Me Consumer, you Jane.

They’re not going to get me again, well, I don’t think they are, and to tell you the truth oh invisible ones, I will resist with every fibre in my being to prevent them from succeeding.

I’ll name names, but the list is becoming endless. Mike Oldfield is at it, Pink Floyd and those Lord of the Rings people, they’re all it it.

In the early 70’s I bought Mike Oldfields Tubular Bells album on vinyl, just to be sure I bought the Quadrophonic version, even though my mum and dad only had a Stereo. There was a glimmer of hope that if I wired a couple of extra speakers into their kit then four distinct channels of sound would grace my two channel brain.

Fast forward to the late 70’s when they released the CD, or was it the early 80’s? – well, it was a favorite album so it was a no brainer, I had to have it.

In between those dates though, Oldfield had produced Tubular Bells live, the Orchestral version with the London Symphony orchestra and I’d been taken and bought that on Vinyl too.

I was smart you know, very smart. I began to form the seed of an idea in my brain, I was actually buying the same thing, over and over again. I would resist any further variants, I would, they’ll see….

In the 90’s they produced the definitive version of Tubular Bells, completely digitally remastered. I would be a fool not to buy this version, digitally remastered, can’t get any better than that! – I bought the CD and played it, somehow it sounded strangely familiar…..

That was it, no more, I decided I’d take a stand, four versions of the same thing was enough for one man.

Mike Oldfield produced Tubular Bells 2003, the 30th anniversary edition, in Mikes own words “To my ears however I was always aware of it's (the originals) imperfections. Notes out of tune, out of time, rushed playing, mistakes in performance, electronic noise etc etc... I always meant to re record it but for one reason or another I never got round to it... Until Now.” He’s redone the whole thing, including a 5.1 version for surround sound systems.

I was holding it in HMV yesterday…….