Customer Reviews

Mike Oldfield - Live at Montreux 1981

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The last reviewer was right, this is an awe inspiring concert. Mike Oldfield is, in my opinion, the greatest musical genius of our time, and this concert captures him at his very best. The passion with which he plays is unbelievable, and brings back memories of the time I saw him in NYC on his Five Miles Out tour so many years ago. The rendition of Platinum is similiar to the one on The Complete Mike Oldfield, and is made quite amusing when the waiter brings Mike and the band some drinks during the Charleston part. But, for me, the greatest highlight is the beautiful and glorious version of Ommadawn that he performs with such passion.

I have all of the available Mike Oldfield concerts on DVD, and each is worth owning for its own reasons, but this one is the closest to my heart. It's well worth the price of admission, and if you like Mike at all, I can assure you that you won't be disappointed. Please give me more of Mike Oldfield on DVD!

I have been a fan of Mike Oldfield since Tubualr Bells was first released. He is one of the few artists that I never got to see in concert. Well, this little jewel of a DVD more than makes up for this. I always knew what a great composer he was, and figured that his records were mostly studio overdubs. Well, this video shows what an incredible guitarist and musician he really is, even in a live setting. The backup band are all stellar musicians as well, some playing several different instruments. There are two drummers, and at one point, there are three. The very polite audience knew what a rare treat this concert was, as you can tell by their enthusiastic response between compositions. This was filmed at what is probably considered his artistic peak, with the release of QE2. I can ignore the few minor quibbles, since this was filmed 25 years ago. Mike Oldfield on DVD is better than none at all. Money well spent!!!!

Mike Oldfield's live performance at Montreux in 1981 is a welcome addition to an ever growing DVD library for this most talented and unique musician. Much of the music is culled from the albums "Platinum" and "QE2" which at the time were his two most recent releases. This may come as a disappointment to some, for these two albums regularly divide Oldfield fans. Nevertheless rocked up renditions of "Ommadawn" and "Tubular Bells" should keep most happy. The music is great naturally, and its very welcome to see an enthusiastic audience for Oldfield's music, but as a time capsule for 1981 it is unintentionally hilarious. Oldfield survives with his reputation firmly intact, but Maggie Reilly looks like something out of a low budget horror film, and her vocal additions are sometimes irritating. At this point Oldfield had not quite gravitated to composing songs, so Reilly is little more than a backing vocalist., and delights of "Moonlight Shadow" were two years away. The remainder of Oldfield's talented band perform with much enthusiasm, with a cameo appearance by Stephen King minus the glasses on keyboards. The most important thing for fans though is what kind of sound and picture restoration has Eagle produced, on the sound front it is fair and those with 5.1 surround will get more out of the this DVD. The picture is not all it could be with, with colours sometimes seeping into each other and a certain amount of grain. It doesn't look as though Eagle have re-mastered the picture at all. Nevertheless these are trifling complaints, it is just very good to have such archive material available to enjoy.

we've all seen tubular bells live but this is insane footage. by far the best mike oldfield performance ive ever seen i would highly recomend this dvd

Not being a big fan of Mike Oldfield after the first three albums, I was expecting this to have the same style of his later work. But the performance of OMMADAWN alone is worth the price of the DVD. My only complaint is that Maggie Reilly seemed a little less than enthusiastic, otherwise, I loved it.

I am alway appreciative of any Oldfield video I can see and this DVD is no dissappointment. Again, I only wish more Oldfield video had been available to us fans in the 70's. Nice to see him onstage with so many taleted musicians and vocalist.

This may be one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Too bad I wasn't able to be there live at that time ( I was too young and I didn't even know about Oldfield). I don't think that words can do enough justice to a concert like this. Mike Oldfield and the fellow musicians perform with such an enthusiasm and mastery that they made me listen and watch this DVD for several dozen of times since I bought it last year.

The real value of this DVD is not among the typical values expected from a regular DVD reprint - higher video and audio quality and extras like behind the scenes footage. It is all about the brilliant music played at a brilliant performance. Not, that the quality is not goot - it is good enough to recreate the concert ambience. Maybe even too good... so good that will make you sorry for not being able to be present at such a concert or nostalgic if you were lucky enough to see it live.

I saw clips of this concert on Youtube. I bought the DVD and I think it is worth paying for. This is Mike at his best. I am sorry there is not an audio CD one can buy of this concert.

This DVD is packaged well & is a must have, especially for us USA fans. A lot of Mike's DVD/video is in PAL format from Europe. It's a great show with some great music! Gotta love the 80's styles.

This DVD depicts Mike Oldfield's musical artistry and compositional talents with an enjoyable admixture of his earlier works in his incredible litany of offerings.