Tubular Bells

[m0cemdave]

Originally Posted by bluepilot

They claimed to be the cheapest but often Virgin had brand new copies of the same records for only 1p more.

Yes, but Virgin were running an import duty / tax scam that kept their costs down (until it was discovered, after which it was only the old school tie that saved RB from doing time...)

[Richard_FM]

Another early Virgin shop was in Portsmouth's Tricorn Centre, possibly the first Megastore.

[Reelman]

We had a Virgin shop in the City Arcade in Coventry during the early 70s, didn’t last very long though. I do remember the newspaper sized price lists covering all their stock and printed on one of them was “coffee and cake - discontinued”. Wish I’d kept one. After that it was back to buying at either Smiths or Boots...

Peter

[Julesomega]

Originally Posted by cliff2903

He put on Tubular Bells (as it was handy) as a sound source, and purely by coincidence he suddenly could detect a rather regular frequency signature. He was able to work out it was the Morse coded ID for Rugby - VVV GBR.

These transmissions were not of course put on the recordings deliberately, far from it, the answer lies in Rugby's powerful transmissions being picked up on sensitive studio recording equipment.

GBR 16kHz put out an impressive groundwave - I remember on a brief tour of duty to the Bressay TV/FM tx when the landlines had just been destroyed by a lightning strike because of the volcanic soil of the island (TV was fed by a microwave link from Fair Isle). The GPO had run temporary lines across the grass to replace the three mono radio feeds which were picked up at a receiving site in the south island at Sumburgh Head and carried by landlines. I could easily hear the periodic Morse broadcasts

[paulsherwin]

I've just been listening to TB from a CD reissue. It really is an example of a perfect production from the era of analogue recording. The contribution of Mike Oldfield is almost irrelevant. It's amazing that the gear was archaic in 1973.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Martin Bush

I will have to dig my LP out now it's been mentioned.

There's a bassline on there that is a ****** to play and, for some reason Mike Oldfield chose to play it live and regretted it. I wonder if it was looped on the record?

He must have regretted recording the Blue Peter theme "live", the tempo was all over the place and made me cringe every time I heard it.
Worse (in that respect) than Jona Lewie - Stop The Cavalry which also has a tempo issue. Maybe I've got sensitive ears, I am not a musician.

Anyway, my TB LP was a gift from one of my first girlfriends, It was my "go to" music source for testing tape recorders and amps etc. particularly the first quiet bit with the loud crescendos, It really showed up the crude AGC compression on cassette recorders as it would the heavy Optimod on "Smooth FM" et al., if it was on their playlist.

[Radio Wrangler]

Originally Posted by rambo1152

It really showed up the crude AGC compression on cassette recorders as it would the heavy Optimod on "Smooth FM" et al., if it was on their playlist.

If we flip cause and effect....

I wonder if you've found the reason behind a number of station's playlists? They've had to restrict their output to the few records which are least badly mangled by their processing?

It's bad enough that everything not on radio 3 is selected with a 3 minute max runtime. Simon Mayo used to make a thing of long tracks though.

David

[Craig Sawyers]

Whatever happened to the days of Bohemian Rhapsody (5m55s) and O Superman (8m21s), both of which got to the top two in the charts. Now it is three compressed dynamic range minutes.

Bah humbug

[Ted Kendall]

Duration is not the only arbiter of quality, though. Most of the classic 60s singles run to three minutes or less, and the exceptions can probably be counted on the fingers of two hands. For instance, Tom Jones' It's not unusual runs to 2'17", if memory serves.

It is arguable that the three-minute-plus-a-gnat's limit on 10" 78 sides improved the breed as far as jazz was concerned - generally, a soloist had one chorus to get in, make his point and get out - one famous session from 1937 featured Django Reinhardt, Coleman Hawkins, Alex Combelle, Andre Ekyan and Benny Carter, and they all managed to have their say in the course of a single side. Once tape and the LP came in, one performance could, and not infrequently did, occupy a whole LP side, not always to its benefit.

Ken Bruce still manages to fit long stuff in after Popmaster, so maybe all is not lost...

[Max Ripple]

I remember the original Virgin Records shop in Birmingham. It was at the top of Corporation Street,and a "mecca" of music. It always seemed to be busy and had comfy (aircraft?)seating for listening before purchase. The staff were very knowlegable but aloof.

The auditioning equipment both for playing as background music in the shop and also pre-sales listening, was a bank of Quad 2 valve systems.They didn't need any extra heating behind the counter!! I think the decks were Garrard 401's too.

It's all a bit hazy now as the atmosphere was probably "chemically enhanced"?

Happy days indeed!

Nick

[Craig Sawyers]

We're kind of deviating, but we are restricting track length to pop and rock music. Classical has always taken at least one side of a (modern vinyl) record. And the whole Red Book CD standard had the requirement to fit Beethoven 9 on a single CD.

Not counting 78s, where the extreme example of the 13 hour Wagner Ring Cycle took 80 shellacs (160 x 5minutes).

Craig

[Craig Sawyers]

And firmly back to Tubular Bells. I can't recall whether I have the record (must look), but will certainly add it to my Tidal albums and listen to it again.

Craig

What are "Tidal albums" ??

[barretter]

Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers

We're kind of deviating, but we are restricting track length to pop and rock music. Classical has always taken at least one side of a (modern vinyl) record. And the whole Red Book CD standard had the requirement to fit Beethoven 9 on a single CD.

Not counting 78s, where the extreme example of the 13 hour Wagner Ring Cycle took 80 shellacs (160 x 5minutes).

Craig

Not quite sure what you mean there. Classical music can be any length - you can get quite a few Schubert songs on one side of an LP.

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

What are "Tidal albums" ??

https://tidal.com/

[ColinTheAmpMan1]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Was TB ever released as a mono pressing?

Probably not. My vinyl copy of TB (I also have a CD) is stereo and was purchased fairly early. Incidentally, the ID number is V2001 and the date is 1973. It has a caveat on the back of the sleeve that says:
"In Glorious Stereophonic Sound. Can also be played on mono equipment at a pinch".
I might point out that the "Sound" credits are Tom Newman, Simon Heyworth and Mike Oldfield, so Mike Oldfield's contribution wasn't just the musicianship, I don't think.

For comparison, "The Faust Tapes" has the ID number VC501 and the date was also 1973.

Colin.

[Ted Kendall]

UK LP catalogues were single inventory from about 1969 - at least, that was when Woolworth's unloaded their entire mono stock at silly prices and Beatles albums were released only in stereo (Abbey Road, Let It Be). When I started selling records in 1974, I think there was one HMV ALP issue (full price mono) - The Best of Gigli. The initial issue of Tubular Bells was stereo only.

[Richard_FM]

For some reason Zed Zeppelin's self titled debut album was released in New Zealand in mono, but almost no-where else, according to Tony Rees in the Vox Record Hunter.

[barrymagrec]

Originally Posted by Ted Kendall

When I started selling records in 1974, I think there was one HMV ALP issue (full price mono) - The Best of Gigli. The initial issue of Tubular Bells was stereo only.

I`ve got that, ALP1681 (inherited).....

[Craig Sawyers]

Originally Posted by barretter

Not quite sure what you mean there. Classical music can be any length - you can get quite a few Schubert songs on one side of an LP.

Well yes, of course there are many particular pieces of classical music that fit on a single side of an LP 12" 33 1/3 rpm record.

But clearly classical music cannot be any length, since that is bounded by the heat death of the universe in 10^50 years

Every single piece of classical music in all performance interpretations, from the date of composing to the current time is a finite, and probably quite small (depending how "small" is defined) number.

Craig