Tubular Bells II

Tubular Bells II
Studio album by Mike Oldfield
Released	31 August 1992
Recorded	Los Angeles, Roughwood Croft
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	58:34
Label	WEA Reprise/Warner Bros. (US) 45041
Producer	Trevor Horn Tom Newman Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield chronology
Heaven's Open (1991) Tubular Bells II (1992) The Songs of Distant Earth (1994)
Tubular Bells series chronology
The Orchestral Tubular Bells (1975) Tubular Bells II (1992) Tubular Bells III (1998)
Singles from Tubular Bells II
"Sentinel" Released: 21 September 1992 "Tattoo" Released: 7 December 1992 "The Bell" Released: 5 April 1993

Tubular Bells II is the 15th album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1992. The album – the first for his new record label, Warner Bros., following an acrimonious departure from Virgin after twenty years – was a sequel to Oldfield's 1973 Tubular Bells. Another sequel, Tubular Bells III, followed in 1998.

The album charted at number 1 in the UK as did its precursor. It is Oldfield's third number one album (after Tubular Bells and Hergest Ridge) and, as of 2015, his last number one album to date.

Album development

Virgin Records had been pushing Oldfield to create a sequel to Tubular Bells for many years prior to his departure from the label, but Oldfield was hesitant to do so, although his penultimate album for the label, Amarok, was in several respects a conceptual sequel to his 1975 album Ommadawn.

For Tubular Bells II Oldfield enlisted the help of Tom Newman, who had helped produce the original, as well as established producer Trevor Horn (known for his work with The Buggles, Yes and Art of Noise). "Early Stages" which is an early version of what would become "Sentinel" was included as a B-side to the single version of "Sentinel". "Early Stages" has a somewhat darker mood and is from the pre-Trevor Horn development of the album, possibly showing the kind of influence that Horn had.

Tubular Bells comparisons

Tubular Bells II partly follows musical structures of the original Tubular Bells (1973). Themes of the original Bells are taken and then completely re-composed and played with mostly new instruments. The result is an album that has same kind of thematic variation but is still new musically. Some themes can be seen as variations of themes taken from the original Bells, while some other parts of Tubular Bells II do not have much common with the themes of the original album except their overall mood or feeling.

Unlike Tubular Bells there is a recurring theme, first appearing at the end of "Sentinel" that reappears throughout the album, though it is most obvious at the end of "The Bell". Also unlike the original ending coda, "The Sailor's Hornpipe", "Moonshine" is an original composition by Oldfield.

In 1998 another sequel followed, Tubular Bells III, and in 2003 Oldfield recorded a new version of the original Tubular Bells, as Tubular Bells 2003.

Master of Ceremonies

The introduction of the instruments at the end of the first half of the album was done by British actor Alan Rickman, although his role was credited merely to "a strolling player" because the voice had not been picked when the artwork was produced. The Master of Ceremonies at the premiere concert in Edinburgh was John Gordon Sinclair.

On alternative mixes of "The Bell" released as single B-sides, Billy Connolly and Vivian Stanshall (the voice in the original Tubular Bells) each played the Master of Ceremonies. On two alternative language B-sides of "The Bell", MC Otto and MC Carlos Finally played the Master of Ceremonies in German and Spanish respectively.

Track titles

Some of the track titles for the album were taken from Arthur C. Clarke's short stories, including "The Sentinel" and "Sunjammer". Other track titles could just be references to science-fiction or space in general, such as "Dark Star" and "Weightless". Dark Star is also the title of a sci-fi film by John Carpenter which was released in the same year as the original Tubular Bells, 1973.

Oldfield has occasionally called some of the tracks on the album by different names in interviews, such as once when he performed "Red Dawn" on BBC Radio 2 he called it "Russian". The title "Russian" was also later given to the equivalent piece on the re-recorded version of the original Tubular Bells, Tubular Bells 2003.

Album artwork

Tubular Bells II again uses the bent metallic tube (representing a bent tubular bell) as the focus of the album artwork. The bell is a golden colour on a dark blue background as opposed to Tubular Bells' grey/silver bell on top of a sea/skyscape. Both the photos for Tubular Bells and Tubular Bells II were produced by Trevor Key.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Critical reception to the album was mixed, although the album reached number 1 in the album charts in a number of countries.^[2][3] Writing in Q magazine, Mat Snow described it as a "more consistent but less tune-happy musical sequence than TBI" and praised "producer Trevor Horn's fairy dust" as an advantage.^[4]

Chart performance

Chart (1992)	Position
UK Albums Chart	1
Spain	1 [5]

Live concerts

The album was premiered with a live performance on the esplanade at Edinburgh Castle on 4 September 1992 with John Gordon Sinclair as Master of Ceremonies.^[6] The North American premiere was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City on 1 March 1993; a world tour then followed. Following this Oldfield did not perform live in concert for nearly five years, until the premiere of Tubular Bells III in 1998 and then his Then & Now Tour in 1999.^[7]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Mike Oldfield.

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Sentinel"	8:07
2.	"Dark Star"	2:16
3.	"Clear Light"	5:48
4.	"Blue Saloon"	2:59
5.	"Sunjammer"	2:32
6.	"Red Dawn"	1:50
7.	"The Bell"	6:59

Side two
No.	Title	Length
8.	"Weightless"	5:43
9.	"The Great Plain"	4:47
10.	"Sunset Door"	2:23
11.	"Tattoo"	4:15
12.	"Altered State"	5:12
13.	"Maya Gold"	4:01
14.	"Moonshine"	1:42

Personnel

• Mike Oldfield – acoustic guitars, banjo, classical guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, flamenco guitar, glockenspiel, Lowrey organ, Hammond organ, Farfisa organ, mandolin, percussion, piano, synthesisers, timpani, twelve-string guitar, vocals, tubular bells
• Alan Rickman (credited as "A Strolling Player") – Master of Ceremonies
• Sally Bradshaw – vocals
• Celtic Bevy Band – bagpipes
• Eric Caudieux – programming and digital sounds
• Edie Lehmann – vocals
• Susannah Melvoin – vocals
• Jamie Muhoberac – keyboards, special effects
• Steve Payne – Bass Guitar
• Pipers from the New York Police Department (credited as P.D. Scots Pipe Band to avoid controversy following the 1992 Los Angeles riots)^[8] – bagpipes
• John Robinson – drums on "Altered State"

Instruments

Instruments on the album include, among others:

• Fender Stratocaster guitar (pink)
• Fender Stratocaster guitar (sunburst)
• PRS Custom Artist (amber)
• Korg M1 synthesizer
• Ensoniq SD1 synthesizer
• Kurzweil K2000 synthesizer
• Eventide H3000 harmonizer
• Premier tubular bells
• Wal Midibass
• Violin in "Moonshine"
• Farfisa organ in "Sentinel", "Dark Star", "The Bell" and "The Great Plain"
• Hammond organ in "Clear Light", "Maya Gold", "Altered State" and "Tattoo".
• Lowrey organ in "Sunset Door" and "Tattoo"

References

1. Tubular Bells II at AllMusic
2. "Tubular Bells II Review". Melody Maker. 19 September 1992. Retrieved 25 September 2013. As follow-ups go, it's probably safe to remark that this does not rank alongside Godfather II, French Connection II, or even, God help us, Exorcist II - The Heretic. In short, it's appalling.
3. "Tubular Bells 2 Review". Keyboards Magazine. January 1993. Retrieved 25 September 2013. Much of TB2 is glorious, even by comparison to TB1.
4. "Tubular Bells II Review". Q. September 1992. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
5. Diego Manrique (1992). "Mike Oldfield has regained his balance back". MAN "El Hombre". Retrieved 25 September 2013.
6. "Tourography 1990". The Official Mike Oldfield Information Service. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
7. "Mike Oldfield Tours". Tubular.net. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
8. "Notes on the Musicians". Mike Oldfield. Retrieved 30 January 2012.

External links

• Mike Oldfield Discography – Tubular Bells II at Tubular.net