Have instruments, will travel on an exhilarating journey
details and bringing them into the performance – and it was quite rough. But the audience were really willing us on and they’d actually laugh when we got through a tricky change-over successfully, although the sight of two agitated musicians struggling with more than 20 instruments and feverishly layering passages through loop pedals in real time was probably quite funny in itself.”
From the start, the boys were keen to capture not just the phrases Oldfield played but also the timbre of the instruments. Having played in bands since their teens and having released several albums, both with bands and solo, they’re fairly resourceful musicians. Neither, however, plays flute but they were able to replicate the sound on a keyboard and the more they dug into the original recording, the more detail they realised they were going to have to take into account.
“Because it had been such a favourite with my parents, we were very aware that we were in
We’re still refining the music; we keep discovering small details and bringing them into the performance
danger of treading on peoples’ feelings,” says Roberts. “So we wanted to get as close to the original as possible. There’s no official score as such and that meant that we had to kind of map out what happened when and we had to figure out how we were going to change instruments at specific points. It was a lot of work but the response we got on that first performance made us think that maybe we could take this a bit further.”
Subsequent performances, including sold-out seasons at the Sydney Festival, Sydney Fringe Festival and the New Zealand International Arts Festival, convinced them that they had a special show on their hands. Even so, coming to Edinburgh for the Fringe was a big adventure that could have gone disastrously wrong. Instead, with a little help from a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel, the experience has opened the doors to Europe.
“People had thought from the start that we might be having a laugh at Mike Oldfield’s expense,” says Holdsworth. “And in Edinburgh, where there’s a lot of comedy shows, I think there was a danger that we might be mistaken for a spoof. The audiences were great, though, and we got really good reviews.”
The pair haven’t actually consulted Oldfield, although they secured the necessary permission from his publishers, but following their Edinburgh run they discovered an interview in a magazine where the composer had been asked if he’d heard about these two Australians who were performing Tubular Bells.
“He said he thought this was ‘really cool’. That’s only two words but we’ll take it as an official endorsement,” says Roberts.
“We never expected to be appearing in London right around the time of the 40th anniversary of the album’s release and the original Tubular Bells live concert. But we’re really pleased that we can be a small part of that celebration. I can’t think of many better jobs than touring around Europe playing music that you love – even if it is quite hard work.”
“Yeah,” agrees Holdsworth. “Even after more than 100 performances, we can’t ever get complacent. But when we reach the part on side two of the original album where we have the Piltdown man chant and I get to sit behind the drums and rock out for a bit, that’s a great feeling because we’ve almost made it to the end again and I can relax just a little bit.”