Following sell-out seasons at the Sydney Fringe Festival, the New Zealand International Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Tubular Bells For Two comes to Northampton’s Royal & Derngate on Friday 24 May, 40 years after the iconic album was originally released by Mike Oldfield.
In this smash hit show, two multi-talented musicians recreate the album live onstage, in real time in a spectacle for the eyes and ears. Rather than simply mimicking Oldfield’s multi-tracked arrangements, the show captures the soul and emotional journey of this remarkable folk-rock epic.
Amongst the vast collection of instruments onstage are keyboards, umpteen guitars, bass, mandolin, glockenspiel and loop pedals and of course tubular bells, and in order to recreate the seamless transitions the performers have to leap between guitars and pianos and drums (sometimes all three at once), recording and overdubbing loops live on the spot.
Tubular Bells For Two started as an idea conjured up over a bottle of wine by old school friends Daniel Holdsworth and Aidan Roberts. After arranging the music by ear on acoustic guitars, more instruments started to be added from friends, rubbish skips etc and the show was created. Their first set of tubular bells were fashioned from fence posts…
Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells was released on 25th May 1973 by newly formed Virgin Records, and the album reached No.1 in charts around the world, selling in excess of 15 million copies, with much of its early success lying in the support from John Peel who played the album in its entirety on Radio 1. The music was famously used for the soundtrack for the horror movie The Exorcist and is now enjoying a revival in popularity kicked started by its use in the 2012 London Olympic Opening Ceremony.
Tubular Bells For Two takes to the Derngate stage on Friday 24 May at 8pm. Tickets, priced £21, can be booked by calling Box Office on 01604 624811 or online at www.royalandderngate.co.uk.
