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i have it on vinyl and wanted a digital copy
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I recently discovered through reading Mike Oldfield's autobiography, Changeling, that he did not want to do this album; and indeed really he didn't do it - it was all done by Virgin Records. It was Richard Branson's idea, to get around the fact that Mike did not want to go on tour: The idea was that if it was orchestrated then they could take an orchestra on tour instead of him, and thus obtain publicity that way. (Mike was later persuaded to record a guitar track, which was dubbed in afterwards, which is why he is listed under the 'personnel' for this album.) Mike, writing about the filming of the video for the album, states "They were bullying me to appear on it, to play guitar.." and then goes on to quote himself as saying in response "No, this is nothing to do with me; this is what you want to do with it, I don't think it's right to orchestrate it at all." (Oldfield M., Changeling; Virgin Books, London, 2007, p.164) As a huge fan of Mike Oldfield's music, I have to say that I agree with his sentiment there entirely; I am cringing as I listen to the album, and all I want to do is turn it off and play the original instead (but I resist because I want to make sure that the CD plays all the way through, before leaving feedback for the seller). Having said that, it is not entirely without merit: It is an interesting experiment, and I think that as far as it can be it is very well done, and is as close an approximation that you are likely to get from an orchestra; which is probably a testament to the skills of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and perhaps also to the score-writing skills of David Bedford (Tubular Bells was not originally written in standard music-score form, but in Mike's own notation). The problem however is that that is all it can ever be; an approximation. An orchestra is simply too rigid a framework within which to do justice to Mike's truly original style of music; it's like someone has taken Tubular Bells and put a straitjacket on it. In addition, this version lacks the passion and emotion of the original, perhaps because it is not played by Mike himself, and it just sounds all wrong. It reminds me of those experiences you'd have as a child when you wanted a particular toy, or perhaps a specific pair of trainers, and your parents couldn't afford what you wanted so they bought you a cheaper imitation instead: It was always a disappointment because the imitation was never as good as the original. In this case the imitation is not cheaper than the original, so my advice would be to give this a miss and buy the original instead; and if you already have the original and appreciate Mike's style, I would recommend spending your money on some of his other work, such as Ommadawn, and Tubular Bells 2 and 3, Incantations etc., rather than on this album, which was really only made (and not by Mike) as a marketing gimmick. I also thoroughly recommend reading Mike's Autobiography (ISBN 9781852273811).Read full review