Tubular Bells

Tubular Bells is the title of the debut album by British composer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield. Released in May 1973, it was the first record to be issued on the Virgin label.

The album consists of two long 'suites' of mostly instrumental music, one per side of the record. Oldfield, who was 19 years old when it was recorded, wrote the entire composition and played almost all the instruments. The recording took place at The Manor studios, property of Virgin record's director Richard Branson, and which remained an important recording location for many years in the label's history.

The titular 'bells' come to the fore towards the end of the first part (Side 1) of the composition, featuring a final section with actor Viv Stanshall introducing a series of instruments in turn, each repeating a melody, all played by Oldfield. Among other notable sections are the 'caveman' sequence with Oldfield's treated vocal mostly shouting and screaming undecipherable words and sounds over a rock music background, and the final section, a rendition of the traditional tune 'Sailor's Hornpipe'.

Although initial sales of Tubular Bells were slow, its all-instrumental and 'Part One' and 'Part Two' format being probably the first of its kind, the album went on to become one of the biggest selling albums of the decade, and Oldfield's best-known work. Tubular Bells has to date sold an estimated 15 million copies worldwide.

Tubular Bells was produced by Oldfield with Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth.

Tracklisting
original LP Virgin V2001 & MC TC V2001


 * A. Tubular Bells (Side 1) (25:00)
 * B. Tubular Bells (Side 2) (23:50)

8-track cartridge Virgin 8XV 2001


 * Tubular Bells (Programme B) (12:06) / Tubular Bells (Programme B) (12:08) / Tubular Bells (Programme C) (12:06) / Tubular Bells (Programme D) (12:14)

Chart progress
Tubular Bells originally entered the lower reaches of the UK album charts at no.31 in July 1973, and by the end of August had made slow progress to no.7. By October it had dropped back down to no.35 and finished the year at no.48. Renewed interest in the album, thanks to the inclusion of part of the opening theme in The Exorcist movie released in March 1974 in the UK, meant that the album went back in to the Top 10, and finally to no.1 in September, some sixteen months after its initial release, with Oldfield's follow-up Hergest Ridge at no.2.

Tubular Bells remained in the top 10 for almost a year, "dropping" to no.12 in May 1975, two years after its release. By this time a new version, The Orchestral Tubular Bells, recorded in 1974 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, directed and arranged by David Bedford, had also been released, peaking at no.17 in February. Oldfield's studio original was still in the Top 30 when his third solo effort Ommadawn was released, peaking at no.4, in November 1975. Sales of the magnum opus continued to be strong throughout 1976 and into 1977, dropping in and out of the Top 50 as the weeks progressed. Oldfield continued to strengthen his commercial viability and popular appeal, releasing the singles In Dulci Jubilo (Nov. 1975), Portsmouth (Oct. 1976) and the William Tell Overture (Feb.1977).

A boxed set of Oldfield's first three studio albums, newly remixed in 'quadrophonic' sound, plus a fourth album of previously unreleased material was also released by Virgin in October 1976. Suitably entitled Boxed, the compilation reached no.24 thanks to the Christmas market and peaked at no.22 shortly after, with the single album Tubular Bells still at no.38.

1978 was a year of big changes for the British music scene, with the rise of 'new-wave' into the mainstream, and for Oldfield himself, having undergone exegesis therapy. With a rapidly evolving market, Tubular Bells left the Top 100 in the UK for the first time since its release some five-and-a-half years previously. His new studio double-album Incantations peaked at no.14, again thanks to the Christmas market, although its release also brought a renewed interest for Tubular Bells, which re-entered the Top 40 in February 1979, just as the opus was taken 'on tour' and played live for the first time during Oldfield's headlining tour. Adapted live versions of his debut and Incantations, were documented on the live album Exposed, released in July 1979, again bringing Tubular Bells back into the charts.

In 1983, with the release of a new studio album Crises, a tenth anniversary edition of Tubular Bells was released by Virgin bringing the album back into the Top 40 in June.

During the early 1990s, with the release of Tubular Bells 2 (number one in September 1992), the original album made a new seven-week foray into the UK Top 100, and a further seven weeks at various times during the closing decade of the twentieth century, by which time Tubular Bells 3 and The Millennium Bell had also been released.

A re-recorded version of the original album by Oldfield himself, entitled Tubular Bells 2003, entered the UK charts for just one week at a lowly no.51, although ironically the original re-entered the Top 100 for four weeks in the same year. Re-entries of Tubular Bells to the UK album charts were few and far between during the 2000s and 2010s, also thanks to remastered editions being released in 2000, 2009 and 2018.

Finally, a much-publicised 50th anniversary re-issue of Tubular Bells took the album back into the charts at no.18 in June 2023.

TV & radio
Tubular Bells is known to have been played or have been featured in the following TV & radio broadcasts:


 * 29 May 1973: Top Gear (John Peel, BBC Radio 1) - Peel played Side One in its entirety on his BBC Radio 1 Top gear show, stating, "..I think that that is certainly one of the most impressive LP's I've ever had the chance to play on the radio. Really a remarkable record.." The DJ also played Side Two on an unknown date. (source)
 * 21 July 1973 Sounds Interesting (BBC Radio 3) - a music discussion programme which featured an excerpt from TB
 * 05 January 1974 Second House - a studio performance of Tubular Bells by Oldfield and a small group of musicians (repeated in June 1974, 2009, 2013, 2022 - see BBC page)
 * 18 January 1975 The Mike Oldfield Concert at the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Two & Radio 3) - concert recorded on 09 December, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (leader Erich Gruenberg) play "Hergest Ridge" and "Tubular Bells", arranged for symphony orchestra and conducted by David Bedford.
 * 29 April 1979 - Mike Oldfield in Concert (BBC Two, rpt. on OGWT 20 Dec. 79) in concert at the Wembley Conference Centre, including TB (see Exposed)
 * 24 August 1985 30 Years of Rock: 1973 (BBC Radio 1) features TB
 * 26 April 2001 Seven More Days That Rocked the World (BBC Radio 2) 5: 25 May 1973, when Richard Branson 's Virgin Records lifts off with a freak hit on the release of Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells, using classical techniques on a rock album.
 * 23 June 2009 The Radcliffe & Maconie Show (BBC Radio 2) Mike Oldfield chats to Mark about the reissue of Tubular Bells.
 * 11 October 2013 Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story (BBC Four)