Owning only tubular bells 1 2 and 3, I have decided to increase my Mike Oldfield Collection, the question is there is about 25 cds on play.com. Can anyone suggest a good starting point? One is simply called "guitars" as a player that name appeals to me, anyone know of this?

I bought 'Platinum' recently. That was Mikes funky one. I like the sound of brass sections though.

[keiths]

Hi,

I really like the earlier Oldfield stuff, but for me, he seemed to loose the plot from around 1982 ('Five Miles Out'). His more recent stuff however, is much improved. Other than the three 'Tubular Bells', my choices would be:

1) Ommadawn (1975)
2) Incantations (1978)
3) Hergest Ridge (1974)
5) The Songs of Distant Earth (1994)
6) Guitars (1999)
7) Tr3s Lunas (2002)
8) Platinum (1979)

On a related note, Mike Oldfield is to release a completely re-recorded version (not a re-mix) of the original Tubular Bells as a 30th anniversary edition at the end of May. There will be a stereo CD and a seperate 5.1 version. What I can't find out, is what format the 5.1 version will be. I have seen it described as a "Super Audio DVD" which doen't really help! Anyone got any more info on this?

[t-force]

Guitars is good. I'm also a big fan of Five Miles Out.

[Duncan Harvey]

The re-recording will be a DVDA as it’s a Warners title.

As for Oldfield – you cant go wrong with the holy trinity – Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn. Big thumbs up also for Platinum, Five Miles Out, Amarok, TB2+3 and Crises.

Voyager is also a great album - perhaps his best collection of short pieces as opposed to the longer ones, although QE2 is a runner up.

To be honest as long as there’s plenty of screaming guitar – and there usually is!, then you can’t go wrong.

The man is an absolute genius – must be the most underrated guitarist out there – absolutely incredible player – just listen to some of the guitar work on Amarok, or Ommadawn.

Heres hoping he plays a few live gigs to support the re-recording.

[Logo Hater]

I'm listening to Ommadawn whilst typing this, and have got Hergest Ridge ready to go on next.

Wonderful music, that I will enjoy listening to till I am no longer here to listen.

Thanks for the suggestions I'll be purchasing on pay day, by the way if you havent already get Tub. 2 + 3 live on dvd - splash dvd were doing a good offer £6.99

did he do an album called 'discovery'?

it brings back faint memories from about 15 years ago, but i'm not sure if it was him or someone else.

[Duncan Harvey]

yes it was him, from 1984 - mostly songs including "To France" but also a lovely instrumental "The Lake"

[Karma]

Looking forward to Tubular Bells 2003 (can't be called TB 4 really as that distinction goes to The Millenium Bell)

Another good Oldfield disc, and one that was a stock HI Fi demo disc is Songs From Distant Earth.

Like that one too.

Now...all we need is a decent remaster of Ommadawn (my all time fave)

Karma

[Crocodile JD]

I'd say Voyager, TB III and evan Crisis are all better than TB I. If you take out the first and last 5 mins of track 1 on TB I, it is not so great and track 2 is definately not great.

Thanks guys I've just cottened on to a few more albums to go at

Crocodile JD

[Duncan Harvey]

I think you’re a little harsh on part two of Tubular Bells. Whilst not as conventional in its structure as part one or as obviously “catchy” it does contain some beautiful melodies. I like it just as much as the first part, it just needs to be listened to more often.

On the Tubular Bells 2 tour, Mike played part of part two of the original TB and this merged superbly into Orabidoo (from Five Miles Out). His acoustic guitar playing on that bit of TB part 2 was simply wonderful.

I liked "crisis"

- had moonlight shadow, taurus 3 (I always thought it was called foreign affair) and shadow on the wall on it. IMO these all beat anything on discovery and tubular bells II.

Probably my favorite Mike Oldfield album..(whatever that means )

Cheers

Rob