Mike Oldfield’s seminal 1973 album Tubular Bells is being reissued for its 50th anniversary and amongst the formats is an SDE-exclusive blu-ray audio which features a brand new immersive Dolby Atmos Mix along with other rare spatial audio versions, a new stereo mix and an unreleased demo of a planned – but scrapped – Tubular Bells 4, which was made five years ago!
Back in 1973, the largely unknown 20-year-old Mike Oldfield released his debut album, the first release on brand-new label, Virgin Records. Tubular Bells became a phenomenon, topping the UK charts, winning a Grammy and it was famously featured in William’s Friedkin’s film The Exorcist, which itself became a global sensation in ’73.
This 50th Anniversary celebration of Tubular Bells, overseen by Mike Oldfield, is available on SDE-exclusive blu-ray, 2LP half-speed mastered vinyl and on CD.
Elements represents the many sides of Mike Oldfield, and is a short but interesting journey through some of this multi-instrumentalist's best efforts…
Mike Mareen was born on November, 9th 1949 in Berlin (West Germany). First, he was a drummer, but later he was the singer of the group Cemetery Institution (non-disco) and performed in Hamburg´s legendary 'Star Club', where The Beatles used to play in their beginnings. Apart of Mike Mareen, he also sang using pseudonyms like Amadeus Liszt with such smash hits like: "Win The Race" and "The Devil Win", but his successful career have been with the Mike Mareen releases. Mike like many disco artists has wrote and produced tracks released by other artists. He produced hit like: "Birthday Girl" by ITALO-DISCO star Dj's Project.
With all of it's members exercising their expertise, the debut album from Mike + the Mechanics posted two Top Ten singles in the span of three months. The songwriting comes out on top before anything else, with the somber stir of "Silent Running," the album's first release, peaking at number six. "All I Need Is a Miracle" followed at number five, with it's Genesis-like tempo and polished chorus, and even "Taken In" cracked the Top 40, a simple ballad that's bettered by Paul Young's genuine emotional charm…
With all of it's members exercising their expertise, the debut album from Mike + the Mechanics posted two Top Ten singles in the span of three months. The songwriting comes out on top before anything else, with the somber stir of "Silent Running," the album's first release, peaking at number six…