Tubular Bells

Recording

The 19-year old Mike Oldfield played the majority of the instruments on the album as a series of overdubs, which was an uncommon recording technique at the time. Oldfield was influenced by the pioneering recording techniques used by the Beatles in the late 1960s, classical music, and the minimalist work of Terry Riley. While on break from touring with Kevin Ayers, he recorded the demo pieces of Tubular Bells in his flat in Tottenham, London, in 1971, using Bang & Olufsen Beocord  ¹⁄₄-inch tape machine which he had borrowed from him. By blocking off the erase head of the tape machine, he could overdub using it. Oldfield approached several record labels with the demos, but was rejected on commercial grounds. He then played the demos to engineers at The Manor Studio, who along with manager Richard Branson, decided to record it.

The two parts of Tubular Bells were recorded between autumn 1972 and spring 1973. Part One was recorded in just one week at the Manor, in between sessions by John Cale and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Part two was recorded intermittently during down-time at the Manor over several months. The album was recorded on an Ampex 2-inch 16-track tape recorder with Dolby stereo, which was The Manor's main recording equipment at the time.

The only electric guitar to be used on the album was a 1966 blonde Fender Telecaster (serial no. 180728) which used to belong to Marc Bolan. Oldfield had added an extra Bill Lawrence pick-up and has since sold the guitar for £6500 and donated the money to the SANE charity. This guitar had been put up for auction a number of times by Bonhams in 2007, 2008 and 2009 with estimates of £25,000–35,000, £10,000–15,000 and £8,000–12,000 respectively. According to Phil Newell, the bass guitar used on the album was one of his Fender Telecaster Basses. All the guitars were recorded via direct injection into the mixing desk.

The set of tubular bells that were used on the album had been left by an instrument hire company after John Cale's sessions at the Manor, at the request of Oldfield. Having tried to produce a particularly loud note from the bells, using both the standard leather-covered and bare metal hammers, engineer Tom Newman resorted to a use of a normal heavier claw hammer to produce the desired sound intensity.

At 7:41 on 'Part 1', Oldfield can be heard counting '...2,...3' into the next section of music.

The Master of Ceremonies, introducing the instruments for the finale of Part One, was recorded at the end of the session. Vivian Stanshall had arrived at the Manor ready to start recording, and was asked by Oldfield to perform the narration. It was the way in which Stanshall had said "plus...tubular bells" that gave Oldfield the idea to call the album Tubular Bells.

The "Piltdown Man" section in Part Two was the only part of the album to feature a drumkit (played by the Edgar Broughton Band's drummer, Steve Broughton), which Oldfield later said made the section "fairly normal". The section began with a backing track of bass and drums, with Oldfield overdubbing all other instruments. The shouting sequence was developed near the end of the recording when he had practically finished recording the instruments for the section, but felt that it needed something else. The whiskey-fuelled idea to create the "Piltdown Man" effect was to shout and scream into a microphone while running the tape at a higher speed. Upon playback the tape ran at normal speed, thus dropping the pitch of the voice track.

To create the double-speed guitar, the tape was simply run at half speed during recording. Oldfield also used a custom effects unit, named the Glorfindel box, to create the 'fuzz' or 'bagpipe' distortion on some guitar pieces on the album. The Glorfindel box was given to David Bedford at a party, who then subsequently gave it to Oldfield. Tom Newman criticised the wooden cased unit in a 2001 interview with Q magazine noting that it rarely gave the same result twice.

The coda at the end of Part Two, "The Sailor's Hornpipe", was originally preceded by a longer rendition of the piece, featuring Stanshall giving an inebriated tour of the Manor over musical backing and marching footsteps. It was cut from the final version, though it can be heard in what the liner notes describe as "all its magnificent foolishness" on the compilation Boxed. It can also be heard on the SACD (multi-channel track only). This rendition of "Sailor's Hornpipe" was included in the 2009 Mercury reissue of Tubular Bells. A Spanish release of the box set missed out "The Sailor's Hornpipe" altogether and ended with the ambient section preceding it.

The working title for Tubular Bells was Opus One; Richard Branson thought to call it Breakfast in Bed. One of the possible album covers included a boiled egg with blood pouring out of it. This cover was edited and used as the artwork for Oldfield's final album with Virgin, Heaven's Open.

In the liner notes to Magma's Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh, an album recorded at the Manor at around the same time as Tubular Bells, Christian Vander claims "Mike Oldfield stole my music, more precisely, he stole some extracts from Mekanïk and The Dawotsin."

Releases

The newly founded Virgin Records released Oldfield's debut album Tubular Bells as its first album; hence the catalogue number V2001.

The album was re-released as a limited edition album and cassette ten years after the date of its original release. This also co-incided with the release of Oldfield's new album Crises. Press advertisements bore the date of May 23rd and the years 1973 and 1983. The album was also advertised as being sold "for the 1973 price". Some copies bore the sticker "10th Anniversary issue". It was also released on CD this year for the first time, with the serial number CDV2001

In 2000 the album was remastered and released as a HDCD and an SACD. Some copies were labelled as the "25th Anniversary Edition".

In 2007, the British newspaper, The Mail on Sunday, gave away the album for free with each copy of the paper. EMI (who had bought out Virgin) earned a profit from the promotion and the Mail on Sunday claimed it led to increased sales of the album by 30%. Oldfield was unhappy about the deal, as he had not been consulted about it and felt it devalued the work.

In 2008, when Oldfield's original 35-year deal with Virgin Records ended, the rights to the piece were returned to him, and were transferred to Mercury Records. Oldfield's Virgin albums were transferred to the label, and re-released, starting the following year. Tubular Bells was reissued in June 2009 in a number of formats, including vinyl, 2-CD and DVD, accompanied by a series of bell-ringing events at 6pm on 6 June (a reference to the Number of the Beast). One of the events in London was at the British Music Experience at The O₂. It featured the 29 piece Handbell Ringers of Great Britain and an Orbular Bells DJ set by The Orb. There were also bell-ringing workshops and competitions. The Orb had previously remixed "Sentinel" from Tubular Bells II.

The reissue contained a new mix of the album created by Oldfield at his home in the Bahamas in March 2009, a "Deluxe Edition" contained a 5.1 mix, and an "Ultimate Edition" contained an accompanying book and memorabilia. An accompanying DVD contained the "Tubular Bells" film from The Old Grey Whistle Test. The 2-CD version, The Mike Oldfield Collection 1974–1983, containing the whole album and a disc of Oldfield's tracks from 1974 to 1983 was advertised on television, voiced by former Doctor Who actor Tom Baker, who had previously featured in an advert for The Best of Tubular Bells in 2000. The Collection charted at number 11 in the UK Albums Chart. The Mike Oldfield Collection 1974–1983 carries a black cover with the Tubular Bells logo. It contains the same first disc as the Standard Edition as well as a compilation of some of Oldfield's work from Ommadawn to Crises.

In 2012 Universal and Indaba Music created a Tubular Bells remix contest, where users could download original stem recordings to create their own pieces and the winner of the $1000 prize was judged by Oldfield.

The album's title was reused in several places in the Virgin Group. Branson named one of his first Virgin America aircraft, an Airbus A319-112, N527VA Tubular Belle. Prior to this Virgin Atlantic had named a Boeing 747-4Q8, G-VHOT Tubular Belle, in 1994.

Reception

The 50th Anniversary edition of the music magazine Music Week featured the album in the official Top-Selling UK albums 1959–2009, listing it at no. 35, noting that it was the only entry that did not yield a hit single. In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came No. 9 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".

In the United Kingdom, Virgin Money's January 2012 advert, '40 Years of Better', which the bank used to signal its entry into the banking sector, used the introduction to Tubular Bells accompanied by an image of a record orbiting the earth to signify the beginnings of Virgin. Around the same time, a Virgin Media advertisement featuring David Tennant and Richard Branson also incorporated the record, where a younger version of Branson has a copy of the record under his arm upon exiting a time machine.

Reference in other Oldfield works

Tubular Bells is the album most identified with Oldfield, and he has frequently returned to it in later works. The opening passage of the title track on the album Crises and the piece "Harbinger" on the album Music of the Spheres are clearly derived from the opening of Tubular Bells, as are "Secrets" and "The Source of Secrets", from Tubular Bells III. The opening is also quoted directly in the song "Five Miles Out" from the album of the same name, and the song also features his "trademark" instrument, "Piltdown Man" (referring to his singing like a caveman, first heard on Tubular Bells).

Oldfield and York's remix album Tubular Beats refers to the album name, and contains two remixes of sections of Tubular Bells.

Cultural references

The use of the opening theme in the 1973 film The Exorcist gained the record considerable publicity and introduced the work to a broader audience. Along with a number of other Oldfield pieces the theme was used in the 1979 NASA movie The Space Movie. It has gained cultural significance as a 'haunting theme', partly due to the association with The Exorcist, and has been sampled by many other artists, such as Janet Jackson on her song "The Velvet Rope".

In television it was used in several episodes of the Dutch children's series Bassie en Adriaan, an episode ("Ghosts") of the BBC series My Family and an episode ("Poltergeist III – Dipesto Nothing") of Moonlighting. It was used in a television advertisement for the Volkswagen Golf Diesel in 2002 and in films such as 1985's Weird Science, 2001's Scary Movie 2 (in a scene directly parodying The Exorcist), 2002's The Master of Disguise and 2004's Saved!. The album is mentioned in the Only Fools and Horses episode "Fatal Extraction", although the cover of Tubular Bells II is shown on screen.

In Part 7 of the ongoing Manga series Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the character Mike O. has a Stand called 'Tubular Bells'

Album artwork

The cover design was by Trevor Key of Cooke Key Associates (with Brian Cooke), who went on to create the covers of many Oldfield albums. The triangular bell on the album cover was inspired by a tubular bell Oldfield had dented while playing.

The "bent bell" image on the cover is also associated with Oldfield, even being used for the logo of his personal music company, Oldfield Music Ltd. The image was also the main focus for the cover art of the successive Tubular Bells albums. Tubular Bells has also been issued as a vinyl picture disc, showing the bent bell on a skyscape.

The sleeve notes include a couple of tongue-in-cheek warnings: "In Glorious Stereophonic Sound – Can also be played on mono-equipment at a pinch" and "This stereo record cannot be played on old tin boxes no matter what they are fitted with. If you are in possession of such equipment please hand it into the nearest police station".

The album cover for Tubular Bells was among the ten chosen by the UK's Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued on 7 January 2010.

Vinyl

There are five known variations of the vinyl edition of Tubular Bells:

1. The standard stereo black vinyl version catalogue number V2001 (white label with twins image or green label with twins image and 25.00 side A). This mix was reissued on vinyl as part of the Back to Black series in 2009.
2. A stereo black vinyl version catalogue number VR 13–105 (white label with color twins image). This is the original North American version of the album, distributed by Atlantic Records.
3. A quadraphonic version, black vinyl catalogue number QV2001. The first 40,000 copies of this are not true quadrophonic but doctored versions of the stereo issue, thereafter the subsequent copies are true quadrophonic. Unfortunately there is no indication on the record label that this substitution was made. The North American number is QD13-105 (Quadra-disc CD-4 channel discrete).
4. The Picture Disc, catalogue number VP2001. This is a stereo remix of the quadrophonic version, the only difference being in the sound of the "Reed and Pipe Organ" during the ceremony of instruments. This version appears in the Boxed compilation.
5. A 1981 release that was re-mastered by Ray Janos at CBS Recording Studios, New York, N.Y. on the CBS DisComputer System. Barcode 07464341161.

CD/DVD

There are a number of different mixes and masters of the album available on CD. Some of the known ones are:

Live performances

There have been a number of live performances of the work. It is one of the pieces that Oldfield plays at the majority of his concerts, due to its popularity.

The premiere live performance of Tubular Bells was at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at 7:45pm 25 June 1973 and was broadcast live on UK radio. To coax a nerve-ridden Oldfield into playing the premiere live performance of Tubular Bells Virgin boss Richard Branson gave Oldfield his Bentley. The concert programme for the premiere listed the 25-person ensemble as follows: Mike Oldfield (Lowrey organ, bass, acoustic and electric guitar); David Bedford (grand piano choir master); John Greaves (Farfisa organ, Davoli electric piano, tin whistle); Geoff Leigh (flute); Fred Frith (electric and bass guitar); Tim Hodgkinson (Vox organ, electric piano, Farfisa organ, Fender Rhodes electric piano); Mick Taylor (electric guitar); Steve Hillage (electric guitar); Pierre Moerlen (glockenspiel, concert tympani, tubular bells, gongs, cymbals, tam tam); Steve Broughton (drums); Jon Field (flute); Terry Oldfield (flute); Viv Stanshall (master of ceremonies); Tom Newman (nasal chorus); Girlie Chorus: Sarah Greaves, Kathy Williams, Sally Oldfield, Maureen Rossini, Lynette Asquith, Amanda Parsons, Maggie Thomas, Mundy Ellis, Julie Clive, Liz Gluck, Debbie Scott, Hanna Corker.

Mike Oldfield had been performing "The Sailor's Hornpipe" for years before including it on Tubular Bells, when he was the bass player with Kevin Ayers and The Whole World.

Footage exists of a live-in-the-studio performance for the BBC, filmed on 30 November 1973, originally broadcast on BBC2 on 1 December, with a cast including Oldfield, his brother Terry (flute), Fred Frith (and other members of Henry Cow), Steve Hillage, Pierre Moerlen, Tom Newman, Mike Ratledge, Mick Taylor, Karl Jenkins and others. It includes a new part for oboe. This has been released on the Elements DVD and is on the 2009 reissue of Tubular Bells.

On 27 July 2012 at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony Mike Oldfield performed during a segment about the NHS. A studio version of this performance appears on the soundtrack album Isles of Wonder. Although listed as "Tubular Bells"/"In Dulci Jubilo", Mike Oldfield's track consists of a number of parts, the first being the introduction piece to his Tubular Bells in its normal arrangement, then this is followed by a rearranged version of that same theme that during interviews Oldfield has called "swingular bells". The piece that is used when children's literature villains appear features two arrangements of "Far Above the Clouds" (from Tubular Bells III), and finally as the Mary Poppins characters appear to drive off the villains, there is a rendition of "In Dulci Jubilo" followed by a short coda.

Olympics version

The Olympics version was released as a 500-copy limited edition pink/blue vinyl single on 8 October 2012. This was also released on iTunes as "Tubular Bells / In Dulci Jubilo (Music from the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games)"

This lists the movements as:

1. "Tubular Bells (Part One Excerpt)"
2. "Tubular Bells (Part One Swing)"
3. "Tubular Bells (Part Two Excerpt)"
4. "Tubular Bells III (Far Above the Clouds)"
5. "Mary Poppins Arrival"
6. "Fanfare for the Isles of Wonder"
7. "In Dulci Jubilo"
8. "Olympic Tubular Bells Coda".

Charts and awards

Tubular Bells stayed in the British charts for 280 weeks, making it the 12th longest runner of all time. First charting in July 1973, it grew slowly and often erratically; in an initial 25-week run it peaked at number 7 twice before falling off the chart in December. It returned in January 1974 for a much longer run (128 weeks), eventually spending a solitary week at number 1 in October, seventeen months after release and in its 64th week on the chart overall. Prior to reaching the top spot it spent 11 weeks (10 of them consecutive) at number 2. In climbing to the top it displaced Oldfield's second album, Hergest Ridge, which had been at number 1 for three weeks. This made Oldfield one of only three artists in the UK to beat himself to the top of the album charts. In the UK the album has re-entered the charts in each decade since its release; the most recent being at number 66 in 2012. In Canada the album entered the top 100 on November 17, 1973, peaked at number 1 for 2 weeks after 15 weeks (April 1974), and was gone after 31 weeks (Aug. 3, 1974). It was then placed at #36 in the top 100 albums of the year.

The album has sold more than 2,630,000 copies in the UK alone and as of July 2016 it is the 42nd best-selling album of all time in the UK. According to some reports it has sold 15 to 17 million copies worldwide. The album went gold in the USA and Mike Oldfield received a Grammy Award for the best Instrumental Composition in 1975.

Single

The first single released from the album was created by the original US distributor, Atlantic Records. This version was an edit of bits from Part One which was not authorised by Oldfield. The single was released only in North America, where it peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 11 May 1974, making Oldfield a One Hit Wonder on the US charts. In Canada the single was released as 'Tubular Bells (Theme from Exorcist)' (Virgin 55 100-P) and entered the RPM Top 100 Singles charts on March 9, 1974. It peaked at #3 on May 18 [1], and was #103 in the top 200 singles of the year.

"Mike Oldfield's Single" was the first UK 7-inch single released by Mike Oldfield, in June 1974. It featured a re-recording (with oboe as the lead instrument) of Tubular Bells Part Two's "bagpipe guitars" section as the A-side, with "Froggy Went A-Courting" as the B-side. This was included in the 2009 Mercury reissue of Tubular Bells.

Tubular Bells series

Tubular Bells can be seen as the first of a series of albums continuing with Tubular Bells II (1992), Tubular Bells III (1998) and The Millennium Bell (1999). Finally in 2003 Oldfield released Tubular Bells 2003, a re-recording of the original Tubular Bells with updated digital technology and several "corrections" to what he saw as flaws in the first album's production. This version is notable for replacing the late Vivian Stanshall's narration with a newly recorded narration by John Cleese. There is also a new mix of the original album on the 2009 Mercury reissue.

Other versions include a quadrophonic version in 1975 ("For people with four ears", as the sleeve said; the quad mix was later used for the multi-channel part of the SACD release), an orchestral version in the same year (The Orchestral Tubular Bells with David Bedford), and different live recordings; a complete one can be found on the double live album Exposed from 1979.

Personnel

Mike Oldfield plays: Acoustic guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar, Farfisa, Hammond B3, and Lowrey organs, flageolet, fuzz guitars, glockenspiel, "honky tonk" piano, mandolin, piano, percussion, "taped motor drive amplifier organ chord", timpani, vocals, plus tubular bells.

Other musicians

Other personnel

Original LP

All songs written and composed by Mike Oldfield, except "The Sailor's Hornpipe" (traditional, arranged by Mike Oldfield), copyright 1973 Virgin Music Publishers Ltd.

1. "Tubular Bells, Part One" – 25:30

2. "Tubular Bells, Part Two" – 23:20

Standard Edition (1CD)

The Standard Edition carries the original artwork, and features the new mix, and two bonus tracks. UK release code number 060252735055.

1. "Tubular Bells {Part One}" (2009 stereo mix) – 25:58
2. "Tubular Bells {Part Two}" (2009 stereo mix) – 23:20
3. "Mike Oldfield's Single" – 3:53
4. "Sailor's Hornpipe" (Vivian Stanshall version) – 2:48

Deluxe Edition (2CD & 1DVD)

The Deluxe Edition carries the original seascape artwork with a "Deluxe Edition" white banner at the bottom. The DVD is incorrectly labelled as "Disc 4", even though there are only three discs in this version. This is due to the same DVD being the fourth disc in the Ultimate Edition. UK release code number 270,354–1.

1. "Tubular Bells {Part One}" (1973 stereo mix)
2. "Tubular Bells {Part Two}" (1973 stereo mix)

Audio

1. "Tubular Bells {Part One}" (2009 5.1 surround mix)
2. "Tubular Bells {Part Two}" (2009 5.1 surround mix)
3. "Mike Oldfield's Single" (2009 5.1 surround mix)
4. "Sailor's Hornpipe" (Vivian Stanshall version)

Visual

1. "BBC TV 2nd House Performance"

The Ultimate Edition (3CD, DVD & LP)

The Ultimate Edition comes complete with 60-page hardback book with a foreword by Mike Oldfield, plectrums, poster, copy of Manor Studios recording brochure, concert ticket, postcard and recording information. The Ultimate Edition carries the white artwork, with the bell logo. UK release code number 270,353–9 (04).

Cover versions

Various sections of Tubular Bells have been covered by many artists, with the most used part being the introductory piano part.

Commodore 64

With the aid of the software house CRL and distributor Nu Wave, Mike Oldfield released an interactive Commodore 64 version of the album in 1986, which used the computer's SID sound chip to play back a simplified re-arrangement of the album, accompanied by some simple 2D visual effects.

The "interactivity" offered by the album/program was limited to controlling the speed and quantity of the visual effects, tuning the sound's volume and filtering, and skipping to any part of the album.

Maestro

In 2004 Oldfield launched a virtual reality project called Maestro which contains music from the re-recorded Tubular Bells album (Tubular Bells 2003). The original title of the game was The Tube World. This was the second game which was released under the MusicVR banner, the first being Tres Lunas. MusicVR set out to be a real-time virtual reality experience combining imagery and music, as a non-violent and essentially a non-goal driven game.