Mike has always took on the lead role himself really,but he has had back-up and rhythm players from time to time.I would`nt like to be one of those guys making a pig`s ear of it by mistake that`s for sure.That said I agree with Ugo a lot of Mike`s keyboard players have certainly had their work cut out in the past,just on the sheer difficulty of some of the pieces themselves.On that premise,would Mike be more forgiving towards his keyboard player than say his 2nd guitarist?...Mmmm Probably not imo. Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Mar. 24 2009, 12:36 I put some thought into this thread when it started before I formulated an answer. The drummer. A -good- drummer. I've tried acoustic drums(failed and turned to programming them) and have to admire these guys. It's like hopping on one foot, tickling a puppy with the other foot, chewing gum in time, rubbing your tummy in time with one hand, waxing a car with the other hand in time. And transitions/turnarounds/tom-rolls/crashes. You gotta admire folks like Phil Collins/Cozy Powell/Jeff Porcaro(RIP). I used to sit in on sessions in the 80's with a producer freind and neighbor. When a drummer came in he would request the A/C be set as cold as possible. Sometimes with shirt off, just from the pure heat of muscle friction. Think about Roger Taylor(or whomever) on a hot night in an outside show. Maybe wearing a long sleeve outfit for show. I'd probably want to take 2 aspirin before the show to regulate my body temperature, and keep jugs of Gatorade in a cooler next to me. Gotta admire these guys...... -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Guest Unregistered Posted: Mar. 24 2009, 14:30 Quote (Scatterplot @ Mar. 24 2009, 17:36) I put some thought into this thread when it started before I formulated an answer. The drummer. A -good- drummer. I've tried acoustic drums(failed and turned to programming them) and have to admire these guys. It's like hopping on one foot, tickling a puppy with the other foot, chewing gum in time, rubbing your tummy in time with one hand, waxing a car with the other hand in time. And transitions/turnarounds/tom-rolls/crashes. You gotta admire folks like Phil Collins/Cozy Powell/Jeff Porcaro(RIP). I used to sit in on sessions in the 80's with a producer freind and neighbor. When a drummer came in he would request the A/C be set as cold as possible. Sometimes with shirt off, just from the pure heat of muscle friction. Think about Roger Taylor(or whomever) on a hot night in an outside show. Maybe wearing a long sleeve outfit for show. I'd probably want to take 2 aspirin before the show to regulate my body temperature, and keep jugs of Gatorade in a cooler next to me. Gotta admire these guys...... Yeah I tend to believe that myself. Listening to Simon Philips going crazy on e.g. the live concert from Wembley in 1983, just amazes me every time I hear the music and that is one of the main reasons I´d like to see the video. I´m also puzzled to see if Simon arms really not is 2 meters longer when the concert is finished... I need to see it   (well no of course - just joking, the atmosphere from the recording is just immense and people really really sounds enthusiastic...the video would just be the icing on the cake)   Back to top

ex member 419 Group: Members Posts: 1177 Joined: April 2008 Posted: Mar. 25 2009, 02:30 i am sure you boys can jam with the best of them, keep on playing  and share your music with us! deb Back to top

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