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bennyboy Group: Members Posts: 177 Joined: July 2000 Posted: Feb. 13 2001, 04:23 A lot of people talk about how difficult it is to get others interested in Mike's music. I have found the following techniques most effective: 1: Watch the "Tubular Bells III: Live From Horse Guards Parade" video with future convert, and if they like it then put on the "Elements" video after that. Another variant on this technique is lending them "Tubular Bells" and "Tubular Bells II" after they have seen "Tubular Bells III". They will doubtless be curious as to the fact that it is the third in a series. 2. "Crises" remains probably one of his most accessible work to date and is probably the best to lend to someone who says "Mike who?" (that is of course if you don't have any Mike videos). 3. "Earth Moving" is, contrary to popular belief, a well crafted 80's pop album and is great to lend to someone into more "commercial" music. When they come back curious to know more you can slip them something like "The Complete Mike Oldfield" or "XXV: The Essential Mike Oldfield". 4. Got any friends who play guitar? Lend em a copy of "Guitars" or "QE2" and they'll really love you for it. 5. If you have a CD Burner you could make your own compilation and give to someone, mine would contain: Holy Moonlight Shadow Heaven's Open To France Shadow On The Wall Islands Pacha Mama Sentinel (Single Edit) The Bell Hibernaculum Cochise North Star/Platinum Finale Wonderful Land The Song Of The Sun Dark Island Ommadawn (Part 1 finale) Incantations (Part 4 Finale) Okay, you can call me a sad little fanboy now if you want... Anyone else got any thoughts on the matter? Back to top

Unregistered Posted: Feb. 13 2001, 08:08 I converted a friend of mine!!! I just lent him Tubular Bells II and he asked me for more. Back to top

GMOVJ Group: Members Posts: 273 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Feb. 13 2001, 08:28 As surprisingly as it could be, I'll recomand the 'Let's Start with Amarok Method'. Yes, it's a little violent, but it may work fine with some subject. Step 0 : take a friend to convert, a girlfriend, a good meal w/ a good bootle of Bourgogne, a coffe, and a livingroom. Begin the Amarok Method at 8pm by eating your good meal. Step 1 - about 9pm : enjoy your coffee listening to Amarok once, with sound not too loud, chating w/ your friend, called 'A'. Before the end, 'A' will certainly ask something like that "What is this weird music we are listening to for one hour without any break ?" Tell him "This is Mike Oldfield, Amarok." "Mikowhat ? Amawhat?" "Mike Oldfield - Amarok". His curiousity is now excited. Step 2 - about 10pm : Listen to Amarok, again, louder, explaining 'A' how wonderful it is, wich Section you're listening to, and who is Mike Oldfield. Step 3 - about 11pm : observe 'A' reactions. He should be more and more curious to listen to something else from Mike. At this time, your girlfriend - let's call her 'B' - will certainly tell you "Well it's late, i'm tired, and your music's boring, have a drink with A, I go to bed". Have a little break drinking one Single Malt, e.g Bomore Darkest (no age statement) or Lagavullin (16), with 1/3 of cool water. Don't drink too much or the method will failed. And chat about Mike Oldfield w/ 'A', show him some CDs. Step 4 - about 11:45pm : Put the volume quieter - because 'B' want to sleep. Listen to Tubular Bells, explaining everything about "Virgin, 1973, Mike was 17, he played almost everything..." etc, you know your job, fans. Take your time, don't hesitate to listen some part twice (eg The Guardian, The Bell, Southern Silver) Step 5 - about 01:00am : Have another drink. Once again, don't drink too much, or 'A' will not be converted. He'll get drunk and will go to sleep. This is not what you want. So listen to Ommadawn. Now, you don't have to explain and comment everything. Just answear 'A' question when he ask, and listen. Observe 'A' reaction during the whole listening. Sometimes he may say "Can we listen to this part again ?". Say Yes. Step 6 - about 02:00am : Compilation Time. Listen to Moonlight Shadow. 'A' must react : "ooooooh it's that ??? I know that !". Listen to (no order) The Lake, Taurus 1 and 2 (bits), Conflict, Orabidoo, Crises, Hergest Ridge bits, To France / Talk About Your Life, FMO, Some folks songs from The Complete and Voyager, The Sailor Hornpipe Drunk Version, Pacha Mama, SSTC, Let there be Light, Hibernaculum... things like that ... Step 7 - about 04:30am : now, listen to Tubular Bells 3 and listen to Far Above the Clouds once again. If everything went right : 'A' must be crazy, he must hold the cd sleeve, read the sleeve, watch the cover, ask you a hundred of question saying "wonderful, crazy, perfect"... Step 8 - about hmmmm much too late : 'A' is now converted, go to bed. All right, I know this is a long post.... but I couldn't resist because it's a recent and true story : last Saturday night to Sunday morning, with a friend who mainly like Massive Attack, Rap, Janet Jackson... This is my second conversion with Amarok for starting. I think this CD is magic : each time I listen to it w/ some friends, they like it, even if they think it's really weird. The conversion didn't work everytime, but this one, Amarok makes it works Cheers, GMOVJ -------------- Cheers, GMOVJ [URL=http://tubular.fodplanet.com]http://tubular.fodplanet.com[/URL] - The french speaking mailing list Back to top

TimHighfield Group: Members Posts: 543 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Feb. 13 2001, 08:44 That worked, GMOVJ? Cor, I must try that. All I need is a girlfriend to act as 'B' . And I should probably substitute the alcohol for something non-alcoholic. But I must try that. The quiet-loud-quiet method works. I (and new member cp, when he bothers to turn up ), went round to someone's house a few months ago and played video games to Ommadawn, TB2, TB and Monty Python Sings!, but I don't think any conversions took place (in fact, I know they didn't- but this was where the term Pornhipe was coined, so it wasn't all bad). Then again, maybe video games and Ommadawn don't mix . I was going to put up Tubular posters around my school last year, but nothing came of it. And we added in Mike's birthday in our meant-to-make-money, unofficial school calendar, but we weren't allowed to sell it because the school was making it's own (contrary to what we'd been told). Three weeks later their calendar still isn't ready, when our one could be in people's kitchens/studies/anywhere, and in May everyone could wonder, What is that strange curvy picture on that day? (Unless they were around in the 70s, if so they'd go, hey that's the Tubular Bells cover, I owned a copy of that in the 70s. Wonder what happened to the bloke who did it?). But we couldn't sell it, because we weren't allowed to. Next year... Plus our attempts to take over the school bell hasn't reached full speed yet (http://www.zeusweb.com/tim/oldfield/bell.html - this will be updated within the next few weeks). So my conversions aren't doing well at the moment. But, given time... -Tim- Back to top

Archangel Foster Group: Members Posts: 215 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Feb. 13 2001, 13:19 I think I'm making a convertion right now. I don't wanna promise too much, it isn't 100% certain yet. But I got to know a guy who (like me) is massively into Genesis, Rush and the like (he also has OTB), and I gave him Ommadawn and told him to listen to it when he had enough time and the right mood to really listen to something. And he loved it! Now I gave him Hergest Ridge and Incantations, let's see what happens. Back to top

Unregistered Posted: Feb. 13 2001, 17:49 Yeah, GMOVJ. Bowmore & Amarok. A good combination. And what about Laphroaig? The other great Islay? With TB??? Cheers... Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Feb. 13 2001, 19:07 The guys in the band I'm with at the moment thought the Tubular Bells from Exposed was great. I didn't subject them to the Incantations part though... Yes speyside, Laphroaig works well too . I'd skip the cold water (too lazy to bother pouring two things in there when one will do...). Maybe ice occasionally...Guinness goes well too and is of course a favourite of Mike's . Whether they help with 'conversions' is a different matter though... I think the key, if you want to introduce someone to a musician's work, is to find out what makes them tick first...use what you know about them to help you pick an album (or track) that you think will appeal to them. It at least sometimes works... Back to top

cp Group: Members Posts: 46 Joined: Feb. 2001 Posted: Feb. 14 2001, 06:41 Tim - although we didn't manage any conversions, there were some good points: (a) irritating John (not the inventor of the Pornhipe) to the point of near violence; (b) almost destroying a pair of my speakers; and (c) invading the ear drums of everyone in the neighbourhood. :-) I actually attempted to 'convert' one of my friends a few months ago, but the only thing that happened was that he thought (finally realised?) that I was slightly insane, and regards TB as a musical oddity. On the other hand, some people just have bad taste: he also dislikes Bach and Mozart, and (worse still) likes [c]rap. Perhaps he's a cloth-eared ninconpoop. GMOVJ- I'm almost afraid to try your method. The resulting violence might end up being directed at me. And why anyone would want to listen to Southern Silver twice is beyond my comprehension . What we (ie all MO fanatics) need is some form of subtle mind control (like in HTML, where all the buttons tell you to Submit). Or perhaps we could learn from the drug dealers and start people on the gentle stuff (e.g. Ommadawn or even Earth Moving, TB2) before eventually they have a complete collection and try to convert others. Back to top

TimHighfield Group: Members Posts: 543 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Feb. 14 2001, 06:53 Quote Or perhaps we could learn from the drug dealers and start people on the gentle stuff (e.g. Ommadawn or even Earth Moving, TB2) That's the general idea around here with conversions. I think Fox's compilation might be the best way though, a general sampling of Mike's work (plus TB2/Earth Moving/Crises- to me the three most accessible albums to newbies out of the ones I own, although maybe Ommadawn too). Southern Silver- twice only if Orchestral version (with Mike's solo ). Probably the bits newbies will want to here again are the MC section, the Guardian, maybe the Pornhipe/Piltdown Man, and Solar Flare (that's Sunjammer, isn't it?). -Tim- Back to top

GMOVJ Group: Members Posts: 273 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Feb. 14 2001, 08:44 well well well... cp, I often listen TB - Silver Southern twice ... Bennyboy '5in1-method' and Fox 'Compilation-method' must be very good too, certainly more subtle than mine ! I just proposed an 'alternative method', a shock-method ! But the main thing has been pointed by Korgscrew : Quote "I think the key, if you want to introduce someone to a musician's work, is to find out what makes them tick first...use what you know about them to help you pick an album (or track) that you think will appeal to them. It at least sometimes works... " For me, my method works twice because 'subjects' were surprised by Amarok with quiet sound, so they want to listen it louder after. And they like that ! Cheers, GMOVJ Ps: cp and Tim - be optimistic : the only violence that could be directed to you is that your friend would catch you by your shirt shouting in your face "gimme more ! gimme more ! we didn't listen everything ! gimme more !" -------------- Cheers, GMOVJ [URL=http://tubular.fodplanet.com]http://tubular.fodplanet.com[/URL] - The french speaking mailing list Back to top

TimHighfield Group: Members Posts: 543 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Feb. 14 2001, 08:50 Quote be optimistic : the only violence that could be directed to you is that your friend would catch you by your shirt shouting in your face "gimme more ! gimme more ! we didn't listen everything ! gimme more !" Not the "friend" we're talking about . (Or l'enfant horrible, Cameron) I played Tubular Bells during one of my lessons last year (Independent Research- basically all the class got to muck around in a computer room for a period), and the rest of the people in my class gave me weird looks for a while, especially Piltdown Man. Some sample comments: 1) "Tubular Bells? Isn't Mike Oldfield dead?"- a science teacher who complained about the volume 2) "This is pretty nice"- someone who missed Part One, and came in at the start of Part Two. I think she changed her mind after that . After that everyone tried to stop me playing CDs during that lesson (there was only one computer capable of playing CDs in the classroom), even if I didn't bring TB again (I did bring "Oceanic" by Vangelis though). But they weren't violent. -Tim- Back to top

Fox Group: Members Posts: 156 Joined: Feb. 2000 Posted: Feb. 14 2001, 21:25 Did anyone know that Mike Oldfield is on Napster? That's right! One of my friends looked on there for me, and found a ton of stuff. Although I don't approve of getting free music w/o supporting the artist, I might suggest dropping a few hints to others to search, download and listen. People are more likely to try something on their own if it's free, and you never know....some free samples might lead people to buying the real thing....it's a thought, like if I can't mail them my compilation set . BTW, another story for conversion: the subliminal method. This works best on people you meet casually often. The trick is to listen to MO CDs when they're around, but never say what you're listening to. Let this go on for as long as needed. Listen to them all the time, but never draw attention to it. If it catches their ear (or their curiosity overtakes them!), they'll eventually ask you "what IS that?" That's when you make your move! *evil grin* I converted my friend like that. While we did things, I played TB2 in the background. Eventually, he got interested in the CD, and over time his interest grew! Score!! hahaha Back to top

TimHighfield Group: Members Posts: 543 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Feb. 23 2001, 04:59 Except for the Sound... The cp-TimHighfield conversion compilation album. In the making right now (well, the cover is done, we just have to burn it now) On 2 CDs More on it's effectiveness soon... We're trying it out next week... But I'll leave you with the tracklist: Cd1: Tubular Bells: The Guardian Tubular Bells: Star Light Tubular Bells: Martial Hergest Ridge: Jingle Jingle Hergest Ridge: the entire Thunderstorm Ommadawn: Bird Song (ie, Majestic III, Bird Song and a bit after it) Ommadawn: Bodhran (the finale to Part 2) Orchestral Tubular Bells: Southern Silver Orchestral Tubular Bells: Piltdown Man Five Miles Out: Taurus II excerpt (from the beginning) Five Miles Out: Family Man Five Miles Out: Five Miles Out Crises: Crises excerpt (the heavy bit plus the Crises bit) Crises: Moonlight Shadow Crises/Complete: Shadow on the Wall (extended) Tubular X Tubular Bells MC Cd2: Earth Moving: Holy Earth Moving: See the Light Amarok: Didlybom Amarok: Africa II Heaven's Open: No Dream Heaven's Open: Heaven's Open Tubular Bells II: The Bell Tubular Bells II: Sunjammer Tubular Bells II: Altered State TSODE: Let There Be Light TSODE: Crystal Clear Tubular Bells III: Outcast Tubular Bells III: Top of the Morning Millennium Bell: Doges' Palace Millennium Bell: Mastermind Tubular Bells III: Far Above the Clouds Tubular Bells: Sailor's Pornhipe More info soon on the results... -Tim- Back to top

Fox Group: Members Posts: 156 Joined: Feb. 2000 Posted: Feb. 23 2001, 07:34 What? Nothing from Islands? hahahahaha You know, I got a couple people I'd like to send that to. There are some parts on yours not on my compilation and vice versa. I'll gladly help you distribute yours if you might be willing to help distribute mine . Back to top

Archangel Foster Group: Members Posts: 215 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Feb. 23 2001, 16:49 I think I've 'won' that guy over to 'our side'. He says Ommadawn and Incantations are among the best music he's ever heard. He liked Hergest Ridge, but not quite as much. But I'm sure it'll grow on him in time With all respect to your efforts, IMHO a compilation is not needed to 'convert' someone. Just think about which of Mike's albums comes closest to the style the person you want to win over likes. The rest will come all by itself. If he gets hooked on one, he'll be a 'real fanatic' in no time. Probably. Back to top

Fox Group: Members Posts: 156 Joined: Feb. 2000 Posted: Feb. 23 2001, 18:32 No, of course a compilation isn't needed to convert anyone! It's just yet another method. Just as a note, TB2 converted not only me but one of my friends. I think a compilation is the best choice when you really aren't sure of the person's music preference. The compilation will hopefully include something for everyone! BTW-- that one person I gave the compilation to liked Heaven's Open, too. Who knew? hahahahaha Back to top

TimHighfield Group: Members Posts: 543 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Feb. 24 2001, 02:38 Hi all Quote Fox said: What? Nothing from Islands? hahahahaha All the tracks are taken from my CDs, although since cp is burning the thing, his CDs that he has (Ommadawn, TB, EM, OTB, TB2, TB3, plus HR on LP) have been used to make it easier than using all of mine. Any albums missing, I don't have them. Quote AF said: With all respect to your efforts, IMHO a compilation is not needed to 'convert' someone. Just think about which of Mike's albums comes closest to the style the person you want to win over likes. I might have just lent my CDs to people, but I don't trust them . Easier to use a compilation for this sort of thing, plus it means that we're not pandering to their request to burn a copy of Tubular Bells or whatnot but encouraging them to buy it themselves. Quote Fox said: I think a compilation is the best choice when you really aren't sure of the person's music preference. The compilation will hopefully include something for everyone! The people we're hoping to convert, we have no idea about some of their musical tastes (if they have any), although we could probably make a guess. Some we have some sort of clue with though, which is why tracks like Tubular X, Altered State, Outcast and Mastermind are there, rather than say Lake Constance, as they might be closer to the style that they like at the moment. Quote Tim is going to say: I think that's enough quotes for the moment As I said, more info soon...hopefully the results will be positive. And now I am going back to working on my homepage. -Tim- Back to top

cp Group: Members Posts: 46 Joined: Feb. 2001 Posted: Feb. 25 2001, 06:05 Tim wrote: >I might have just lent my CDs to people, but I don't trust them. Aha! You've lent several of them to me now. Do you think you're going to get them back now that I've copied the compilation onto my computer? [cue evil laughter] Seriously, though, I have high hopes for some of these conversions. If any fail, I can always threaten to set Tim on them After all, bribery and corruption gets you everywhere. Back to top

cp Group: Members Posts: 46 Joined: Feb. 2001 Posted: Mar. 01 2001, 02:59 I lent the CDs to our first unwitting victim today, and he seems to quite like what he's heard so far (Outcast and the Sailor's Hornpipe). This is the person who gave the Hornpipe its alternative name, so it isn't really surprising that he liked that track I will (or Tim will) post more later, when our victim has had time to develop some fanatacism... Back to top

rosko Group: Members Posts: 184 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Mar. 01 2001, 05:40 I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty sick of calling it the pornpipe. That was funny the first time it was posted but now it's just annoying. Back to top

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