TubularBelle
Group: Members
Posts: 1487
Joined: April 2004 |
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Posted: Sep. 17 2006, 06:58 |
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Hello everyone,
Only one thing in my life could top the experience I had last night and that would be to see Mike Oldfield himself perform Tubular Bells and as that will probably never happen I think I can safely say that last night was the most awesome experience of my life.
We arrived at the Adelaide University at 11am, an hour before the Convention was due to start to help Matthew Sorrel, a Lecturer at the Uni and MO authority, to set up. Andrew, a former tubularnet member, had arrived early from Melbourne and with my sister Annette, we carted some of the gear over from Matts Office. Matt had set up the projector and all the audio and video equipment in the Little Theatre, and we had a few tables for some of Matt and my collectibles and rarities and there was a piano which a few people had a tinkle on (no, not that! ) with my TB Oil Painting sitting on top. There were plenty of free goodies inc food,(chips, dips and a lovely cheese platter) and lots of beer and wine and we were later treated to pizza! Attendance was a little disappointing, a total of 20 people, a crowd of 40 to 50 would have been a little more worthy of the trouble that Matt had gone to but everyone looked to be having a good time and the conversation flowed easilly and freely.
We had Matthew, his wife Michelle and their 18 mth old daughter Charlotte.
My partner Michael and myself.
My sister Annette and my son Brett.
Brian (friendly security) and Nic (tending bar).
Alan and his wife Jenni.
Alans mate Brendan.
Ian (Wolfus from the Amarok Mailing List).
Gwyn (Amarok Mailing List) who came from Sydney
and his son Gareth who lives locally.
Andrew (tubularnet) from Melbourne.
Alan and Louise (our only surprise guests, heard about it on the net).
Rob from Brisbane (tubularnet member Australopithicine)
and Kara (aka another tubularbelle) and Jason.
Matt was very organised, he played the Montreau and Elements dvds, and records, and we showed a speech by Tom Newman at a 1996 Hiawatha meeting, and Matts Einstein Factor appearance. Matt had several rare cds and compilations and associated artists etc such as David Bedfords Odyssey (which I can't wait to get) and I took all my Dark Star mags and my sisters book (featuring artwork shown on this site) and newspaper articles, plus a 'magic eye' 3D TB image.
Apart from Matts incredibly detailed knowledge of Mike, he surprised up with some announcements. First we were presented with free T shirts featuring the TB logo, and the words, THE LEGEND LIVES ON, with details of the event happening later in the evening, very good quality, only a few late arrivals missed out. These were very generously provided by Wolfus who ironed all the transfers on the night before I heard. Then Matt presented everyone with a free rare dvd, possibly shouldn't mention the title. He then read out a personal email from David Bedford which I will print up a transcript of if I get permission.
But the best was yet to come, not only was Matt giving the pre-concert talk at the Adelaide Town Hall on Mike Oldfield and Tubular Bells, but as a Professional Bell Ringer, was going to open up the Bell Tower and at the 17 minute mark of OTB when all you can hear is the ring of a distant bell, the entire Orchestra would sit quietly for a few moments and all you would hear would be Matt doing his magic. God, the anticipation!!!!
Wolfus was snapping away with the camera so I hope he will post some photos of the event very shortly. Matt asked us all to wear our new T shirts proudly at the pre concert talk. At 4pm, the place emptied out pretty quickly, Matt had to pack up and be in his tuxedo and at the Town Hall before 5:30, and our little group dispersed momentarilly to freshen up. We taxied back to my sisters flat who lives in the City and got changed into out finery, and we popped our T shirts on over the top. We arrived late to the Town Hall because just as we were piling into the taxi, we saw an elderly man in a gopher run off the footpath and fall over and we had to wait for him to reorientate before we could pick him up and dust him off. Matthew was already giving his talk and we snuck in the back. It was a really articulate and well thought out talk catering to the tastes of the 'regular' Orchestra type audience. He played little snippets of Mikes music including a small section where he played Mikes version of TB immediately followed by the same piece orchestrated. I found it interesting how in order to endear this audience to an artist that they might not normally find endearing, he had to remove all the aspects of Mikes style and career that attracted me and possibly many of us, to Mike in the first place. I was happy to hear him say that he did feel that parts of the original TB appeal had been 'lost' in the orchestral recreation. Towards the end of Matts talk he mentioned our little Convention and asked all the people wearing T shirts to stand up which seemed to impress the small crowd and certainly made us feel special.
After a brief interlude, around 300 people (at a rough guess) gathered in the majestic room. I couldn't see any of our MO fans but we sat in the 4th row facing the cellists but having a clearer view of the violinists who dominated the stage. We listened to Mozart for about 30 minutes which was very nice and after the audience had showed their appreciation I sat with baited breath waiting for the first magic notes to sound out. What a feeling! Had my son not been sitting next to me I may have been able to contain my emotions a little better, but he sat forward in his chair and every few minutes would whisper, 'oh wow' or 'I love this bit' and I just couldn't keep it in. I cried consistantly for about 20 minutes of the 25 minute concert, and when the whole room went quiet and all we could hear was the sound of a distant bell, indescribable, a spiritual moment perhaps. I certainly noticed the absence of the guitar and the piano but oh those violins!!!!!! Michael was holding my hand and I could hear my sister asking him to swap places with her because 'he didn't understand the enormity of this experience for me' but he just said 'Yeh I do, I live with her!'. I couldn't take my eyes from the stage, my only experience of symphony music had been the 30 minutes of Mozart I had just witnessed and it may have just been wishfull thinking on my part, but I thought I could see an exuberance and enjoyment on the faces of the musicians that just wasn't there in the earlier piece, I certainly felt it. As the Orchestra played their final note, while I was fumbling to disregard my hankie so I could use both hands to applaud, my sister had jumped to her feet followed by my son and then myself and I forgot to look around but my son says about a dozen other people stood up as well, but I think we three were the only ones hollering and yahooing, very tastefully though.  I think I even saw one of the violinists catch the state of my bright red face with black streaks running down my cheeks and gave me a little smile. They all looked very pleased with themselves and the clapping lasted for a full 5 minutes (well it felt like it).
Intermission, followed by quite a lengthy Brahms peice which was beautiful but I found my mind kept wandering back for almost the entire time and tears still coming to my eyes. The show finished just after 8:30 (started at 6:30) and we wandered across the road to the Pub to meet up with everyone but only Andrew joined us, even my sister had disappeared! Had 4 panadols with my hot chocolate (it hurts your brain trying not to blubber for half an hour) and we caught the 10pm train home, played MO cds for a couple of hours and went to bed with smiles on our dials.
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I hate getting up early. I didn't even realise there were two 6 o'clocks in one day!
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, for everyone.
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I would luv to get my hands on one . 
