Gopass Arena, Bratislava, Slovakia
Wednesday, 26th March 2025
It began with a friend of mine showing me a poster of Tubular Bells playing in his hometown of Bratislava. I initially thought nothing of it, as I had seen many other posters of various groups playing Mike Oldfield’s beloved long-form opus. Nevertheless, a quick Google showed that this was no meagre presentation; since it was on Mike Oldfield’s official website, I initially presumed the man himself would be performing too, and I got overexcited and began to plan my trip.
My hype was incredibly short-lived as I soon read between the lines and figured out that Oldfield was still enjoying his retirement in the Bahamas (to the best of my knowledge, anyway). Still, I had been wanting to visit my friend for a while, and this concert and the promise of warm, savoury bryndzové halušky seemed like the perfect excuse to do just that.
After a seven-hour bus trip and a whistle-stop tour of the city’s highlights, we arrived at the Gopass Arena with its distinctive parabolic ceiling, roughly in the shape of a pringle. On the stage was a vast array of instruments, including two full percussion sets with kettle drums, a gong, bar chimes, vibraslap and a full rock drum kit sheltered behind perspex. Surrounding two central chairs were several guitars and a mandolin, while a piano with a rack of keyboards stood stage right. Nearby sat a bass guitar, while an electric cello waited on the opposite side.
The room darkened, and the audience cheered as Robin A. Smith and his troupe of much younger musicians entered the stage. While there were a few younger audience members, the main demographic seemed to be people who were alive when Tubular Bells debuted in 1973. I had presumed the first half would be chock-full of Oldfield’s biggest hits, but instead, we were first treated to a soft instrumental medley that incorporated themes from across the decades. I wasn’t even familiar with some of these themes; my knowledge of Oldfield’s work only stretches as far as 1983’s Crises, although I had listened to To France from the following year in preparation for this concert. It’s a good thing too, as it was chosen as the song to end this medley and was sung beautifully by Lisa Featherston; she moved to bass directly afterwards, and the rest of the vocals that evening were performed by the equally talented Daisy Bevan. The only other theme from the medley I was familiar with was from Ommadawn; most will remember the heartfelt section from the studio version played on the uilleann pipes. Those pipes weren’t available to the performers on this evening, but the theme had a different sort of resonance when played on the guitar by long-haired Rubin Alvarez, who I understand was taking over the duties from Jay Stapley.
After another unfamiliar, but serene track – Women of Ireland from Oldfield’s 1996 album Voyager – the band had the audience clapping along to arguably his biggest hit, Moonlight Shadow. Before I even knew who Mike Oldfield was, I knew this as the song that introduced Dave Angel, eco warrior on The Fast Show, and it was a bit of an in-joke in our family. I particularly gravitated to the tautologous lyric “4 am in the morning,” and noted that a lot of the lyrics in Oldfield’s songs were either dumb or cheesy but nevertheless sounded good in a pop format.
After this, it was back to instrumental brilliance with another unfamiliar track: Far Above the Clouds, which originally closed 1998’s Tubular Bells III. This hard-rocking track was perhaps the most powerful part of the first half, featuring a propulsive rhythm on the drum kit and the first instance of the tubular bells being played in the set, their distinctive clang ringing out clearly in the perfect sound mix. A softer middle section took away some of the energy, but the band had managed to recapture the magic by the end.
Before closing the set, it was time for a Robin A. Smith original, The Gem, whose studio version clocks in at 16 minutes. This was a very decent track indeed, with simple explorative themes that fit well in the context of a Mike Oldfield concert. It didn’t quite have the superlative quality of an Oldfield piece, but that’s not to say it wasn’t worthwhile.
Before the break, an exuberant Mr. Smith approached the microphone for the first time that evening and attempted to say some Slovakian words that were written on a paper he was holding. The audience laughed and appreciated his enthusiasm. He expressed how grateful he was to be able to play music in this beautiful country before announcing the intermission.
Afterwards, it was time for the main event. An orchestral swell served as an intro before Smith dutifully tapped out the memorable main theme on the piano, causing a fervor of applause from the audience. I was a little nervous that this ‘reimagined’ version would differ too greatly from the original or miss sections that would have been impossible to reproduce live. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case at all; Smith’s changes to the original were mainly swapping the melody from one instrument to another so that the full band could be best utilised. For example, there’s precious little percussion or vocals on the original Tubular Bells, but I was pleased with how tastefully these new parts accentuated the piece. As a drummer, I’ve often made it an exercise to create my own parts to the original, and it was interesting to contrast what I would perceive as best fitting with Smith’s vision.
However, I was most impressed when the band were able to recreate the sound of the original album perfectly, right down to the timbre of the instruments. A lot of Tubular Bells features double-tracked guitars, so having two guitarists on stage play the same parts together gave the piece an authentic feel. In particular, the section known as Blues on Tubular Bells 2003 sounded utterly pitch-perfect, and I frantically looked around the stage to see who was providing the bass sound. It turned out not to be the bassist, but the cellist, playing a low note. I had never considered what made that sound on the original album, and it was very cool to match the sound with the instrument whilst watching live.
As the two guitarists duelled and took turns in sharing the spotlight, it was hard not to feel more of an affinity for one than the other, as illogical as that sounds. The long-haired guy, while a talented musician, gave an air of foppish nonchalance and distinctly reminded me of a pretentious guitarist I knew at university. Meanwhile, the other guitarist (who also played the mandolin) had the look of an introvert, an underdog, and I internally cheered whenever it was his turn to shine. I checked with my friend after the show and he felt the same. It’s funny how we humans narrativise some things, isn’t it?
As the final ten minutes of Part 1 began, both guitarist and bassist started the repetitive theme that would carry through this famous section. The bassist had not been playing particularly technically up until now, but at this point we noticed she was picking the individual notes just like the guitarist. Respect.
I wondered how they would do the final section where the instruments were announced and was pleasantly surprised to hear Vivian Stanshall’s voice played over the speaker. And to my amazement, they matched all the listed instruments, although they synthesised the reed and pipe organ. After each announcement, the spotlight turned to that musician. When ‘glockenspiel’ was announced, I was amazed at how clearly I could hear and see the glockenspiel being played, and realised that the sound mixer was doing an incredible job to highlight the instruments in real time. It really made the experience come to life.
“Plus… tubular bells!” The ringing of those bells, even though we’d heard them before, felt almost life-affirming. After a minute or two more with the full band, the suite finished with the quiet guitar outro, played by the introvert. The arena was deadly quiet, all of us willing him to nail that ending. And as soon as we did, the audience erupted with applause and cheers.
Really, it would be impossible to follow anything as good as that. The prospect of now having to sit through Part 2 was a let down as it simply couldn’t match what came before. It’s not the band’s fault, of course, that Oldfield wrote such a lop-sided record.
Nevertheless, the band did manage to surprise us. While the reimagining of Part 1 stayed fairly close to the original, composer Smith had changed much of the structure of Part 2 so that it flowed more loosely while still being recognisable. I often complain that this side is too repetitive compared to the first side, but Smith actually lent into that repetitiveness, making it even longer and more hypnotic. I have to say, I liked it.
The part that the band stuck closest to (and which would have been difficult to alter significantly) was the caveman rock section. To my dismay, the group did not perform the original grunts in any way. I might have heard something being played in tape form, but it was too quiet for me to be sure if the grunts were really being played. A shame because they add so much personality to the piece. Nevertheless, I was impressed to watch both guitarists play the full five-minute guitar solo accurately, bringing the house down as they did.
In the final ambient part of the song, I could have sworn that Smith changed the arrangement once again as it did not sound very familiar. But I was gutted when the band closed on the final heavenly chords, signalling the end of the concert. Something was missing … and that something was the Sailor’s Hornpipe.
Robin Smith introduced the band, credited Mike Oldfield himself and thanked the audience for being wonderful. I clapped with everyone else because but I wasn’t satisfied. Thankfully, the group returned for an encore where they did indeed play the Sailor’s Hornpipe. Initially they toyed with the audience by playing it extremely slow, and pausing between beats to see who was paying attention when clapping to the rhythm. But soon they sped up, and played even faster than the studio version in this rewarding climax to the evening.
As everyone shuffled out, I spotted a desk with merch, and saw Robin walking over to it. I thanked him, “Well done, great concert,” to which he replied, “Well, what a lovely audience!” before moving off to start signing merch for fans. It was special just to share that moment with him.
What I’d learned is that staging a performance of Tubular Bells is no easy task, especially when you only have eight musicians on stage. With nearly everyone multi-tasking, however, they brought it together, making the experience a memorable one. Even without Oldfield himself present, it was a fantastic evening.
SETLIST
1st Half
Medley:
a) Tubular Bells 2
b) Ommadawn
c) Return to Ommadawn
d) To France
Women of Ireland
Moonlight Shadow
Far Above the Clouds
The Gem
2nd Half
Tubular Bells (Part 1 and 2)
~ Encore:
Sailor’s Hornpipe
MUSICIANS
Robin A. Smith – Piano, Keys, MD
Maxime Raguideau-Obadia – Guitars, Mandolin
Lisa Featherston – Bass, Vocals
Rubin Alvarez – Guitars
Daisy Bevan – Vocals
Kwesi Edman – Cello
Jack Davis – Percussion
Will Miles – Percussion
LINKS
Robin A. Smith – Website | Facebook | YouTube | X | Instagram
