Ugo
Group: Members
Posts: 5495
Joined: April 2000 |
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Posted: Sep. 25 2008, 20:16 |
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Also where I live (Italy) Mike is not generally recognized as a guitarist - indeed when the TBII Edimburgh show was first broadcast here, I (who at the time had just gotten into him) was wondering: how come this Mike Oldfield guy plays guitar all the time? Shouldn't he play keyboards as well?  It was only after I heard the original TB (1973), and, subsequently, most of the other albums, that I realized that he's really a multi-instrumentalist whose main instrument is the guitar. However, in Italy, multi-instrumentalism as a concept doesn't really exist, as most Italian musicians are only specialized in one instrument and can just barely get a tune out of any other instrument. For example, many pianists and keyboardists play guitar, for example, but they only strum basic rhythms - you'll never catch any of them even attempting to do a solo. So, obviously, the nature of a multi-instrumentalist like Mike Oldfield is somehow lost here. All this without counting, of course, that his biggest-ever hit, here, was "Moonlight Shadow", which only bore his name on the front cover although it was sung by a woman (whose name was only mentioned on the 45-RPM's label). A few people I know still think that "Mike Oldfield" is a pseudonym for a woman singer, and ask me where did she end up after the Eighties. 
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Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian
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