Mike Oldfield – The Bell
1993
6.7K Likes
Best comments
1.“Don't worry, folks – no bells were harmed in the making of this video.”
More comments
- 2.“Every time I listen to Tubular Bells, it's the first time. Been happening for 52 years now.”
- 3.“Oldfield refused to write Tubular Bells 2 for Virgin Records because they tried to pressure him into it... then went to another label and immediately wrote it just to annoy Richard Branson. Class.”
The story
Nineteen years after Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield went back to the well. Tubular Bells II came out in August 1992, his first album for Warner after twenty years at Virgin, and Trevor Horn produced it. Horn was such a stickler for timing that they nicknamed him Dr. Click. It worked. The record went to number one in the UK and sold around two million copies.
The Bell is the sequel's take on the old finale: a master of ceremonies announces each instrument as it joins in, until the whole thing turns into a parade. On the 1973 original that job went to Vivian Stanshall. For the sequel they tried everybody – Oldfield himself, Horn doing a Scouse accent, even HAL 9000 – and landed on Alan Rickman, credited as A Strolling Player, for that Shakespearean voice. The April 1993 single brought Stanshall back for a new version, and a second CD handed the mic to Billy Connolly.
It peaked at number 50 in the UK, with not much radio play to help. This copy is a fan upload from 2007.
