Chris Dewey, Markus Reuter, and Anil Prasad are back with a new roundtable discussion about Return to Ommadawn. They discuss the making of it, the reception it received, why it's an appropriate bookend for Mike's career, and much more. They also explore the Tubular Bells IV demo. Hope you enjoy it! View at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U42moBW60wY

COMING SOON: MIKE OLDFIELD REISSUES

NEW: Live at Knebworth 1980

CD and Black Vinyl Limited Edition. Available to pre-order from Music Glue: https://www.musicglue.com/bespoke-editions/products/mike-oldfield-knebworth-80-the-complete-broadcast-2

NEW: Guitars CD Reissue

Music on CD are re-releasing Guitars. Pre-order from Music on CD: https://musiconcd.eu/product/mike-oldfield-guitars

COMING SOON: TRIBUTE GIGS

Mike has fully retired in the Bahamas, but you can still see very talented tribute acts playing incredible live gigs featuring his music.

LIVE: Tubular Bells Live (UK)

Phil Toms and his 10-piece tribute ensemble are touring again. Tickets from https://www.tubularbellslive.com/

LIVE: The Best of Tubular Bells I, II & III (UK & Europe)

Brought to you by Robin Smith and his tribute band. Tickets from https://www.mikeoldfieldofficial.com/tour/

LIVE: Opus One with Maggie Reilly and Anna Luna (Spain)

Brought to you by Xavier Alern and his tribute band. Tickets from https://www.opusone.cat/es/maggie-reilly-anna-luna-opus-one1

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of this much loved Mike Oldfield LP, a personal favourite of the artist, a double LP edition, half-speed mastered by Miles Showell is being released.

Originally presented as a sixty-minute suite of music, split into two halves on single vinyl, here, with approval of Mike, Universal have divided the album into four 15 minute edits, in order to optimise audio fidelity, with expanded artwork. Mike again plays almost everything on the album, including “long thin metallic hanging tubes” as listed on the sleeve; a punning reference, of course, to ‘Tubular Bells’.

Amarok: Half-Speed Master Vinyl 2LP - Mike Oldfield

Virgin Orbit are now moving on from their “Launch Demo” program into commercial flights with new mission names. The very first Virgin Orbit commercial flight has been named “Tubular Bells, Part One.”

"Like Tubular Bells, our customers are doing something a little out of the ordinary for our space industry — and we so love their work that we’ve created a whole new way to launch that is tailored just for them.

The first track on the first side of the first album from the first band ever signed to Virgin Records. What a way to kick off our commercial service!"

We are sure you'll agree this is a real honour for Mike and Tubular Bells! Read the full press release from Virgin.

The next printed issue of Dark Star Mike Oldfield magazine will be published in April. If you haven't already subscribed, you can pre-order a single copy for £2.99.

Dark Star has sourced many rare and collectable items over the years. We are now releasing some of these for sale in our new collectables shop - keep checking back for new items which will continue to be added! Visit the collectable store now!

The Making of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells book is to be re-released on 26th March, but this time in paperback format.

We've taken a first look at the new edition, which is larger than the original hardback. The book is illustrated with atmospheric landscape photographs by Fran May to represent the mythological forces of nature and emotional content perceived in the music.

Other than a new prologue which mainly adds an introduction to Fran May, the text remains unchanged. Many of the original photos have however been replaced with excellent but unrelated landscape photos, so only 16 of the original 27 Oldfield and Manor related photos are present. As the dimensions of the attractive paperback are larger, the photos are bigger and sometimes clearer.

Possibly the most notable exclusion in the new edition is the Manor promotional gatefold, which was beautifully reproduced in the hardback.

The new edition does look stunning, but unfortunately misses some of the original content without adding anything of specific interest to fans of Mike Oldfield or Tubular Bells.

• Pre-order the new paperback for £20 from Amazon
• Or, the original hardback is still available for £14.99 direct from us at Dark Star

The new acoustic Mike Oldfield album "Return to Ommadawn" will be released on 20th January, 2017, available on CD and vinyl, with a DVD option as well • Part One (21:10) • Part Two (20:56) • Listen to an excerpt from BBC Radio 2's Steve Wright Show (skip to 2:10 into the show) and a great interview from BBC Radio 6's Shaun Keavey Show (skip to 1:43). Read a great new interview with Team Rock. View a great new interview from Sony Xperia. Please do sign up to our Newswire email update service via our website to be kept fully up to date.

If you'd like to pre-order Return to Ommadawn, ordering through one of the links below will help support the cost of running this service: