My Seventies Music

Tag: Englishman

  • Mike Oldfield – “Tubular Bells”

    Cover of "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield (1973)

    Englishman Mike Oldfield released “Tubular Bells” in 1973 – the album was the first venture of Richard Branson’s new record label Virgin Records.

    The instrumental achieved particular fame when it was used as the theme of the movie “The Exorcist”.

    The album “Tubular Bells”, on which Mike Oldfield played over twenty different instruments, quickly entered the Top Ten of the UK album chart.

    It’s follow-up, “Hergest Ridge” (of which I have a copy), went to No. 1 for three weeks, before it was displaced by “Tubular Bells”.

    “Tubular Bells” was re-recorded by Oldfield, in 1992, 1998 and again in 2003.

    Here is the shorter version of “Tubular Bells” used in “The Exorcist”:

    And this is one of a number of live recordings of the longer version, here divided into three parts (you’ll need a bit of patience if you want to listen to these…):

    “Tubular Bells” live, Part 1:

    “Tubular Bells” live, Part 2:

    “Tubular Bells” live, Part 3:

    If you’ve listened to all of these you’ll now likely be very relaxed….. or asleep…

    Paul

  • Gary Numan – “Cars”

    Gary Numan single "Cars" (1979)

    At the very end of the Seventies, late 1979, I remember Englishman Gary Numan singing “Cars”, from his album “The Pleasure Principle”.

    In fact, whenever I hear it or think of Gary Numan or “Cars”, it reminds me of being in not a car but a Transit van, at 4 o’clock in the morning.

    We had just finished clearing up after a dance during the student orientation I was running at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

    Together with the people helping, we had stopped off at a service station, the only place still open, to get something to eat, and I vividly remember “Cars” playing on the radio as we got out of the van.

    That was actually at the start of 1980, so obviously the song still got airplay in New Zealand for a while (it was apparently released in August 1979).

    Here’s Gary Numan in the promotional video of “Cars”:

    I don’t really remember anything else by Gary Numan, but this one has stuck in my mind.

    Paul

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