Although 40 years may have passed since the release of Mike Oldfield’s ground-breaking and best-selling Tubular Bells album the music still has the power to inspire and amaze.
Tubular Bells tours the UK
If you listened carefully during the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony you will have heard a brief re-arrangement used in the piece celebrating the NHS.
Fast forward from 1973 and the three sequels Oldfield released in the 1990’s to 2008 and Australia. Picture two musicians, Aidan Roberts and Daniel Holdsworth, who are long-time friends, sat around a camp fire, trying to play Tubular Bells the whole way through, using only their two guitars. That’s how Tubular Bells For Two, the multi-award winning musical show was born.
It took them nine months of rehearsal and the introduction of nineteen other instruments, but eventually the pair were able to perform the album live and its no exaggeration to say that their show has gone from strength to strength since. After wowing audiences Down Under and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Tubular Bells For Two is ready to hit London, with its premiere at Union Chapel in Islington on May 25..
When Mike Oldfield released his 1973 classic, it required more than 30 musicians to perform it. But now, exactly 40 years later, it just takes two musicians, albeit massively talented ones, to recreate the album on stage, in real-time and in a unique and compelling theatrical experience.
The original album shot to number one around the world, throwing its young composer into the international spotlight whilst kick-starting Richard Branson’s Virgin empire.
You really must get tickets to the show to witness the herculean feat of Daniel Holdsworth and Aidan Roberts racing from instrument to instrument , juggling pianos, organs, guitars, mandolin, drums, glockenspiel, loop pedals, synthesizers and, of course, Tubular Bells.
These amazing musicians recreate the beauty and playful lunacy of one of the most important albums of the 20th Century … with just four hands and four feet.
For more information on Tubular Bells for Two tickets go to www.britevents.com
