Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells Live in Concert: The 50th anniversary experience - Orchard West, Dartford

The last time I was in Dartford was on the 7th October 1980, to see Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia at the Tramshed and I'd had no reason to revisit the 'historic' town until presented with the opportunity to see the 𝙏𝙪𝙗𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙧 𝘽𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 50𝙩𝙝 𝘼𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙀𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 at a venue I hadn't known existed!

Originally scheduled for autumn 2023, the discovery of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in the roof of Dartford's Orchard Theatre forced the cancellation of a number of events. RAAC was intended to have a lifespan of around 30 years, causing many buildings in the public realm constructed in the 1980s - schools, hospitals and civic amenities, to be put on alert in late summer 2023; Dartford's 956-seater Orchard Theatre, dating from 1983, was one of the buildings closed for safety reasons.
The rescheduled performance took place on 28th October 2024 in 'Orchard West', a giant temporary tent erected on land close to the original venue which, remarkably, has a capacity of over 1000 and amazing acoustics.
I've seen complaints that the billing of the performance suggested that Oldfield himself was going to take part but not much more than a cursory inspection of the adverts indicates that isn't the case, but musical director Robin A Smith had worked with Oldfield since 1992 when he was appointed as the MD and conductor for the live performance (and broadcast) of 𝙏𝙪𝙗𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙧 𝘽𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙄𝙄 in Edinburgh.
The first half of the performance began with a short section of 𝙏𝘽𝙄𝙄 which I enjoyed but I couldn't discern the 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙊𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙖𝙬𝙣 and I've not listened to 𝙍𝙚𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙊𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙖𝙬𝙣, I've not heard any of 𝘿𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 or 𝙂𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙨 so 𝙏𝙤 𝙁𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 and 𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙞𝙩 𝘿𝙖𝙮 were lost on me, and the only version of 𝙁𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙈𝙖𝙣 I know was sung by Hall and Oates! I also liked the ensemble's version of 𝙈𝙤𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙬.

The second half was devoted to the two sides of 𝙏𝙪𝙗𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙧 𝘽𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 which easily made up for any of the perceived deficiencies of the first half. The musicianship couldn't be faulted and the dexterity of guitarist Maxime Obadia as he swapped instruments was stunning. The two pieces of music were fairly true to the source composition, although the arrangement included extended sections to allow for instruments to be changed or the band to switch positions which adversely affected the tension of Oldfield's original recording, though not to a noticeably detrimental degree and side two's 'Piltdown Man' section worked better with Smith's arrangement.
The 𝙎𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙤𝙧'𝙨 𝙃𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙥𝙞𝙥𝙚 was played as an encore, ending a relatively short but thoroughly enjoyable concert in a really good venue. I wonder if anyone in the capacity crowd thought Oldfield was due to attend - I genuinely couldn't believe over 1000 people would converge on Dartford on a Monday evening in autumn for the concert as billed - but no one seemed to care that he hadn't put in an appearance judging by the acclaim directed at the musicians at the end.

GP