Talk:Mike Oldfield

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According to Oldfield in an interview, Moonlight Shadow was not about Lennon's assassination. However, he admitted that it was possible he may have made the connection subconciously as the time at which he was writing it, he arrived in New York the night the assassination happened. Does this warrant a rephrasing of the statement about Moonlight Shadow?

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Perhaps change to "Moonlight Shadow was influenced by the Death of John Lennon but was not written with the death in mind"? GregRobson 20:41, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

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Allmusic.com says that Oldfield was inspired to write "Moonlight Shadow" by the movie Houdini.

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Just out of curiousity, which interview? My impression the last 23 (ick!) years or so was that it was indeed about the murder of John Lennon, though I admit that I can recall having read/heard Mike say this himself. Calanor 18:53, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

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The New Wave music article names Mike Oldfield. What do you think, does this makes sense? In two intervies I got from google (unfortunately, german interviews translated into german) Oldfield expresses his disregard - but I have to admit that his sound around 1983-84 was not far away from famous New Wave Bands. Just listening to "Dancing With Tears in my Eyes" from Ultravox ;) Rabauz 13:39, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)

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I haven't found any of his music to be "New Wave". Prog-rock, New Age and a blend of World Music, yes.

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Well, what is New Wave, really? You often get different answers depending on who you ask. IMO, the originally rocky/punky New Wave sound eventually included just about any kind of popular music in the late 70s and early 80s (I've heard people call Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" New Wave :o ). To be honest, I think many artists were, in some way or another, influenced by New Wave at the time. That being said, Mike's definitely not the first one that pops up in my mind when I think of this genre. Calanor 18:53, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Bag pipe 2 iTunes Tubular Bells Download 3 See Also section 4 Froggy Went Courting 5 Pre-Tubular Bells 6 Possible error in page regarding The Space Movie soundtrack 7 Dates of Works:Collaborations

[edit] Bag pipe

I am looking for the DVD of a live concert which included a bagpipe scene near the end. Might have been the Acropolis

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Hi, I think you refer to the TBII DVD (live in Edinburgh in front of the Castle). And by the way, you can sign a message by using four tildes (~). Fram 11:21, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] iTunes Tubular Bells Download

I have added a download part due to the mystery surrounding the Tubular Bells version available on iTunes, or at least the Crown Records version. If anyone can add any information about this it would assist a lot of fans who are wondering about it at the moment.

I'll remove this section again, as it is a minor speculation on some fan pages without any reliable sources (the source given in the article is about a record label that folded in 1969! and has no reference to Oldfield at all). I have checked on Google[1], and there are no good sources for this (or even for the fact that "a lot of fans are wondering"). E.g. on Tubular.net (arguably one of the larger Oldfield fora), there is no mention at all of "crown records". Fram 12:04, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

What is the minor speculation? This is an iTunes download that has been made available on numerous iTunes sites, i.e. the various 'iTunes shops'. At first us Oldfield fans were confused as it was unheard of, however it has now been sourced to the Crown Record label and their history has become clearer too. The fact that you have found little information about this release, is exactly why I entered it into the article, it (was) quite a rarity and sounds completely different from the original / re-master / quad mixes etc... I don't understand why you seem to want to stifle this information. Stephenjh 22:40, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Minor speculation: I have found speculation about it on one German fan site, and nowhere else. I probably missed a few, but e.g. Tubular.net, the largest English language Oldfield site / forum, does not discuss this download at all. In fact, on rechecking, all other (bar one, mp3get.net) sites that "discuss" this download are just wiki-mirrors[2]. Please give me some good sources for your statements about this being speculated upon, and I may reconsider. And then please provide better sources than a link to a Crown Records site which states that it folded in 1969 (i.e. four years before the release of TB), and which has no mention of Oldfield or Tubular Bells at all. For now, all we have is some WP:OR by you, but no reliable sources indicating either the accuracy or the importance of this information. This is the reason I want to "stifle this information": it violates our main policy, WP:ATT, completely. Fram 06:13, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

This item is discussed on Tubular.net's forum [3]. There, the opinion seems to be that it is not Oldfield, but that iTunes have broken no copyright laws as the music is Tubular Bells, and the music was written by Mike Oldfield. iTunes were informed about this download over a year ago but have not removed it from there global shops / sites. Personally, I don't think the 'opinion' on the Tubular.net Forum proves whether it is, or it isn't, Oldfield. Someone has also suggested that it is a 'Studio Group' replicating his music, which may be possible too.

It seems to me that the fact that there is an iTunes download available of Tubular Bells(Parts One and Two) should at least be mentioned on the Tubular Bells Wiki' page (as a variant), if not on the Oldfield Discography. I'm not convinced I can 'prove' to you it is Oldfield anymore than you can 'prove' to me it isn't, without verification from Oldfield himself, but this version exists and it's worthy of an entry. In fact, I'm listening to it right now, do you have your own copy? Have you listened to it all the way through? Stephenjh 08:44, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, for starters it apparently is made by CrownStar records, not by Crown Records, which explains why your source had absolutely no info on it, and why I couldn't find the discussion on Tubular.net. Secondly, I don't have a copy and don't plan to download one (or buy a physical one). Why would I. Please check out original research policy. Finally, most comments and common sense point in the direction of this being a cover version (like there are many), which is not listed in any official discography, and which does not belong on the main Mike Oldfield page without good, reliable sources (not fan forums). We don't list Duo Sonare, Paul Hardcastle or Da Boy Tommy here either, even though they all made partial or complete TB covers. This is just not important (41 google hits for tubular bells plus crownstar... [4]), and has no reliable sources (all we have are websites offering a download, which only shows existence, and fan fora discussing it, which aren't reliable sources: there is not one reliable source discussing this download, so we should not discuss it either). It still fails WP:ATT. Fram 09:09, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I don't understand what you said there. I am going to put the download information on the Tubular Bells page under 'cover versions', for now, but with a note that the artists playing are un-named. OK? Stephenjh 09:19, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Perfect, thanks. Fram 12:01, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] See Also section

Hey whats with all the additional bands / artists there - It made sense when Sally and Terry were listed, and I could agree with David Bedford, but are all the others justified - cos not all of the linked pages even mention Mike - not sure enough of thereasoning here so havent done any edits, whats the opinion? Alimat 21:26, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

It looks to me like only the two Oldfields, the two genres, and perhaps the list of songs link, are correct here. The other ones should be considered as similar artists, perhaps, but then many more can be added, and such lists seem to me more useful when discussing a genre, not under the heading of an artist. If needed and if sources ar given, lists of artists influencing Mike Oldfield (from Sibelius over Bert Jansch to Vangelis), and lists of artists influenced by Oldfield (like Orbital) can be added. Fram 12:18, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Froggy Went Courting

Does anyone know if Mike Oldfield's FROGGY WENT A COURTING made it onto a CD or DVD ?? All I can find are a few EP records. Thanks, Norm 211.31.242.235 07:44, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

I think it was the B side of the 1974 single titled "Mike Oldfield's Single" which was subtitled "Excerpt from Tubular Bells" but was really not an excerpt at all but a newly recorded version of a portion of part two, slowed down). I don't know if it has turned up anywhere else.

[edit] Pre-Tubular Bells

Shouldn't there be some details about his musical activity prior to releasing TB ? How did he get a record contract ? -- Beardo 09:56, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Done. Needs a wee bit of expansion, though. --Stevefarrell 12:25, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Possible error in page regarding The Space Movie soundtrack

The album used in The Space Movie was Ommadawn, and NOT tubular bells, however the IMDB entry for this film is practically devoid of any information. Can anybody verify this fact?

AFAIK (it is about ten years since I heard the complete Space Movie once), they used TB (orchestral), Hergest Ridge (orchestral: only appearance of this outside one testpressing and bootlegs), Ommadawn, Incantations, and some small other pieces. The easily available part of The Space Movie (on the Elements DVD) does only contain the Incantations part though. Fram 19:14, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dates of Works:Collaborations

no doubt the CD of "Variations on a Theme By..." was Released in 1995, but it was recorded in the early 1970s, right?