Mike Oldfield - Making of Ommadawn (part 1 of 2)

[sharonpayne28]

first heard it in 1980,could not stop,hergest ridge incantations,platinum,crises,b­rilliant.

[kingofthekop100]

keep your eyes open for a very young steve hillage on there at 2;43

[comprehensiveboy]

To listen to that staggering groovy bass riff you wouldn't think it was being played by a bloke in tank top with no shirt sleaves, an accountant in a cricket sweater and a hippy in a beany hat. I am so proud of England, so many geniuses.

[jarabaa]

So wonderful to see the ... genius at work. I remember being totally, er, well, infatuated at the time. Yet this is fascinating. He really was an incredible phenomenon. Maybe I should say "is". Somehow I know nothing of Mike Oldfield today in 2011. There is something special about a boy musical genius in his own time. Now I guess he's in his mid to late 50s. Still a genius, no doubt, but being a phenomenon is all about youth, the thrill of discovery, the era. Those times have passed.

[MoveOverCasanova]

to this day i haven´t really listened closely to part 2 though i heard part 1 a million times

[tankman1962]

Amazing musician

[Simon0]

i love part 1 of ommadawn

[alex75ok]

I know ommadawn for about 25 years now and its still just amazing.........

[cjgone2]

@alex75ok

Tubular Bells is awesome too. :D

[Coneman3]

I am one of Mike's biggest fans and I mean no disrespect when I say this - this video makes me think of Spinal Tap - comments like "he vanished to his parent's house, apparently to build a duck pond" !!

[Coneman3]

I am one o Mike's biggest fans and I mean no disrespect when I say this - this video makes me think of Spinal Tap - comments like "he vanished to his parent's house, apparently to build a duck pond" !!

[fergy623]

I wish I had met Mike when I was young. even today I still would like to meet him and I am well aged. I love music and wish still today to play more of it.

[boehlahz]

Growing up Mike Oldfield was my number one music.

[permaveg]

" give us 20,000 if we put some vocals on it" , these sort of people run todays music companies, imagine the turd simon cowell hearing this if it came out today ?

[jki73]

I would like to somehow to compare Mr. Mike Oldfield to Pink Floyd or J.M.Jarre. They all made their music at the time, very unique and distinctive way.

Therefore they all are nowdays very talented, famous and very much idols.

Now days, theres nothing like those real band from 60-70's.

Today only money-making-music-industry-re­cord-companies release only disposable "music" and throwaway crap. They worries only money, without any deep knowlegde of real music.

Damn, I realyy like MO:s music.

[Unkyp]

@jki73 what you say is SO true !

[DarkenJax]

My favourite Oldfield album. Really under-rated I think.

[PAULLONDEN]

Although I like this and had his albums,but because of all this unreachable virtuosity .'punk'had to happen.

[ironland75]

In my modest oipinion Ommadawn is his best album.

It's one of very few Rock albums that you never get tired of listening to!!!

I really love it. Ciao Fabio from Italy :-)

[SuperRothers]

@ironland75 Agreed! But the 2010mastering is actually better still, and the "Lost"ommadawn demo is unmissable too.

[DarkenJax]

@SuperRothers Just got it 2 weeks ago - what a difference! While I'm glad he did re-record it this is absolutely fascinating. The joke section is really weird but then I guess so is Piltdown Man or the tramping round the house on the quad mix of Tubular Bells.

[DarkenJax]

@SuperRothers The new mix is lovely and clear and I agree the lost demo is a real revelation. Quite glad he rerecorded it but it is an amazing glimpse into the weird world of Oldfield at a time when he'd just lost his mother

[Unkyp]

@DarkenJax yes i have the new mix too , and it is a very clear crisp sound too ! I agree it's very interesting to hear the "lost" ommadawn ! :)

[mankywomb]

Ommadawn is beautiful, haunting and earthy. I love this album. It's an antidote to the rat race and modern-living generally. It enriches your soul.

[eurofix]

yeah your absolutely right

[forbeliculus]

@mankywomb

The only thing this music "enriches" you with is like the thing they use in flour to "enrich it" when in fact they take out all the nutrients so your body doesn't get anything it needs. So this music gives you emptiness while giving you the impression that you're full, and in fact keeps you dumb, musically or otherwise! Truth!

[LegionAvalon]

Genius. :-)

[nudist0885]

Hey Yugiho07,

There was a least on the earlier LP'S of the instruments that everybody played.

He didn't play any of the wind instruments on the 1st side.

[YUGIHO07]

o really? ooo Mike is so great, simply a genius, well thanks.Wow awesome man awesome!!

[YUGIHO07]

Hi !!

One question how many instruments played Mike on tubular bells ?

P.D.:i think that everything so what do u think

[Mikemaniax]

At least 2 dozen.

[MIXOLYDIAN123]

@YUGIHO07 the credits list only him

[drchepa]

los mejores años de mike fueron en virgin, mal que le pese a el, cuando salio de ahi su musica (en mi opinion) decayo.....

[val91201]

puede ser; para mi, su mejor composicion es la musica de la pelicula "The Killing Fields', una obra maestra!

[JMRBAQ]

Richard Branson is the 236th richest person according to Forbes' 2008 list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of approximately $4.4 billion USD.

[JMRBAQ]

00:40 EL MAESTRO SE LIA UN CIG.

[666767]

yea he is the best he dosent get much reward in england

[flitwicksman]

Mike Oldfield is a gift to our world.

[forbeliculus]

@flitwicksman

yeah and crack!

[sawneybean71]

don't mind me..i'm going home to build a "duck pond!"

[sawneybean71]

Thanks for uploading...been a fan of mike for nearly 25 years and never seen this clip..Awesome!!

Ommadawn = Best album ever;)

[Kohntarkosz]

Wait! Is that Fred Frith and Steve Hillage I see playing guitar during the bits where they're playing Tubular Bells (with Mike playing a Fender Precision bass)?!

[loekie64]

@Kohntarkosz : Yes, I think this was the first live footage of Tubular Bell's. Hillage was probably in Gong that time and Frith in Henry Cow. Weren't they all signed to Virgin at that time??? I would love to see the complete live footage!!!

[Runciter]

El mejor disco de la historia

[specialbeat]

Wow, it is fantastic to see this kind of footage. Well done for digging this out.

[DoubleBubbleBoy]

O joy, what a wonderful flashback.

[kzbxvz]

Mike Oldfield is a musical genius.

[Maxiclaudi]

I started with Mike Oldfield as a Virgin Records artist, and finished with Japan, David Sylvian, another Virgin record release! Gong, Pierre Moerlen, and others in between, but still, Virgin stood tall!

[billyb67]

thanks for this !!

[PPGlam]

In my opinion Amarok is right there with Ommadawn and TB among the best, and being a proud "hardcore Oldfield fan" I would certainly risk that Amarok is his best. Maybe we understand creativity differently, but to me it is bringing unconventional, new, daring (thus interesting) elements into your work, and Mike definitely did that in Amarok. Putting it among his worst is hardly valid, if nothing else, it's structural system makes it a real masterpiece.

[dougienancy]

actually HERGEST RIDGE WAS REALESED earlier because OMMADAWN WAS TAKING SO LONG TO DO. so he quickly mixed some ideas he had floating around and realesed it as Hergest..six months before Ommadawn

[Coneman3]

What nonesense ! Hergest Ridge is a masterpiece and reached No1 before Tubular Bells.

[Leeate]

Wow, I just read in the newspaper that Richard Branson is now organizing flights to the space. It's a kind of funny after the record company :)

[Bossk14]

I forgot that Mike Ratledge played piano on Tubular Bells. Thats cool that they have footage of him there.

[dougienancy]

he played on the live version...and this doc is not just about Ommadawn..which by way the is the THIRD album after HERGEST RIDGE...Tubular Bells made Branson his first million...the rest they say...he actually still owes MO a few sheckles

[mpjswart]

Branson made a shit load of money and Mike got a tiny fraction. But.. contract is contract nevertheless Mike was fed up with the shepherd and made one of his greatest albums as a closure of his Virgin time: Amarok which contains a morse coded phrase telling Richard to .... off. hehehe

right on.

[sunrasys]

Actually, Branson blew a shit load of money on Virgin Records which had tons of other bands that were not performing. So, the money didn't go to Branson, it went to all the other mediocre bands they had.

[Coneman3]

Amarok is one of his worst albums, made up largely of "shelved" tunes omitted from earlier quality albums. The morse code is indicative of the lack of serious creative input the album received. Amarok is NOT a great emotional outpouring of raw creativity like Mike's earlier albums.

[mpjswart]

I beg to differ. I remember the bohemian rapsody by Queen was a 'litter box' as well yet considered one of the greatest songs ever made. In a way the core technique of Tubular Bells isn't any different than Amarok and I'd tend to differ with your opinion about lack of creative output by pointing out he used a singing saw to make up the melody in some occasions.

[Coneman3]

There are some really good parts in Amarok IMO but these amount to about 5-10 minutes of the 60 minute piece. By most instrumental standards Amarok is very good, but to me it is pale in comparison with all Mike's albums up to Islands/Earth Moving. It irrtates me that many so-called hardcore Oldfield fans believe Amarok is one of Mike's best albums, and that a website is named after it !! I think Hergest Ridge is Mike's best overall album and Guitars is possibly his worst.

[mpjswart]

don't be irritated mate ;)

[Coneman3]

OK ;-)

[Ironlord2015]

Ha-ha-HAPPY!

[wigginsdesign]

As an impressionable sponge for anything new & interesting I remember how different, fresh and positive Tubular Bells sounded to me as a teen. We used to crank it in the car when our local progressive college station would play it.

[burnthewitch]

I wish Mike would compile stuff like this and release a DVD.

[gibsonj200]

an absolute pure genius.

[NarcissistsDie]

Branson is a cock. It's common knowledge that Branson never liked Tubular Bells - mainly due to the fact that he is clueless about music as an art. Oldfield grew to despise the goatied wanker in later years and rightfully so.

Nice vid, thanks for posting it.

[Ossadawn]

Yeah,I'm not sure Branson admired the music. He just saw a business opening for something quite unique and original and decided to take the gamble. That is Bransons way. It is a shame it had to turn nasty between them. Without Branson,Mike may never have made it though. So as bad as the relationship ended up, Branson was essential to the Oldfield success story.

[retrogamevideos]

"He just saw a business opening for something quite unique and original and decided to take the gamble."

That alone though means Branson deserves some credit. Very few businessmen are willing to take a chance on something new, especially record companies.

[ucfbtm]

That is beautiful,thankyou - parts 1 and 2.That is as much a loving tribute by Richard Branson to the legendary genius of Mike Oldfield,as it is a loving tribute by Mike Oldfield to the legendary genius of Richard Branson.The great British success story.Cheers.

[TrockRon]

Very!

[xeqz]

nice

[TrockRon]

btw.., check my files. I share a perfect version of the Tubular Bells shown here.. enjoy! (my first upload btw)

[ralv26]

Hey sir !! why did you remove the ommadawn parta and partb videos , they were the greatest!!! :-(

[clockworkaccordion]

Hey tron. I see that the tubular bells vids have been removed. What a shame as they were stunning. So many of my friends who had never heard bells loved the vids and bought the CD. Is there a plan to release this oficially and thats why its gone. Give that there are tons of other performance vids on here i dont understand the mentality if the record companies.