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Mike Oldfield’s iconic magnum opus, Tubular Bells, will be performed live at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London this summer, in a season of unique performances that are a prelude to the celebration of the masterpiece’s 50th anniversary in 2023.
Starting August 7th through to August 15th, Tubular Bells – Live In Concert, will feature musical direction from Oldfield’s long-time collaborator Robin A. Smith, with the album performed by an expansive live group. The show will be fully seated.
Robin A. Smith has collaborated with Mike Oldfield for three decades including the iconic performances of Tubular Bells at Edinburgh Castle in 1992, and at the 2012 London Olympic Opening Ceremony.
The music will also be brought to life with a visual interpretation by the world-renowned Circa Contemporary Circus, who, led by Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz, have previously animated works by some of the most well-known composers in history including Stravinsky and Mozart, with their intricately woven acrobatics. A bold new scenic design will be created for the production by William Reynolds.
On the special season at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Mike Oldfield reflects:
“It’s amazing to think that it’s 50 years since I started writing Tubular Bells, and I am touched that my music has reached so many people, all over the world, during that time.
I have worked with Robin A Smith for almost 30 years, since we presented Tubular Bells together at Edinburgh Castle, through lots of different performances and recordings culminating in the London Olympics in 2012. When I started thinking about reinventing Tubular Bells for live performance with dancers and acrobats—and of course live music, it was Robin who I knew could realise this vision. I am thrilled that this is finally coming to the stage and I trust no-one more to reimagine my work in this way.
I am sure that the 50th anniversary live concert experience of Tubular Bells will be spectacular, theatrical, fantastical and thrilling. I’m so excited it is premiering in 2021, marking 50 years from when I started writing the music and will be touring the world through to 2023, the 50th anniversary of the original album release”.
Robin A. Smith says, “I have been talking to Mike for years about re-inventing Tubular Bells with dramatic visual performance.
It was 2014 when I first put the idea to him, and he loved it from the start. We’d worked together with Danny Boyle on the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony and well understand how Tubular Bells can work in a theatrical and dramatic setting.
It’s very important to always focus on the essence, the very heart of the work and it’s been another wonderful challenge to visualise this with Mike and see Tubular Bells emerge as a powerhouse of a show bursting with energy and magic with the soul of the music perfectly intact.”
Yaron Lifschitz adds, “Like everyone else, I grew up listening to Tubular Bells. It is a unicorn – a truly unique and singular experience whose impact seems improbable, even magical. So, I was thrilled to be challenged with finding a way to bring it to the stage.
I want to celebrate its epic yet intimate sonic universe with the power and majesty of acrobatics. It will be a show that explosively combines raw energy and hypnotic beauty, that is visceral, grungy, glamourous and ultimately transcendental.
I love the theatre of plugging an instrument in, seeing it filmed live and projected on a huge screen, meeting an acrobatic body that starts to tumble and balance and as more instruments join, more bodies connect in more intricate and complex ways.
From the simplest of ingredients, driven by Mike Oldfield’s music, a thrilling world will emerge.”
Tubular Bells was the debut studio album by English multi-instrumentalist, composer and songwriter Mike Oldfield conceived in 1971 and finally released in 1973. Oldfield who was just 17 years old when he started composing the music, recorded and played almost all of the instruments on the album. It gained worldwide acclaim when the opening theme was used for the soundtrack of the horror film, The Exorcist.
A bold and progressive fusion, Tubular Bells is a journey through classical, jazz, folk, prog rock and electronica, which has sold over 15 million copies worldwide, and won the GRAMMY for Best Instrumental Composition in 1974.
As a testament to its lasting and influential impact, the recording was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2018.
In 1973, the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall also hosted the first ever live performance of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells.
MIKE OLDFIELD’S TUBULAR BELLS LIVE IN CONCERT – THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY EXPERIENCE
August 7th – 15th 2021
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London
Tickets available at ticketmaster.co.uk / southbankcentre.co.uk
Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells Live In Concert is presented by Fiery Angel Entertainment and Senbla.
Creative Team
Mike Oldfield – Composer
Mike Oldfield is a British multi-instrumentalist and composer, whose diverse and inclusive style blends progressive rock with folk, world, classical and electronic musics. Since his breakthrough album Tubular Bells (1973), which also launched Virgin Records, Oldfield has released around more than 30 albums of new material. Mike has now retired from public performance but has given his blessing and support to this 50th-anniversary re-imagining of Tubular Bells.
Robin A Smith – Arranger and Musical Director
Robin A Smith is an award-winning conductor and composer whose diverse collaborations include arranging and conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on three best-selling Elvis Presley albums, contributing to Kanye West’s orchestral project, and arranging for everyone from Elaine Paige to 2Cellos. He conducted Tubular Bells II – Live at Edinburgh Castle in 1992 and has since been closely associated with Mike Oldfield, including musical directing the performance of Tubular Bells as part of Danny Boyle’s Opening Ceremony to the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Yaron Lifschitz – Director and Choreographer
Yaron Lifschitz has directed over 60 productions including large-scale events, opera, theatre, physical theatre and circus. His work has been seen in over 40 countries and across six continents, and his productions have been presented at major festivals and venues around the world including Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Barbican, Les Nuits de Fourvière, Chamäleon and all the major Australian festivals.
William Reynolds – Lighting and Projection Designer
William Reynolds is Co-Artistic Director of Metta Theatre (for whom he has designed and lit over 30 productions) and Resident Designer for Aurora Orchestra. His set, lighting and projection designs have been seen on stages and in settings as diverse as Aldeburgh Festival, the Barbican Theatre, Sadler’s Wells, Theatre Royal Bath and the Palestinian National Theatre. Most recently for Fiery Angel Entertainment, William was designer for Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret in the Barbican Theatre.
Circa Contemporary Circus – Ensemble
Circa Contemporary Circus is one of the world’s leading performance companies and is at the forefront of the new wave of contemporary Australian circus, pioneering how extreme physicality can create powerful and moving performances. It continues to push the boundaries of the art form, blurring the lines between movement, dance, theatre and circus.
Producers
Fiery Angel Entertainment
Fiery Angel Entertainment was established in 2017 to develop concert and special event presentation in the UK and internationally. With Fiery Angel’s Edward Snape as Executive Producer, and led by Michael Stevens, Fiery Angel Entertainment’s productions include Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret in the Barbican Theatre, Our Finest Hour – Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain at concert venues around the UK, and Guys and Dolls at the Royal Albert Hall, all in 2018. Also in 2018 Fiery Angel Entertainment produced the European première season of Circus 1903 at the Royal Festival Hall, returning in 2019 for another Christmas season at Southbank Centre as well as touring to Birmingham, Salford and Dublin. Other recent productions have included the world premiere of Peppa Pig – My First Concert in the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of Southbank Centre’s Imagine Children’s Festival with subsequent performances around the UK (including Royal Festival Hall and Snape Maltings), and Rob Brydon – Songs and Stories in venues around the UK, with a further 50 touring dates scheduled for 2021.
Senbla
Founded by Ollie Rosenblatt, Senbla is a London-based concert promoting and production company that operates both nationally and internationally.
Senbla works across multiple forms of live entertainment from artist touring, one off specially produced shows, outdoor concerts, family entertainment, sport, theatre, experiential.
In the artist touring and outdoor concerts world they work and have worked with Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Michael Buble, Burt Bacharach, Ennio Morricone, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Soft Cell, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Paul Weller, Joss Stone, Itzhak Perlman, Marc Almond, Jack Savoretti amongst others. Senbla is also notable for promoting and producing one of special concerts that have also gone onto be broadcasted on BBC TV and Radio. These include the A Life in Song concerts with Quincy Jones, Tim Rice, Don Black and Burt Bacharach.
Senbla were the pioneers of promoting the ‘films in concert’ shows touring The Harry Potter and Star Wars film with live orchestra franchises extensively throughout the UK as well as Beauty and The Beast, La La Land, Love Actually (UK and Australia), The Godfather. Most recently they have produced for the world ‘Joker’ the film with live orchestra, in Concert of which Senbla is also promoting through various international territories.
Senbla also works in the family entertainment space as a co-producer on the hit show ‘Circus 1903’ that has run consecutive years at the Royal Festival Hall and has co-produced various musicals as well as investing in musicals and theatre.
In July 2019 Sony Music acquired a majority stake in Senbla.
In 2020 Senbla expanded it’s offering and now owns two music festival Strawberries and Creem and The Cambridge Club as well as acquiring businesses in the experiential space, sports, family entertainment and theatre both in the UK and the US
About the Southbank Centre
The Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre and one of the UK’s top five visitor attractions, occupying a prominent riverside location that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day.
The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. The Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to four Resident Orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and four Associate Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain).
