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Frequently Asked Questions This is an official mirror of the FAQ maintained by Stephen Byrne for the Amarok mailing list. The Amarok FAQ contains answers to the most frequently asked questions about Mike Oldfield. Most of the questions on this page were asked and answered on the Amarok mailing list. If you want to add, update or correct anything on this page, send your information to faq@amarok.f9.co.uk. New items in this update (16 October 2001): |
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| Sources of
Information 1.1 Where can
I find an updated version of this FAQ? Discographies, Lyrics and Music 2.1 Where can I find a Mike Oldfield
discography on the web? Trivia and Technical Information 3.1 Did Mike record music for the movie
'La Jeune Fille Assassinee' (1974)? Meanings, Interpretations and Translations 4.1 What does "Ommadawn" mean? 5.1 I want information about the
people who work(ed) with Mike Oldfield. 6.1 Where can I buy Mike Oldfield
CDs, LPs, rare singles, etc? 1.1 Where can I find an updated version of this FAQ? The most recent version of the FAQ can always be found at: There are mirrors at: The FAQ has been translated into French for the Tubular
Mailing List, and is available from: 1.2 How do I make a suggestion for the FAQ? FAQ material generally comes from topics that are discussed more than once in the Amarok mailing list, but if you want to update or correct information that's already included, send an email to webmaster@amarok.f9.co.uk. 1.3 How do I join / leave the Amarok mailing list? To subscribe, send an e-mail to: majordomo@ommadawn.cegep-heritage.qc.ca
containing the following line in the body of the message (or click the link below, and the
command will be filled in for you): You may alternatively subscribe to the daily or the weekly
digest by using one of the following lines: The traffic for these 3 lists can be quite heavy at times -
up to 40 messages per 24 hour period. There is an alternate list called Elements. Elements
is maintained by a list member who selects messages (a couple per day) from the Amarok
list and redirects them to the Elements list (those who contributed also receive a copy).
The messages are selected for their interest, relevance and entertainment value. To
subscribe to Elements, send the following mail to majordomo@ommadawn.cegep-heritage.qc.ca: Once your subscription has been approved by the list owner, you will start to receive postings from the list. If you ever want to remove yourself from the Amarok mailing list, you can send mail to majordomo@ommadawn.cegep-heritage.qc.ca with the following command in the body of your email message: or from another account, besides your subscription address: unsubscribe amarok youraddress@yourdomain If you ever want to remove yourself from Amarok Daily you can send mail to majordomo@ommadawn.cegep-heritage.qc.ca with the following command in the body of your email message: or from another account, besides your subscription address: unsubscribe amarok-daily youraddress@yourdomain If you ever need to get in contact with the owner of the list, (if you have trouble unsubscribing, or have questions about the list itself) send email to owner-amarok@ommadawn.cegep-heritage.qc.ca. This is the general rule for most mailing lists when you need to contact a human. Credit: Kerick, annmarie@frisbee.net.au for running the Amarok mailing list for so long, Maurice Lafleur, mlafleur@ux.cegep-heritage.qc.ca for taking over. Mary-Carol Lindbloom, pleiades@mail.nemonet.com for starting Amarok2. Dark Star is the Official Mike Oldfield Information
Service, Magazine and Web Site. You can reach Dark Star at http://www.mikeoldfield.org 1.5 Are there any other Mike Oldfield communites on the internet? Yes, there is a Mike Oldfield Fan Club on Yahoo, at http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/mikeoldfieldfanclub, and a newsgroup at alt.music.mike-oldfield. Tubular Web hosts Tubular Forums at: http://tubular.net/cgi-bin/ubb/Ultimate.cgi. There is a Mike Oldfield chat room, with instructions for joining at: http://hjem.sol.no/~tbrauti/oldfield/chat, and the Everything About Mike Forum at: http://www.everything-about.com/mike1.htm. There is also the Hibernaculum Mailing List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hibernaculum. There are forums in languages other than English. 1.6 Where can I find an online biography of Mike Oldfield? The official online biography is at Dark Star's website http://www.mikeoldfield.org. Others include: http://www.amarok.f9.co.uk/mike/mike.htm 1.7 What / when will the next Mike Oldfield album / single / concert be? For official up-to-date information, please go to the News section of Dark Star. Discographies, Lyrics and Music 2.1 Where can I find a Mike Oldfield discography on the web? Lazlo Nibble's discography, at http://www.swcp.com/lazlo-bin/discogs?oldfield, is highly recommended. Among its chapters are the liner notes from Amarok, "Television and Live Appearances", "Bibliography", "Oldfield Fanzines And Related Publications" and "Notes On Various Album Mixes". The last one is good if you want to know the Boxed remix of TB, HR or O from the "ordinary" one (See also 2.11). It's also searchable, for those looking for very specific things. The one by Rainer Münz is located at: There is also a searchable version at: http://www.ommadawn.dk/discog. The first one is longer and more detailed, and if you're really into collecting anything and everything that says Mike Oldfield, you want that one. It also has chapters called "Comments" (comments about different covers, song versions etc) and "Labels" (the label history, descriptions and comments). Every known release is covered, from countries all over the world, Mike's collaborations with other artists, etc. Pablo Ayllon has a a detailed discography including release dates and cover thumbnails, at:http://www.amadian.net/discography.htm. There is a discography that includes information on
instruments that were used, recording equipment and the guest musicians at: Credit: Lazlo Nibble, lazlo@swcp.com, Rainer Münz, rainer.muenz@urz.uni-heidelberg.de, Stefan Nilsson, stefan.nilsson@mbox9.swipnet.se. 2.2 Where can I find the lyrics for Mike's songs? Try these places: There are also lyrics for more obscure things like unreleased songs, translations and explanations of the Five Miles Out radio messages at http://www.ommadawn.dk/mou. Credit: Carl Pettypiece, pettypi@csd.uwo.ca, olivier lebra, olivier@tubular.net, Stefan Nilsson, stefan.nilsson@mbox9.swipnet.se, Magnus Goeting, ommadawn@hem.passagen.se, Per Arneng, voyager@hem.passagen.se, Lars Kroll, krolla@fh-furtwangen.de, German Buela, tarkus@usa.net. 2.3 I've got some of Mike's albums, which ones should I buy next? For others opinions on albums, check out: Credit: Patrick Wigfull, pwigfull@toucansolutions.com. 2.4 Have you noticed he quotes himself in...? Go to http://tubular.net/tcmorg/ for The Complete Mike Oldfield Reference Guide. Credit: Chris Kimber, cantate@compuserve.com. 2.5 The instrument listing for Tubular Bells mentions a "Piltdown Man". What is this? The name refers to the fact that Mike sings like a caveman. The Piltdown Man was an anthropological hoax. The exact perpetrator of the hoax has never been revealed. The hoax consisted of placing the jawbone of some Neanderthal variant into the skull of a gorilla, or the other way around. In any case, the anthropologist who "discovered" it (keeping in mind that, of course, he was meant to discover it) trumpeted it to be evidence of the missing link between apes and humans and so on. It took several years before the hoax was discovered, and it certainly destroyed some credibility within the field. More information can be found at these websites: Credit: Derek Kidd, Telekidd@aol.com, Bob Weiniger, danatek@bellsouth.net. 2.6 Where can I find the version of Sailor's Hornpipe with the humorous commentary? It is on Boxed. It was made for the original Tubular Bells, but didn't make it. From the Boxed booklet: "At the time, the result was considered a little too bizarre to place on an album by a complete unknown, so it was replaced by an instrumental version. Now (release of Boxed) seems as opportune a moment as any to take the antimacassar off the original, which can be heard in all its magnificent foolishness at the end of side two." The Boxed version of Tubular Bells can also be heard in quadrophonic form on the SACD remaster as a multi-channel mix (this mix is only playable on SACD players, normal CD players will play the original version of Tubular Bells). Viv Stanshall is credited on the SACD for the first time with "the Sailors Hornpipe commentary" in the list of instruments on Part Two. Credit: Jose Luis Gonzalez, JLuis@ThePentagon.com, Nacho Marin, nachomarin@wanadoo.es. 2.7 Was an orchestral Hergest Ridge ever released? The premiere concert, in December 1974, was covered by the BBC. There are bootleg copies of this recording around - probably mono only. The orchestra was The Royal Philharmonic conducted by David Bedford, and the guitarist was Steve Hillage. Another concert of the work was performed on May 5th 1976 by The Scottish National Orchestra, again conducted by Bedford, with Hillage on guitar. (Andy Summers - later of The Police - took part in other performances). It was recorded by Radio Clyde (a Scottish radio station) and Virgin bought the rights. Mike never took part in the concert series and sadly Hergest Ridge is rarely played at his own concerts. The Scottish concert shows up on The Space Movie because Virgin owned the rights to it, and is more likely to be a stereo recording. Probably due to a veto from Mike, it has never had a proper release. There was a testpressing of The Space Movie soundtrack, but it was not the same as the film soundtrack. It is just a special mix of elements that were already available to Virgin (and does not include the Incantations out-takes heard the film), but of course - as it was never released, it is a very rare testpressing. Phil Newell was given the job of putting together the double LP in 1980. It had a Townhouse label on it and I'm pretty sure only 3 of the 4 sides had grooves - so in order to hear all of it Phil had to dig out the tape for me. Basically it is all original music with mixed-in quotations and sounds from the space race era. Here is the tracklisting: Side 1: Side 2: Side 3: Side 4: The version of Orchestral Hergest Ridge on Side 1 includes 2 minutes of Part 1 and most of Part 2, with the Martian Song (also known as the "thunderstorm"), spliced in from the original album version. Credit: David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com, Marcus Junglas, junglas@student.uni-kl.de. An earlier version of Don Alfonso appears on Lol Coxhill's album Ear Of The Beholder (1971). Both he and David Bedford sing the same verses and chorus - with some funny mistakes where they forget the words. It is just them and a piano (like "Speak"). The songwriter's credit goes to Ted Waite and the publishers are Lawrence Wright Music. However, Mike decided to call it traditional. The song is probably no older than the Second World War. See also 2.22. Credit: David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com. 2.9 What are the lyrics for Ommadawn? The official Ommadawn sheet music includes these lyrics, transcribed from the record: Ab yul ann I dyad awt en yab na log a toc na awd taw may on ommadawn egg kyowl ommadawn egg kyowl After listening to it some Irish knowledgeable people decided that the first section is incomprehensible, but it has been translated as "The cat is in the kitchen, drinking milk". The second part is different, however. Here is a translation into written Irish: Ta me an Ommadawn eg Cheoil Ommadawn eg Cheoil. However upon close listening its been decided that the EGG is actually a LE and the passage is written in Irish thus: Ta me an Ommadawn le Cheoil Ommadawn le Cheoil. Although its language has been disputed this line is certainly Irish. It is too much of a coincidence that 'kyowl' is the same sound as the Irish word 'cheoil', which means 'music'. Significantly this line translates as: I am the fool with music, fool with music The more accepted translation up till now is: I'm the Fool and I'm laughing However, the Irish word for 'laughing' is 'Gairre'. Ommadawn is acknowledged as being a Gaelic/Irish word, so it does not make sense for the rest to be in a different language. Credit: Noel O'Riordan, nor@iol.ie, Dave Walker, davew@datel-technology.co.uk. 2.10 What are the lyrics in On Horseback, some make...? I asked Mike, "The lyrics to On Horseback have a section that goes 'Some like the city, some the noise/Some make ***** and others toys.' What's the missing word?" Mike thought for a moment, hummed the lines to himself and replied: "Chaos." I then explained that it had been a point of disagreement between fans since forever, and Mike asked what people were mis-hearing it as; when I said "cars" he burst out laughing. Credit: Gareth Randall, Gareth_Randall@itv.co.uk. 2.11 What are the differences on the Boxed remixes? If you have Tubular Bells and Ommadawn on either CD or LP, you have the original mix. Hergest Ridge on early LPs is the original mix, some Hergest Ridge LPs pressed after 1976 and all the Hergest Ridge CDs contain the Boxed remix (see 2.12). When Phil Newell began work on the Boxed remix of Tubular Bells, he discovered that some instruments - including a piano - were missing from the multi-track tape, and had to re-record them. The difference is particularly noticeable in the climax of Part One, where the bells are softer (they were sonically distorted on the original recording). Mike had more or less destroyed the original set of Tubular Bells by hitting them with coal hammers (Mike says he used a sledgehammer), so a new set was bought and recorded. A quadrophonic remix was made prior to the Boxed version, so the bells are likely to have been recorded then. The "reed & pipe organ" sounds much more like an organ than the buzz on the original mix - this also sounds like a fresh recording. The girlie chorus is a semitone lower and more ethereal. There are also a few instruments in the four channel mix which were not used on the stereo mix, such as extra acoustic guitar at the end of side 2. The original mix of Hergest Ridge is not rare at all. It
can be found on around 90% of all Hergest Ridge LPs worldwide. The Boxed remix is
available on very few LPs: I remember a US reissue and a French reissue - and of course
the Boxed LP. But it has never been released on official CD - that's why people think it's
rare. They don't have a record player and can't listen to old vinyl. That's all. The
design of the Hergest Ridge LPs (title at the top or at the bottom) doesn't say anything
about the version on the record. It seems to be totally random which version you get, e.g.
there is a US reissue with the Boxed remix, but a later US reissue again has the original
mix. You can find a comparison between the original Hergest Ridge and the Boxed remix at: To add to the confusion, I have a Spanish edition of Boxed that contains the ORIGINAL Hergest Ridge, and Tubular Bells without The Sailor's Hornpipe (it finishes with the organ section). If you have Boxed on LP, you have all the Boxed remixes (either quad or stereo), but if you have Boxed on CD, Tubular Bells Part 1 might still be the original mix. (If the number 1355 is part of the matrix number, like in SONOPRESS F-1355 CDBOX1-1 you have the Boxed mix. It seems to be an error, but you can tell the difference by looking at the matrix number and whether it ends with 1A or 1B.) There are 2 different versions of the Boxed CDs. One version has no SONOPRESS printing on the inner circle of the CDs, just CDBOX-1 or something like that. Besides this, special editions exist with other mixes (quad
discs, picture discs). For further details: please see Credit: Morten Due Joergensen, mdj@login.dknet.dk, Jose Luis Gonzalez, JLuis@ThePentagon.com and the Spanish MO mailing list, Rainer Münz, rainer.muenz@urz.uni-heidelberg.de, Rob Miles, sledgehammer@compuserve.com, Marcus Junglas, junglas@student.uni-kl.de, Alois Nusko, Nacho Marin, nachomarin@wanadoo.es, Martin Bartosik, mbartosik_eas@zsnp.sk, Simon Heyworth and Phil Newell's sleeve notes for the Tubular Bells SACD, and Seven More Days That Rocked The World. 2.12 Why isn't the original mix of Hergest Ridge available? Mike directed the Boxed Remix should be the standard version for all future vinyl and CD issues. According to the Boxed sleevenotes, Mike removed guitar parts that he had only inserted because he was worried that people might think it was too repetitive. At the time his view was that there was nothing wrong with repetition so long as it was something worth repeating. Now, we can argue whether Hergest Ridge is too repetitive or not, but the original mix fans should note that the parts that were deleted were only added for commercial reasons, not because Mike thought they should be there. Therefore, we should accept that the Boxed version is closer to Mike's vision. I expect it was because the remix is so slimmed down, causing less problems with dynamic range, etc. I also expect the original has not been preserved because of a certain degree of apathy. Mike tends not to like albums which he associates with negative feelings - he's been dismissive of Amarok for much of the past ten years because it was such a commercial failure. The critical failure of HR is something he's frequently commented upon. I've always believed that Mike's remix of HR was a kind of response to the criticism - he tried to make it 'better'. From a purely technical point of view, he succeeded, for the mix was no longer swamped beyond the limitations of the medium (at least, not as swamped), but the human ear and brain are wonderful instruments that can, with practice, edit out imperfections. The music is what is important, not the technical quality. Credit: Paul Harris, paul@mikeoldfield.org, Rob Miles, sledgehammer@compuserve.com, David Messner, d_messner@hotmail.com. 2.13 Information on Argiers and The Path. The track Argiers was recorded in January 1976 at Mike's house in Througham, Gloucestershire. It is one of several acoustic guitar/recorder pieces that he did with Les Penning. As Mike's studio was still being built, The Manor Mobile was used and cables run into one of the rooms. Portsmouth was also done at this time and in this way. It was first issued on the Boxed set of LPs and as a B-side to Portsmouth (except in the UK where it was a B-side to the William Tell Overture) in late 1976. It is also available on the Boxed set of CDs and the Elements set. It is another of those traditional tunes that Mike arranged. The Path was recorded about 6 - 9 months later than Argiers for the Arts Council Film 'Reflection'. Credit: David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com. 2.14 Who wrote the lyrics for Incantations? Part 2 is nothing other than excerpts from Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow's Hiawatha; some of the verses have been re-arranged and a word or two changed.
For more info check out this site: (The lyrics printed on the Japanese Incantations LP sleeve are wrong. See: http://www.ommadawn.dk/mou/inc/nippon.html.) Part 4 includes Ben Jonson's Ode to Cynthia, from Cynthia's
Revels, again with re-arrangements and an occasional word change. See: An analysis of the changes to these lyrics can be found at: An out-take from Part 4 can be heard on the Soundtrack of The Space Movie (see 2.7), and its lyrics are taken from The Spell of Creation by Kathleen Raine. Credit: Jim F.Glass, yqg023@rdyne.bna.boeing.com, Gregory Adams, greg@essex1.com, Ron Kostecka, U22866@uicvm.uic.edu, John James, johnrhon@bigpond.net.au. 2.15 What's this about Sally being lost from Platinum? I've got it! Most copies of Platinum list the track Sally, but the only place it actually appeared was on the first two LP pressings. The story goes that Richard Branson didn't like the song and insisted that it be replaced with Into Wonderland. Virgin didn't bother to update the album packaging. The curious thing is that Wendy Roberts insists the song she recorded was called Sally at the sessions and had never heard the title Into Wonderland. So Mike recorded two songs with the same title and they were swapped after a handful of pressings. I also remember Phil Newell telling me he saw physical splices in the master tape where the swap took place. There was either confusion caused by someone picking up the wrong tape when compiling the album or it was a deliberate joke. I think Richard Branson is in the clear, as how come Mike was able to replace the track so easily - with something that was recorded several months before! The finger points in Mike's direction. If your copy of Platinum doesn't have a song on it with a
chorus that begins with the lyric "Sally, I'm Just A Gorilla", you don't have a
copy with the original Sally on it. You can tell without playing the LP by checking the
matrix number pressed into the runout groove on the B-side of the album; pressings with
Sally have matrix numbers ending in "-B1" and "-B2". More information
about the two "Sally" songs can be found here: I bought the LP very soon after release date and my copy had Wendy singing, my brother bought the cassette with the other song on it. The timespan could not have been more than a couple of weeks between the two pressings. Credit: Lazlo Nibble, lazlo@swcp.com, David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com, Marcus Junglas, junglas@student.uni-kl.de. Afghan (working title Celtic) was done at the same time as the Discovery LP in Switzerland (early 1984). But the tune for Afghan could be something he had tinkered with for years prior to its release. Credit: David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com. 2.17 Music For The Video Wall: Can anyone explain what this is in aid of? Peter Claridge of CAL Video Graphics helped Mike with the videos for Pictures In The Dark and Shine, and started a company making video walls for exhibitions and the like. Music For The Video Wall is the soundtrack to a video wall presentation that Mike did for Peter, around 1986 or 87. I assume the music was part of a commercial presentation aimed at selling the things, but I don't know exactly where or when. There must have been some pictures to go with the music - so there is also a Video for the Video Wall - probably edited by Mike and Peter at that time. Their work together culminated in The Wind Chimes instrumental and Islands videos released in 1988. Credit: Gareth Randall, Gareth_Randall@itv.co.uk, David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com. 2.18 Where is the Morse code in Amarok? Listen for a guitar. About 48 minutes into the piece you can hear it spelling "Fuck off, RB", a farewell to Richard Branson of Virgin on one of the last releases from this record company. B: _... C: _._. F: .._. K: _._ O: ___ R: ._. U:.._ Lesser known Morse codes: SOS at 15:09 and 23:18. Or is it? It was reported there was "STAU STAU" or "STETU STETU" badly transmitted in pure CW (continuous Wave -> only one pitch) over a mandolin or some other similar instrument: STAU: ... _._ .._ or STETU: ... - . - ..- Perhaps this is the "SOS". Anyway the international signal SOS must be transmitted as only one letter: ...... and not as ... ... Also another surprising thing is that the known "fuck off RB" is "transmitted" the way we learn Morse: We don't think in dots and dashes. We think in "dih" and "daaah". so "..- ." sounds like: ti ti taaa ti... To promote the album, there was a prize of £1000 for finding this hidden message. It was found by Roy Rashbrook from Swindon (although it was in fact a friend of his who discovered it), but he was unaware of the prize money due to Virgin's poor promotion. 9 years later, Roy sang on The Millennium Bell as a member of The London Handel Choir. Credit: Maurice G. Lafleur, mlafleur@ux.cegep-heritage.qc.ca, Morten Due Joergensen, mdj@login.dknet.dk, Matthew J. Sorell, msorell@ctin.adelaide.edu.au, Peter Evans, amarok@cableinet.co.uk, David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com, Pedro, qwerty@arrakis.es, Roy Rashbrook, roy@rashbrook.freeserve.co.uk. 2.19 The Millennium Bell sleevenotes mention a ticking clock in Broad Sunlit Uplands. Where is it? Just at the beginning, and at the end too, but it is on the cusp of hearing (it's a pendulum-type clock). Another appearance of the ticking clock (only on the promo mix) was erased and replaced by a distant siren (around 1:00). Credit: Damien Vaneuil, dvanirji@calvados.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE, Rob Miles, sledgehammer@compuserve.com, Marcus Junglas, junglas@student.uni-kl.de. 2.20 How does Mike achieve his trademark guitar sound? From a 1995 interview: "Well, I've got two guitar sounds that I use, and it's a mixture of my technique and the processing. Most people play with a pick; you can't get a very clean sound because no matter how much you try and stop the other strings they're always ringing a bit and they interfere, but because I grew up with the folk technique of playing with my fingers I can always stop the strings that aren't being sounded, so I get a very clean sound." ...and: "I use an old Roland GP-8 guitar processor - which you can't buy any more - because I'm used to the sound... the other guitar sound I use is a Stratocaster put through very heavy compression and gating. But it's basically down to the technique and the feeling I put into it." The interview can be read at: http://tubular.net/articles/95_06.html. Credit: Gareth Randall, Gareth_Randall@itv.co.uk. 2.21 What were the working titles of Mike's works?
* Breakfast in Bed was an idea of Richard Branson's which Mike disliked so much that he had to think of a better title. It got as far as the artwork stage (a modified version of which was used for Heaven's Open). However, this may not be a working title but one it was given once completed. Same goes for Opus 1. ** She Was She Was is the intended title, and the others were suggested to avoid confusion with the then current Talking Heads single And She Was. *** The title Hypnotist was written on the setlist for the Then & Now concerts in 1999. It would be fair to assume this was the working title, as other tracks were also referred to by their working titles on the setlist. Credits: Paul Harris, paul@mikeoldfield.org, Rume 1joberna@rigel.deusto.es, David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com. 2.22 What cover versions has Mike recorded? Sometimes the composing credit is given as "Traditional", although this is not always correct. The original composers of "traditional" pieces are noted, where known.
As well as cover versions, Mike has quoted
other tunes in his own work:
Credit: Olivier Lebra, olivier@tubular.net, Rob Miles, sledgehammer@compuserve.com, Drew Minasian, tbells@rlc.net, Jim F.Glass, yqg023@rdyne.bna.boeing.com, David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com, Calum Benson, calum.lists@iol.ie, Lise Andreasen, tubularbells@get2net.dk, Micheal Fitzgerald, Curtis Jones, curtis.jones@goldfields.com.au, Marcus Junglas, junglas@student.uni-kl.de, Paul Mundy, paul.mundy@ntlworld.com, Andrea Kapavik, fam.kapavik@tirol.com and Stefan Koechling, s.koechling@online.de. Trivia and Technical Information 3.1 Did Mike record music for the movie 'La Jeune Fille Assassinee' (1974)? Yes. The title translates to 'The Murdered Young Girl' and is a film by Roger Vadim. The music is just parts of Tubular Bells and Hergest Ridge. You can find out more about this film and Mike's other film
music at The Internet Movie Database: Credit: David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com, Christopher D Hopkins, cdh@multipro.com. 3.2 What is on the Spanish Tune promo single? I have a copy of the 1-sided white label test pressing with the catalogue number VS112. This is what Spanish Tune is supposed to be. The handwritten label says "Micha" which is crossed out with "Mike Oldfield Hergest Ridge" (There is another testpressing: the matrix number is also VS112 and handwritten on it is "Hergest Ridge Promo"). The 3 minute or so extract is from part 2. Here is an extract from a Dark Star article by Paul Harris:
The name 'Spanish Tune' surfaces in the Mike Oldfield biography "10" (published 1983) in the discography section at the back. As "10" was one of the more professional outputs (i.e. 99.9% of the information was accurate) there was no reason to assume that the existence of Spanish Tune was in doubt. It does say "promotional release only" beside the name. The Spanish Tune release mentioned in the "10" book is dated prior to Hergest Ridge being released. This gives added weight to its promotional nature. It also indicates that Mike and Tom Newman gave names to the sections of Hergest Ridge. We have the Martian Song (Thunderstorm), the Spanish Tune, and during the sessions a journalist reported a Chinese bit: "The Chinese bit turns out to be a percussive and
jerky foray around the flat and sharp black notes, which immediately evokes pictures of
rickshaws and paper fans". Credit: Paul Harris, paul@mikeoldfield.org, Alex Reid, voyager@sourceofsecrets.f9.co.uk, David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com. 3.3 Do The Boxed CDs still contain the quadrophonic mixes? The following page, http://personal.riverusers.com/~manderso/quaddisc/quadpo.htm, has an interesting note about the quadrophonic mixes of Boxed, namely that they are preserved on the CD. The surround information is still on the Boxed CDs provided the SQ mix that was used. It is intertwined with the 2 channel mix like the standard Dolby Stereo matrix (i.e. pro logic). Mike's recordings are in SQ. The system doesn't disappear when it's transferred to the CD (I've done real tests with the Exposed CD). As SQ is stereo compatible there is no need to make a downmix to plain stereo just to play it on normal stereo amps. This SQ matrix mixes both surround channels into two normal channels using phase shifters, quite similar to Dolby Surround, just different speaker layout and different phase shifts. Simon Heyworth told us in an interview that quad versions on CD are still SQ encoded. No separate stereo masters were made. So if you have an SQ Amp, you could play the Boxed CDs and it should still work. This explains this strange phasing effect in the sound at the beginning of Ommadawn part 2. I bet there is sound running around when it is decoded. Although the SQ matrix was put on the Boxed CD release, they added the note that "this CD is in stereo", probably for simple marketing reasons: customers might get confused and avoid buying it, because they just have a stereo player and a stereo amp. If they had written "SQ-encoded quad music" some people might think they can't play it. So it might only be for marketing reasons rather than technical reasons. This page, http://members.aol.com/stereoboy is about the Fosgate Tate II 101A SQ decoder, which is described as "the ultimate SQ decoder ever produced, and is still desperately sought after by Quadraphiles". I have an old Philips amplifier with SQ matrix decoder and also an amplifier with DD and Dolby Surround decoder (prologic). After reading a lot, the conclusion is that the SQ decoder gives you 2 back channels from out of phase signals from both front channels. Dolby Surround gives you 1 back channel from the out of phase signals. The level of "out of phaseness" is different in the two systems. For more information, see "Building Your Own Matrix Encoder" at http://hometown.aol.com/matrixquad/encode.htm. Alternatively, http://avconvert.com/quad/ will convert quad to Dolby Digital or DTS. All that's required is $31.95 per album (they don't say they do CDs, but I guess they do), a Dolby Digital or DTS amp/decoder with digital input and a CD player/DVD player with digital output. Quadrophonic recordings can be decoded by specially-written
software. For an example, see: Another option is to simply play the recordings through a standard Dolby Surround amp. This would bring out a surround mix which I find more than acceptable - even if it is not the actual surround mix which Mike and Phil intended!. (The original quadrophonic mix of Tubular Bells is even more different than the Boxed one through a surround amp: whereas the Boxed mix is relatively subtle, the original quad is wild and bizarre in its sound field.) If you have a Dolby Surround Amp, play Ommadawn and switch OFF the centre speaker because SQ has a different speaker layout. You will have a great and new Ommadawn experience! For example, the AHHHHH voices are placed in the back, the guitar in the front. There is more separation of channels (front/back) in the Exposed CD when it's played on the SQ decoder than when it's done with the Dolby Surround. Around the time of the TB 25th anniversary remaster there
was an interview with Simon Heyworth in Dark Star, in which he said: The quadrophonic Boxed mix of Tubular Bells is available as a four-channel mix on the SACD remaster released in 2001 (the multi-channel mix can only be heard on an SACD player). Credit: Peter Prisekin, dusty@patriot.net, Cuds, cuds@londonweb.net, Pedro, qwerty@arrakis.es, Tim Godden, tim.godden@virgin.net, David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com, John P Connor, dirk@iclway.co.uk, Marcus Junglas, junglas@student.uni-kl.de. 3.4 Why do some Incantations CDs have a shorter Part 3? When Incantations was first released on CD, longer (74-minute) CDs could be unstable, and so were rarely used. The beginning of Part 3 was edited down to 13.49 so that it would fit the shorter disc. Thankfully, the technical problems were eventually sorted out, so later CD issues of Incantations (including, of course, the HDCD remaster) contain the complete 16.59 version. 3.5 Have Pictures In The Dark and Shine ever been released on CD? Pictures in the Dark appears on two official German
compilation CDs: the single version is on Hit-Sensation (released 1986), and the Extended
Version appears on EAMS Compilation Vol. 11 (released 1999), which is available from
Amazon Germany (http://www.amazon.de) at: Shine was issued on the German compilation CD Super Hit Sensation (Ariola, number 352 724-225), which was released circa 1986. Credit: Morten Due Joergensen, mdj@login.dknet.dk, Rainer Münz, rainer.muenz@urz.uni-heidelberg.de, Jose Luis Gonzalez, JLuis@ThePentagon.com, Mario Van Den Heuvel, newsmaster@oldfield.nl. 3.6 Is Amarok really Ommadawn 2? Amarok was always intended to be a sequel of sorts to Ommadawn (although not in the direct linear manner of TB/TBII) so the obvious thing to do was to involve as many of the original participants as possible. MO and William Murray wrote The Horse Song (aka On Horseback), and he was credited as the author of the short story "Cheer up, cloth ears..." on Amarok. Other names on both Ommadawn and Amarok are Clodagh Simonds, Bridget St John, Paddy Moloney and Julian Bahula. Both Amadan and Amarok have the same first three letters: 'Ama'. This supports the idea that Amarok is actually Ommadawn 2. In an interview Mike stated that he intended to make Ommadawn 2, but as the work progressed it gained "a life of its own" and became something different, and therefore got a different name. Credit: Wayne Poll, wayne@earthlight.co.nz, Gareth Randall, Gareth_Randall@itv.co.uk, Eitan Shefer,eshefer@scso.com, David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com. 3.7 Is there a track-listing for Amarok? The studio notes printed in the Amarok CD liner notes include titles for most of the passages on the album. As nearly as can be determined, here are those passages and where they start on the CD version. However, the times are too short, as the final piece is a full hour. And if you want to use these times: here are some further observations: The digits that appear in the leftmost column of the liner notes, among the section titles, will give the correct times if you add 2 minutes to each one. That makes some sense, as someone on the list mentioned that the first part of the Amarok intro was added late in the production. NB: The times in the second column seem to fit better (remember to add 2!). Where the name of section differs: this may be the right text. Where the section now has a name: this is possibly the name appearing on the vinyl cover.
And during the Intermission, the main voice in the right channel reads the section list aloud! You can clearly hear it begin with 'Fast riff intro'. It stops at 'intro waltz' and you can clearly hear 'scot didlybom mad bit russian' (Thus the 'n' in Run in' is probably a narrow 'ss'). I think there is more to this - at the end we hear "...troubles". On the left channel you can hear "Not to be listened to by cloth eared nincompoops" repeated several times. That leaves the centre of the stereo image. Does anyone know what is said? I humbly submit this nonsense:
Credits: Marcus Junglas, junglas@student.uni-kl.de, Lazlo Nibble, lazlo@swcp.com, Goran Wallgren, gweronimo@yahoo.com, Pete Nelson, pete.nelson@bt.com, Nicolas DELNATTE, ndelnatt@club-internet.fr, Terry Robinson, m00mt600@mcmail.com, Paul Mundy, paul.mundy@ntlworld.com. 3.8 Has Amarok ever been played live? Mike has said that Amarok is "a very weird and wonderful, complicated thing to perform live. There would be eight guitars playing incredibly fast, and to be honest I wouldn't be able to find enough players who could play that quickly." However, he has played the intro riff live on BBC Radio 5, and he played a section on TV-AM (this section is therefore given the name TV-AM. See 3.7) as part of Taurus 3. That TV-AM performance was when Mike was promoting The Wind Chimes video, on 31st May 1988 (about 18 months before he started putting Amarok together), after which presenter Ann Diamond referred to Mike as a "walking orchestra". Also during that programme he tried to balance a twirling basketball on the end of his finger to emulate the other guest - Joyce Walker of the Globetrotters. He failed miserably. There was a time when Mike would regularly turn up on early morning TV. In the period 1986 -1989 he did at least 3 promotional visits to TV-AM and one visit to the BBC to show off part of his guitar collection. He seems to have stayed clear of any early morning live stuff for the last 10 years. What a shame. Credit: Calum Benson, calum.junk@btinternet.com, David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com. 3.9 Why is Heaven's Open credited to 'Michael Oldfield' instead of 'Mike Oldfield'? First what Thom Newman himself said, in an interview with David Porter: "It was part of a pathetically half-hearted attempt at reinventing oneself, I suppose. A bit of silly nonsense. One of the things that we seem to get good at when we're in each other's company." (Source: Spanish book by Jose Cantos.) He was going to sign as Michael Oldfield (it was originally an idea from Richard Branson for Tubular Bells so this would imply more respectability than the familiar Mike, at least with an unknown artist like him at this age). And then what fans thought: Heaven's Open was an album which was done very quickly and cheap to get out of the contract of Virgin records. Mike had long been unhappy with the way they treated him (See 3.10). Amarok is Mike's 'goodbye' to Virgin and you hear it everywhere on it:
After that Mike only had to write one single album to fulfill his contract and so he rushed out Heaven's Open (Right at the end of Music From The Balcony there is a voice which clearly says "fuck off". It doesn't mention RB or anyone else, though.). He even sings his songs himself to make this quick and cheap. To separate this album from the others, "Michael Oldfield" is printed on the cover, Tom Newman is called "Thom", and even Virgin Records is spelled "Virgin Recordes". But there might also be another reason. He might have used his full name for the same reason that he sang the songs with his own voice. Because he really felt those lyrics - in Gimme Back there is one lyric which literally says "I need my voice..." These songs are unashamedly autobiographical in nature and Mike could have realized that having another persons voice to sing them would be a travesty. Have you noticed how in interviews, Mike's closest friends and family actually use his full name i.e.: "Michael"? There's also the fact that, at the same time, Sally Oldfield put out an album using her middle name, Natasha. Credit: David Porter, dporter2@compuserve.com and Tom Newman, Marcus Junglas, junglas@student.uni-kl.de, Morten Due Joergensen, mdj@login.dknet.dk, Paul Hutchinson, paulh@netsource.co.nz, John Bacsa, john@hobbes.gh.wits.ac.za, Jose Luis Gonzalez, JLuis@ThePentagon.com, Rob Miles, sledgehammer@compuserve.com. 3.10 What were Mike's problems with Virgin? They were twofold; firstly, Richard Branson signed Mike to a not-very-favorable contract (to deliver 13 studio albums, not including OTB, Boxed, Exposed, The Complete or even The Killing Fields) at a time when he was in no fit state to sign anything. Legend has it that the deal was done at Mike's kitchen table, and it would seem that no lawyers were consulted - but then, Mike saw Richard as his friend. To be fair to Branson, I'm sure that he didn't deliberately do anything underhanded, but Mike eventually came to realize that he was locked into a contract that paid him a low royalty and from which Virgin refused to release him early. Money-wise he was a millionaire several times over, but had he been given a more realistic royalty rate, he'd have been a millionaire several more times over! He eventually sued Virgin for loss of earnings some time in the early 80s, which didn't help the relationship. Allied to the contractual problem was the fact that as the 80s wore on, Virgin didn't seem to want to know about instrumental music unless it was called Tubular Bells. Mike felt forced into writing songs, but even when he did what he thought Virgin wanted they didn't seem to bother marketing the products properly. Perhaps understandably, he felt betrayed by Branson, although he's made some interestingly contradictory remarks about him since he finally left Virgin - in one interview he'll say that he "bears Richard no ill-will", and in another he'll rant on about how badly betrayed he was. One article stated that Mike thought that the best part of the HGP concert was watching RB get soaked in the rain :). Credit: Gareth Randall, Gareth_Randall@itv.co.uk, Rory Ewins,rory_ewins@hotmail.com. 3.11 How does Mike's plectrum appear so suddenly in the Tubular Bells II concert video? This is a typical Jimi Hendrix trick. A lot of people refer staring amazed at his hand as the pick suddenly appears (in the transition from Red Dawn to The Bell). This is not easy to do, but you can roll up the pick in your "i" finger while using "p, m & a" to play fingerstyle, then just flip the pick using your your thumb and indicator and tada! there you have a pick to play with. However, Mike appears to use the palm of his hand to hold the pick instead of the "i" finger. "Palming" is a basic technique that magicians use to conceal objects (like coins) in their hands, it uses the skin on your palm, near the thumb to hold small object. It's not easy, although most magic books will tell you it is :). So, by pressing your thumb to the side of your hand you can hold objects in your palm. Try it. Credit: Pedro, solo@esoterica.pt, Rory Ewins,rory_ewins@hotmail.com. 3.12 The interactive version of TSODE was made for Mac. How can it be used on other operating systems? You can play the audio portion of the CD in your PC, just as with any other audio CD. However, the interactive multimedia program (which includes seven QuickTime movies) was designed to run on the Mac OS (the system requirements are printed on the CD liner notes). There are two versions of the TSODE multimedia program. The first, available on the original CD, is shorter. It has some clips like the ones with Mike talking in the Hibernaculum. The second version, on the 1995 reissue, has minor differences and the full-length Let There Be Light video. The Mac application itself cannot be run on other platforms, but the video clips can be extracted and played on almost any operating system, or converted to another format. For Windows users: Otherwise, you may be able to access the data track on the
CD and run Apple's QuickTime Convertor on the QuickTime files. The convertor will
"flatten" the movies so that they will be playable on Windows machines (using
QuickTime for Windows). You can download qtflat.exe from: The files on the TSODE CD are called MV, H1, H2, H3 etc. H* are Hibernaculum files and so on. It is easy to guess the correct order. Just extract all the files and see it for yourself. I knew it because I saw the application on a Mac. If you try to flatten a file from the reissue, and qtflat.exe says that "the resource fork file doesn't seem to be a proper QuickTime resource fork", then asks if you want to proceed, you've got them the wrong way around. You always need to put the .res file as the second file in the command line, i.e.: qtflat.exe mo.mov mo.res result.mov If you try to flatten the movie 'mv.mov' from the "new media" subfolder of the reissue, qtflat.exe tells you that "the movie seems to be flattened already" and asks if you want to proceed - always proceed when you get this error. And again, if you get the "resource fork file not a proper etc" error, make sure you've put the .res file as the second option. It's also possible to export the CD and mount it as a network drive, for example, under Windows and play the videos with QuickTime Player. The latest version of QuickTime Player is available from: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download. For Linux users: mount -t hfs /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom (The interesting stuff is on /mnt/cdrom/Media.) Next, download flatten.c from: ftp://xanim.va.pubnix.com/misc/ Type in the usual commands: cc -o flatten flatten.c Then: cd /mnt/cdrom/Media/New\ Media This will allow the MV.qt file to be read using Xanim and QuickTime (the newest version of xanim is available from: http://xanim.va.pubnix.com/home.html). For Mac users: ResEdit is not a tool for beginners, so here is an
instruction manual: Once the movie files are visible, you can use QuickTime Player to either flatten them or convert them to AVI format (this will require QuickTime Pro 3.0 or above). Alternatively, the movies can be converted to MPEG with the
freeware application Movie2MPEG, available from: Another option is to convert the videos to animated gifs,
making them viewable with web browsers on any platform. A shareware application called
Smart Dubbing can convert QuickTime movies to animated gifs (payment is required if you
want to include sound). It can be downloaded from: Converted versions already available: The videos have been converted into Windows Media format,
and this version can be downloaded from: There is a CD containing the videos in DivX-encoded AVI format, available for the price of postage. Contact posh! posh@oldfield.dk for details. More suggestions for viewing and converting the video clips
can be found at: Credit / further technical assistance: Gary Wingert, wingo@well.com, Jan Fricke, fricke@rz.uni-greifswald.de, Angel Ezquerra, ezquerra@email.enst.fr, Jose Luis Gonzalez, JLuis@ThePentagon.com, Marcus Melchert, marmelchert@myokay.net, Robert Szucs, distantearth@netscape.net, Pablo Ayllón, amadian@mundivia.es, Luis Pinto, lmpinto@student.dei.uc.pt. 3.13 Why were some tracks edited out of the Tubular Bells III concert video? The concert started at 21:00 with the extract of Tubular
Bells. Virgin own the rights to the tracks released during Mike's time on that label, so WEA could not include Tubular Bells, Moonlight Shadow or Family Man on the video. Differences between the VHS and DVD versions: |
