Cultural Geography Blog

A new mix by Mike Oldfield for the 50th anniversary of Hergest Ridge is out. The front cover is wonderful... an aerial view of the pastoral landscape on the Welsh border which inspired the 2nd album after the tumultuous success of 'Tubular Bells', after which: Oldfield could have at this point done anything he wanted, and he did. He disappeared. He drove west from London and settled on Kington, a beautiful market town in Herefordshire.  The town is dominated by Hergest Ridge, the long, high common land with breathtaking views that stretches from the town to Gladestry in Wales. Combining flying his gliders on the Ridge and playing in the local inn, Penrhos Court, Oldfield came up with Hergest Ridge, the successor to Tubular Bells, written at The Beacon, his home there on the borders. One of my favourite albums. Good to hear it played in full on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone.

The maestro...  I've blogged about his music numerous times... here's a small taste...

Looking forward to hearing the 4th instalment of Robert Reed channelling early period Mike Oldfield with the help of the mighty Simon Phillips.

Sometime in the mid 1970s, my long-haired Uncle Steve played an album while I was at my nana's house in Rotherham. It was unlike anything I'd heard before and I was immediately fascinated by it. It turned out to be an album that was quite new, and was selling thousands of copies.  The album came out on the 25th of May 1973, and had its 50th Anniversary earlier this year. I went to a special orchestral performance at the Royal Albert Hall, with  It had been recorded by one person, who had spent weeks multi-tracking himself playing a whole range of instruments - particularly guitars - a young man called Michael Gordon Oldfield. It was the first issue on a new record label called Virgin records. Friends also liked it very much. I bought a copy when I was in my record-buying phases and also had a copy on cassette tape. I consequently bought every release from Mike Oldfield in at least one format. He was still my most-listened-to artist according to my end of 2022 Spotify statistic...

Are they constructive or destructive waves?

More to come on this over on LivingGeography later this month,  but the first few minutes of the extract that Mike Oldfield had produced for Tubular Bells 4 (to mark the 50th anniversary of the original) has been put up on YouTube and streaming music services.  The full extract will be part of the 50th anniversary re-release of the album, released to coincide with the anniversary. After producing this extract for the record company as a taster, Oldfield hung up his guitars and announced his retirement, so we will never hear the final album. This is preferable for me to bands who continue to go on long after they should have finished, naming no names. And here's a piece from 1984: one of my favourites, remastered... I still remember playing this in 1984ish by a glacial lake in Norway in the sunshine... one of those lifelong memories.

I've loved the first two of Rob Reed's homages to Mike Oldfield, and am very much looking forward to the 3rd instalment... out at the end of the Easter holiday.

A really wonderful album came out yesterday... a return to themes in an earlier album by Mike Oldfield. A return to an instrumental album with 2 long parts, a return to acoustic instruments, and a return to hand-playing and leaving in the imperfections... listen to it if you can...

I am told that when men hear its voice, it stays in their ears, they cannot be rid of it. It has many different voices: some happy, but others sad. It roars like a baboon, murmurs like a child, drums like the blazing arms of one thousand drummers, rustles like water in a glass, sings like a lover and laments like a priest... One of the greatest pieces of music ever was released.. apart from the final few minutes when Janet Brown appears...

This time, it's the man himself. He has been remixing his albums and releasing them with extra tracks and other bits, and as part of the process, he released this short mix of part of one of his classic songs: 'The Lake' , from 1984's Discovery album. One of the memories I have from that time is listening to this track while sitting by an amazing lake in the fjords of Norway as a student. This mix reveals extra layers of beauty which aren't obvious in the final piece, which is a little full of Fairlight...

Enjoying this new Robert Reed album...

Regular readers will know of the importance of this album in my life... Mike would be in any shortlist of 'famous' people I'd like to meet.... The BBC will be showing a Tubular Bells documentary that was filmed some months ago to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the release of the album. It's called … plus Tubular Bells and will be on BBC4 on Fri 11th October at 9pm. It features an in depth interview with Mike at his studio in the Bahamas and also footage of him performing various sections from the album, plus interviews with family, friends, and many others. Lots of great archive too. It will be followed by a concert from the BBC's archive of The Second House performance of Tubular Bells - only seen this on YouTube.... Now is that a constructive or a destructive wave on the cover ?

40 years ago today , an LP was released which 'broke the rules'... Tubular Bells was the work of teenage Mike Oldfield . He was backed by Richard Branson, who decided to create a record company called 'Virgin Records' so that he could release the album. Mike played all the instruments, and multi-tracked them. He created a continuous piece of music, rather than a lot of singles. I first heard Tubular Bells when I was aged 10 or 11. My uncle Steven had a copy, and played it all the time when I went round to my nana's house. I loved it so much that I bought my own copy. I have probably played this album well over a thousand times in my life. I have seen it performed live several times, and was also present at the world premiere of the 3rd version of the album - getting very wet on Horse Guards Parade. Oldfield has also recorded other albums which together have formed the soundtrack to my life for the past 40 years. Ommadawn is my 'train journey' albu...

Just remembered today that Lac Leman in Geneva, pictured below was the Lake referred to in the title of one of my favourite pieces of music: Mike Oldfield's 1984 classic... Image: Alan Parkinson I remember this being an important piece of music when I was in my final year of undergraduate studies, when you had to chase down music... Picture taken a week last Thursday on the shores of the lake in glorious sunshine... Listen to it now, turn the speakers up loud...

Wow.. Remember seeing this at the time, over 30 years ago...