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Clodomir Group: Members Posts: 50 Joined: Mar. 2006 Posted: Sep. 15 2007, 09:11 In Changeling, Mike Oldfield tells that, when he arrived at the Manor, in november 1972, he heard music from the finishing recording sessions of John Cale. He tells also that, the same day, as people from Maurice Placquet were removing the rented  instruments, he asked to kept the tubular bells (as he had not previously intended to put tb on his recording). That fits the informations available about John Cale's Academy in Peril. This album, recorded partly at the Manor, 1972, was his 2nd solo effort after he had left The Velvet Underground. Among the three tracks from the Manor sessions, stands "3 orchestral pieces", which seems to feature (faint) tubular bells, which would thus be the same heared on the original Tubular Bells. However, I have some doubt about the band that came after Mike's first week of recording. Mike tells the Bonzos (feat. Vivian Stanshall) came at the Manor, while he was in a rush finishing the end of part 1, during the last day of the week of recording allowed by Richard Branson. This fits with the fact that Stanshall was asked to make the introductions of the instruments. However there's two points that bother me about that story : - It seems that The Bonzos disbanded in 1970 and that their LAST reunion was in autumn 1971 at the Manor for the recording of their last album "Let's Make Up And Be Friendly" (released early 72). Moreover there were the very first band to rent the Manor, after his opening (Mike's session with Arthur Lewis in 1971 took place while the Manor's studio was still at a building stage). So I don't get how a new recording time in late '72 at the Manor would be missing form all the biographies of the Bonzos on the Internet. In the "Making of TB", there's also some confusions about which year Mike did help for the Bonzos recording sessions... - It seems that the Sailor's Hornpipe drunken version was recorded in 1973, at the end of TB's recording sessions. Stanshall involved in this version seems to have been invited again, apart from any work of him. So I think it is possible that Stanshall came just to introduce the instruments of part 1 in 1972, and that Mike makes mistakes between 1971 and  1972... Anyone who knows well Stanshall's career and could help to understand the whens and whys of this period ? Nicolas mike-oldfield.net -------------- Mike Oldfield - Blog d'une passion http://www.mike-oldfield.net Back to top

manintherain Group: Members. Posts: 546 Joined: Mar. 2004 Posted: Sep. 18 2007, 08:48 Let’s Make Up And Be Friendly was released in March 1972. "Fans were bereft when the group broke up in January 1970. Melody Maker, the weekly music paper that had long championed the Bonzos, took up the clamour for a reunion. Eventually the lads succumbed to pressure and got back together in the Manor Studios, newly opened by Virgin’s Richard Branson in November 1971. The line up consisted of Vivian Stanshall, Neil Innes, Dennis Cowan, Larry Smith and Roger Spear augmented by Bubs White (guitars), Andy Roberts (guitars and fiddle), Dave Richards (bass), Dick Parry (saxophone) and Hughie Flint (drums)." Source: BonzoDog.co.uk Back to top

Clodomir Group: Members Posts: 50 Joined: Mar. 2006 Posted: Sep. 18 2007, 12:55 Another clue : In the 24th issue of Dark star, Phil Newell -who wasn't there during the week of the recording of TB part 1- tells Vivian Stanshall came at the very end of the recording to record both the introduction of the instruments (part 1) and the drunken version of Sailor's Hornpipe. -------------- Mike Oldfield - Blog d'une passion http://www.mike-oldfield.net Back to top

Airborne Group: Members Posts: 192 Joined: Sep. 2006 Posted: Sep. 18 2007, 13:15 I don't think there is any evidence that Mike recorded any of his own material at The Manor in 1971. He was only visiting with The Arthur Lewis Band and only (just) had the opportunity to play his demo tape to Tom Newman. The involvement of Vivian Stanshall, I have assumed, was very late on in the recording of Tubular Bells (around Feb/March 1973). For some reason he was booked to be in the studio after Mike, or so the story has emerged. Also, in early 1973, Virgin had taken the almost finished recording to Midem in France. One company offered $20,000 if it had vocals on it. I think as the result of the pressure to put vocals on the work, Mike did the Piltdown Man sequence and decided to have a Master of Ceremonies, plus a frivolous (drunken) version of the Sailors Hornpipe. The latter sounds more than just spontaneous nonsense and was probably rehearsed. As to whether the Bonzos recorded again at The Manor is very difficult to say without seeing the booking schedule for the studios or an issued recording by them giving dates. In the absence of both we can merely speculate. Back to top

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