User Reviews

Here's a quick rundown:

Until minute 23 - Robin Smiths own composition stuff and nothing to do with Mike Oldfield. A bit egotistical.

Minute 24 - Moonlight Shadow - brutalized, sounds like a sixth form leaving do. Painful.

Minute 28. Tubular bells starts - but you wouldn't know it until minute 30. Cue lots of really artsy farts dancers doing their "self expression" thing that bears zero relevance or timing to the music. I would have much preferred some Pink Floyd style projected images. The rendition of TB isn't too bad, but it's an "interpretation" not a reproduction. By now the dancers have turned into gymnasts and circus acrobats. By minute 50 the dancers are standing on each other's heads and climbing up bedsheets. This all goes quite well until the actual Tubular Bells come out which sound like my Grans doorbell.

Minute 58. Side 2 starts and merrily plods along to more random circus acts.

Minute 69 - dancing is now getting weird. Looks like a mixture of uncontrollable fitting and practicing the Heimlich maneuver.

Minute 71 and Piltdown Man shows up and sounds like an American Rapper being arrested under protest.

Minute 82 and it all winds up with a human pyramid for some reason. The finale is a jolly rendition of Sailors Hornpipe.

This may all sound negative, but it's not. The players are clearly incredibly talented musicians. The problem is, the source material is so exceptional, it can't be reproduced. The following day I played the 1973 analogue recording and wept copiously. That's the genius and power of the original, and it's impossible to replicate.