Australopithicine
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Posts: 27
Joined: Nov. 2005 |
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Posted: Aug. 01 2006, 18:32 |
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Mike Oldfield recorded at Montreaux Jazz Festival 1981
Mike is having a good night with his QE2 fresh band, things are working out well for him apart from the massive stuffup in Airborne where was oblivious of what everyone else was doing. He is characteristically rigid, it takes him a long time to recover from the incident.
Fortunately the band are professional and recover quickly.
Actually I am surprised Mike allowed this to be released with all the mistakes he makes in Airborn. This bodes well for the future of the 10th anniversary concert footage which apart from Mike's singing must be virtually flawless. He's not *that* bad on the bootleg anyway.
Mike can really play the bass. Makes me realise how important to the sound of Five Miles OUt all that lead bass playing is. Rick Fenn is no slouch either.
Watching Morris Pert with his awesome sidies, makes me realise what an important character he is of the QE2 and especially Five miles Out sound. Sheba wouldn't be the same without him that's for sure. Taurus II - this video reaks of it in percussion terms.
Actually Morris Pert is by far the most interesting one to watch. Mike Fry is a percussionist version of Mike - CONCENTRATE ON THE MUSIC, DON'T ENJOY YOURSELF! Rick Fenn has a good beard, but apart from that he doesn't put on much of a stage show either.
The Taurus 2 "deep deep sound section" in it's earliest form is part of the Taurus 1 medley.
I can't help assessing the relationship between this and the Knebworth festival performance, since this is the first official release I have seen that is so close in historical sense. No, I lie, I had a video called "Tubular Bells" of this band, but this version is way more interesting than that old video was.
It's related to knebworth in terms of it being the next time Mike had a world touring band together. So I shall indulge...
Tubular Bells 2 resembles the Knebworth version to begin with.
Unlike Knebworth however, the group goes into the scottish sounding bit, and uses the opportunity to rock'n roll up the original. The Exposed/Knebworth final section has been outmoded. Maybe Mike sick of soloing on those chords, maybe he felt he needed to change the show.
In this format the section certainly works, but I'd have been pleased for him to include the highlight of the old part 2 workaround too.
Conflict is a blowout. Ommadawn is elegant. Mike uses the space well. There are slight departures from the knebworth live version, but the workarounds are essentially the same. I don't necessarily like the way they do the abridgement, but you still have to love hearing Ommadawn live.
Mike plays that stunning, soaring lead solo right at the end of Maggie Riley's ommadawn chants. It's note for note what you hear in knebworth through that coasting section. I'd say the knebworth rendition of this solo is slightly more glorious, but this one is still spine tingling stuff.
Mike enjoys the time off during the drum solo, as does Morris Pert. Normally I wouldn't forgive a drum solo, but when you've got a composer like that on drums, well, it's worth it I think.
I'd forgotten the tracklisting by the time I got this home, and didn't read it when putting the DVD in, so what happened after Ommadawn was just the icing on an already delicious cake!
I've always loved this line-up, but I hadn't realised from 'that old video' that this band had such a broad diversity, and was capable of such empathy for what Mike was doing.
This band is not just a sledgehammer, it's a thinking man's sledge hammer, you could use it to carve figurines when you're not pounding dogspikes.
For my next trick I listened to the whole thing with the 5.1 on and the TV off. It comes across really well as a "bootleg feel" live album of the time. I think "the Live Side" of the Complete Mike Oldfield really said it all for this band in a more compact and technically stunning way.
The audio is passionate and sensitive however, and I am very glad to hear it. I really hope Mike has another Taurus 2 under his bed for a rainy day.
I'm really thrilled with the Montreaux DVD. It's been great fun, isn't the DVD revolution marvelous?
When is Knebworth coming out on DVD anyway?
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