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MIKE OLDFIELD - TUBULAR BELLS
(1973)
'Tubular Bells' launched the career of musical prodigy Mike Oldfield (who was just 19 years old when this album was made) and Richard Branson's Virgin Empire - so if this album had bombed, who knows...
If this had been a conventional album, with conventional instruments, it would still have worked, as indeed it does with the electric guitar parts, but the unearthly quality of the music is immediate and the hook. It's a mix of old, current and futuristic sounds all melded into an incredible whole. Some irritaing moments for sure, and it gets a bit silly with 'Piltdown Man', but this album was made in an era when teenagers were supposed to be singing appealing songs for grandmothers, not concentrating on making, effectively, modern classical music.
Nice to see Viv Stanshall as MC, and the 'Blue Peter' theme, or 'The Sailor's Hornpipe', end things!
- Paul Rance/booksmusicfilmstv.com.
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