AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES
The Tubular Bells producer returns to the faerie realm with A Faerie Symphony II.
In 1977, Tubular Bells producer Tom Newman released an album that had Mike Oldfield fans scratching their heads. Faerie Symphony was an experimental dark tale that was buried by the rise of punk. Forty-four years later, he’s back with its sequel: A Faerie Symphony II. Prog catches up with him to chat about his childhood fears, how he learned to speak ‘faerie’ and his dreams of playing the two enchanted albums live.
Tom Newman blames his mother for the way the original Faerie Symphony turned out. “My mum was a wonderful Irish lady, but she was also mad,” laughs Newman. “She was a devout Catholic, but also superstitious. She believed in every piece of Irish mythology and folklore that came to her attention; mum was forever crossing herself to ward off the evil spirits that she was convinced were everywhere you looked.
“Because of this, I grew up scared of things like the faerie kingdom. My mother definitely believed they existed, and through her I felt a fear for what they could do should they wish to harm anyone.”
As a result, says Newman, that album – released in 1977 – turned out to be rather sinister in its style.
“It was conceived as being dark, as it reflected my fear of the world and the way you could be hurt by the mysterious faeries. I suppose it was also rather chaotic and probably closer to punk than I expected. Maybe that’s why it never sold very many copies. Anyone who knew of me through my work with Mike Oldfield would have obviously been confused by this album. It wasn’t what was expected from me.”
Now, more than four decades on from that album, Newman feels he’s come to terms with those fears that once haunted him and blighted his earlier life.
“I’m no longer scared of anything. Going to sea when I was very young helped me to overcome all of that. These days I don’t even get worried about dying. That’s not important to me. It’ll happen to all of us, and we should see that – when it comes – as facing the last great adventure.
“What’s important now is living. After the terrible year we’ve all had, everyone should be desperate to embrace human consciousness. Being alive… well, it is just fantastic. If there’s one thing I want to impress on those reading this it’s that the positive of living far outweighs the negative of dying. And that’s why I believe the new album is a lot calmer and more relaxed than the one I did all those years ago.”
It was a chance encounter with the man who signed him to Decca, the record label that put out Faerie Symphony, that set Newman off down the path to come up with his new album.
“I came across Frank Rodgers, who was Decca’s A&R man in the 70s and got me the recording contract, on Facebook. It was purely by accident. But this
“Anyone who knew of me through my work with Mike Oldfield would have obviously been confused by Faerie Symphony.”
got me thinking about that album again, and that led to the development of the idea for this new one. Up until chatting to Frank it never occurred to me that there was any need to do a second Faerie Symphony.”
In some ways, Newman insists this isn’t a direct successor to what he did before.
“Musically it’s very different. Nowhere near as dark as the first one. I like to see this record as being a lot more hopeful and upbeat. I didn’t set out to do a Son Of Faerie Symphony. That’s why this one isn’t called Faerie Symphony II,
“Musically it is very different. Nowhere near as dark as the first one. I like to see this record as being a lot more hopeful and upbeat.”
but A Faerie Symphony II. The addition of the indefinite article in the title is meant to point out that it is self-contained album. Mind you, the fact it has …II there as well does go slightly against this philosophy, doesn’t it? Ha!”
Current circumstances have meant that Newman was able to spend as much time as he needed working on the album.
“What else did I have to do during lockdown? I live on the Isle Of Wight and am fortunate to have a small home studio. So, I could begin work last November, and then let things run as long as was needed. I was under no pressure to get it finished.”
There are a number of guests here too. One notable musician is Jon Field of Jade Warrior, who also provides a connection to Faerie Symphony, having played the flute on both.
“I’ve a confession to make: Jon didn’t record anything new for this album. He’s so busy trying to get a new Jade Warrior album done – it’s only taken him 15 years so far! And he’s also a miserable old git, so I didn’t think it was worth even asking him!
“I came across a cassette, which had a piece Jon had recorded in 1977, but wasn’t used at the time. It was a flute solo in isolation, so perfect to incorporate into the new album. The annoying thing was that the last three notes were missing. But that’s where modern technology came to the rescue, and I was able to add these.”
While there are no vocals on this album, there are a few spoken parts. But readers won’t recognise the language being used, because it doesn’t officially exist.
“My partner Jennifer Banks and I created our own faerie language. And that’s what you hear her speaking on a few occasions here. It sounds quite dramatic the way that she enunciates these parts. It adds a new dimension to the music.”
There’s no storyline linking all the tracks. In fact, Newman admits that the titles given to the compositions were a last-minute addition.
“The music was all in my head, and there was no specific order to the way I recorded the tracks. It was only after everything was done that I then set about working out the sequencing for the tracks. Up until that time, I had no clue how it would fall into place. I had a load of disconnected pieces of music. As I was coming up with the final tracklisting, that’s when the inspiration happened for the titles of each composition. These just popped into my head as I was listening back to what I’d done.”
A Faerie Symphony II is released on the Tigermoth label, owned by Magenta mainman Robert Reed. It’s the latest evidence of a close relationship between him and Newman.
“Rob got me in to help with his Sanctuary
albums [the first of which was released in 2014]. Because it was something of a tribute to Mike Oldfield and Tubular Bells, he thought having me involved – as I had produced that album – would help to boost his profile. Since then, we’ve become good friends, and in some ways Rob has become a mentor to me. He plays on this album as well.”
Had things panned out the way that Newman had hoped, then A Faerie Symphony II
would’ve been a much more ambitious project.
“I wanted to do a double vinyl album. One exploring the mythology of faeries in countries all over the world. This notion took shape when Rob played me a piece of music with a Viking theme. The problem was that I soon realised I know very little about faerie myths in other countries, so this would have been very difficult to do. I ended up scrapping the idea.”
Newman has ambitions to perform both
Faerie Symphonies live in the not-toodistant future.
“I never had the chance to play the first album live. I knew few musicians who, at that time, could have successfully reproduced the music onstage. It was very raw and dark, and that was tough for anyone in my circle to get to grips with. Now, I know a lot more musicians, I’m certain I could put together an ensemble who could do justice to both albums. So once it becomes practical to book gigs again, you can be sure that I’ll be trying to do at least one show based around these symphonies. That would be a dream come true for me.”
A Faerie Symphony II is out now via Tigermoth. See www.tigermothshop.co.uk for more details.