2024 Touring New Zealand & Australia
Uk Tour October -November
2025 European Tour March-April
https://mikeoldfieldofficial.com/tour/
New dates have now been announced for the The Tubular Bells Anniversary UK tour in September with all my amazing bunch of fabulous musicians, Jay, Maxime, Kwesi, Lisa,Will, Jack , Daisy for their dedication to 32 magnificent performances. It been incredible and fun and we loved every minute. Thanks too to the back up teams and our wonderful guitar techs, Tom and Fabio. All of these lovely people kept us going with humour and laughs all the way.
And now to the audiences. Up and down the country you have been wonderful and supportive and just lovely. The warmth and joy we felt from you, night after night, has been absolutely amazing so a big, big thank you from us all. There are more tours in the UK planned before we go overseas.
DO you know we had some people who came a second and third time. We met people who’d travelled from Croatia, Israel, Paris, Northern Ireland and Serbia just to see the show – how wonderful is that.
THE GEM
Lots of people have asked if there’s an album featuring The Gem. I’m working on it – so keep a look at this website and my social media later in the year.
The reimagined version of Tubular Bells, premiered at the Royal Festival Hall, all over the UK in February and March with a fabulous team of musicians and support staff. We’re playing music including Ommadawn, Return to Ommadawn, excerpts from the Voyager Album and including Mike’s wonderful songs, Moonlight Shadow, To France and Family Man as well as my own composition the Gem. So far – we’ve had the most amazing audiences – so a huge thank you.
Robin A Smith – Keyboards/Piano/Musical Director
Jay Stapley – Guitar
Maxime Obideau – Guitar and Mandolin
Lisa Featherston – Bass
Kwesi Edman – Cello
Daisy Bevan – Vocals
Percussion – Will Miles -Jack
Below are some useful links to the concerts as well as the Soundtrack Album
Robin A. Smith Tubular Bells Re-Imagined
https://mikeoldfieldoficial.com
https://mikeoldfieldofficial.com/tour/
Anniversary Concert Royal Festival Hall
Mike Oldfield and Robin A Smith
It was by chance that Robin met Mike Oldfield after he’d worked with Mike’s sister, Sally as a sessions musician on her album, Natasha . Mike was preparing the world premier of Tubular Bells 2 – a concert which was to be performed outside at Edinburgh Castle and broadcast live around the world and Sally felt the two would work well together.
Robin was captivated by Tubular Bells when he heard it the first time. He once made the pilgrimage to climb Hergest Ridge to try and understand the heart of Mike’s work.
When the two met in LA in 1991 they seemed to have an immediate understanding. Both quiet, professional musicians, Mike seemed to recognise that he could trust Robins ability to work quickly on arrangements while respecting his creative thinking.
Robin is unique in having a strong classical background and musical arranging plus a unparalleled understanding of modern technology which was developing and emerging at break neck speed. Sequencing, notation, synchronisation and synthesisers were new and Robin understood them all and was one of London’s more successful sessions musicians because of his ability to incorporate them.
The Premier was hugely successful and was one of the first concerts that involved using live musicians both rock and orchestral performing to synchronised audio elements. At the time in 1992 it was an exciting and groundbreaking concept and the overall sound of the musicians on stage was enhanced with sophisticated audio files and colours that transformed the concert experience.
The challenge for Robin was that he was conducting whilst listening to a synchronised click. This was totally new territory and took a lot of adaptation but the finished result was astounding.
The show tour included Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and all over Europe the following year.
Since then Mike and Robin worked together on various projects; the subsequent sequel, Tubular Bells 3 and the Millennium Bell, performed in Berlin on the eve of 1999.
Robin said, “The wonder of working with Mike is his amazing creative restraint. He would allow me to paint a musical picture and then very thoughtfully and carefully intwine his own personality and musicality to create something magical. He was always enthusiastic and incredibly generous and thoughtful with the other musicians, and actually a very sensitive instructor.
The last time we worked together was at the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics working with Danny Boyle. Mike was living in the Bahamas, and he put his trust in me to take charge of organising the arrangements and musicians – even down to the size and tuning of the bell. The whole experience was awe inspiring, working with Mike and Danny and such a great team, including the volunteers and nurses and together we created a wonderful segment of this fabulously unique show.”
The Development of the Idea
Robin has always loved German Composer, Carl Orff’s, Carmina Buranda, which was originally composed in 1935 for chorus and orchestra.
Orff subscribed to a theatrical concept known as, “Theatrum mundi” in which music, movement, dance, visual design and speech are inseparable. This was the inspiration for Robin who saw the parallels between the works and wanted to explore the possibilities.
“There’s no question that Tubular Bells is one of the most unique pieces of music written this century. It embraces so many platforms. It is highly complex, embracing minimalist, rock, serialisation, and in many ways heralded the emergence of new age music; chill and ambient.
With a mountain of wonderful audio and visual images in my head, and Mike’s blessing, I set out to re soundscape the work – mindful not to change a single note of Mike’s original composition, but to create layers combining the audio content with the constantly changing musical landscape of fantastical cinematic imagery.
This is a transformation, without a single note changed from the original, but bursting with a fresh vitality, audio theatrical elements, movement, light, and with a small ensemble of musicians (some of the finest in the country all chosen for their ability to play this complex work and embrace all the technical issues presented to them.)”
How we got here
Robin’s business partner in Feet Up & Listen, Sallie Taylor took up the challenge to get Tubular Bells the Ballet (it’s original working title) to production/market in 2017 after Robin had hit a few brick walls with the idea in Europe.
She was introduced to the production company, Fiery Angel who, consequently, are now producing the show. From this opportune introduction the ideas grew and grew and have now resulted in the performances at the Royal Festival Hall in August 2021.
Fiery Angel introduced the pair to Brisbane based acrobatic circus company, Circa who have since come on board under the choreography of, Yaron Lifschitz. Circa are an extraordinary circus company who push the boundaries of the art form, blurring the lines between movement, dance, theatre and circus.
