I am a big Mike Oldfield fan, but I’ve often had issues with some of his live DVDs. HIs more recent performances available on the Tubular Bells II/III double-header to me seem very forced and almost robotic as if he was playing to a click-track and leave me feeling underwhelmed. So you can imagine my surprise when I loaded this new double DVD set into my player and sat back to enjoy the ride.
What you have here is a classic performance taken from 1979 at the Wembley Conference Centre and it is absolutely brilliant. The concert features a full rendition of the “Incantations” album and a funked up take on Tubular Bells on the second DVD – if you already have the album “Exposed” you are basically getting the visuals to go with this great album.
While I am not a great fan of “Incantations”, I am absolutely spellbound by the performance by Maddy Prior as she sings the “Hiawatha” section by Longfellow and this is repeated on this DVD. She does an absolutely amazing job with it and I dare anyone not to be left open-mouthed…WOW! There’s lots of energy on this disc from the singers and performers and a level of playfulness that you don’t often get from Mike Oldfield.
The really great thing about this disc is that you can switch angles and concentrate on performers as the concert goes on – this is what the DVD format was invented for. My only complaint is that the audio is presented in bog-standard stereo and while this is very clean and acceptable, it would have been nice if the authors of this disc had created a 5.1 Dolby mix and added some ambience to the rear speakers – but I am probably asking too much.
If you love “Incantations”, if you really dig Oldfield from this period of his career, then this is an absolute must-have. If you like his later, more mechanical performances, you might see this release as quaint and as a thing of its time. I however think this is musical magic and Oldfield should get back to this route of organic music making.
But the best part of the disc is at the beginning when the classical performers drafted in by Oldfield to augment his band complain of not having any music to play to and having to play by memory. They are actually in awe of the rock players who can memories this stuff!

« »