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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Show!
Review: First I would just like to say that as I was watching this concert DVD I felt that this was where I wished I had been that night! I belonged at this concert! Oh well, at least I have this DVD to play over again. I have been a fan of Mike's work since the early seventies but have never got a chance to see him play live. Mike and the band play an excellent show. Fantastic music, sound & lights (I especially liked the architecture that was lit up with the purple-ish blue lights). Excellent concert experience. Worth every penny for this disc.
Rating: 
Summary: Mike Oldfield ' FINALLY' in America on DVD... ABOUT TIME!!
Review: For now ten years I have come to know and respect the music of Mike Oldfield. Starting in 1992 with Tubular Bells 2. I have both his Tubular Bell concerts on the old Laser Disc and would like to see those released on DVD in America too. As for this concert... it is wonderful! I like the fast paced MTV style of camera work... gets you worked up even though you might have been there. I had several friends who invited me to this concert and I wish I'd gone now! The classic song set is IMHO the best part of the concert. The Millennium Bell section seems a bit on the contrived part. I'm not even sure that the choir is actually singing. Several spoken parts, i.e. 'Sunlight Shining Through Cloud's' spoken word is being mimed VERY badly by a female, who sadly, doesn't even know the entire 'Amazing Grace' speech. 'Liberation' also lends a bad hand to miming the spoken word - Pepsi (singer for 'Shadow on the Wall') mimes the recorded words of Oldfield's young daughter - from the album itself. Someone forgot to patch in the samples at the end of 'Liberation' to the mixing board for the recorded audience to hear, but it can clearly be heard in Berlin out over the audience, because like myself, the crowd goes absolutely bananas during this section. There are minor things which iritate me that Oldfield continously does in all of his concerts to mime a recorded section, but I guess that is just his way - since many of his pieces can be ridiculously and technically complicated at times (as stated by Billboard magazine reviewing his Tubular Bells 2 concert in Edinburgh.) You can tell however that Oldfield is not that comfortable at times do to the blinding lights on and off stage and the constant explosion of fireworks from around him. He is a very quiet person underneath. All in all this concert is great!! Worth buying - definetly!!! :) Oh yes and the light show 'Art in Heaven' is brilliant!! Absolutely beautiful - bet it was even more so in person!! Bottom line... buy this concert... hopefully it'll send a clear message to Warner Home Video to release more Oldfield DVD's here in America!! FINGERS CROSSED or Tubular-tied! ;)
Rating:
Summary: Mike Oldfield ' FINALLY' in America on DVD... ABOUT TIME!!
Review: For now ten years I have come to know and respect the music of Mike Oldfield. Starting in 1992 with Tubular Bells 2. I have both his Tubular Bell concerts on the old Laser Disc and would like to see those released on DVD in America too. As for this concert... it is wonderful! I like the fast paced MTV style of camera work... gets you worked up even though you might have been there. I had several friends who invited me to this concert and I wish I'd gone now! The classic song set is IMHO the best part of the concert. The Millennium Bell section seems a bit on the contrived part. I'm not even sure that the choir is actually singing. Several spoken parts, i.e. 'Sunlight Shining Through Cloud's' spoken word is being mimed VERY badly by a female, who sadly, doesn't even know the entire 'Amazing Grace' speech. 'Liberation' also lends a bad hand to miming the spoken word - Pepsi (singer for 'Shadow on the Wall') mimes the recorded words of Oldfield's young daughter - from the album itself. Someone forgot to patch in the samples at the end of 'Liberation' to the mixing board for the recorded audience to hear, but it can clearly be heard in Berlin out over the audience, because like myself, the crowd goes absolutely bananas during this section. There are minor things which iritate me that Oldfield continously does in all of his concerts to mime a recorded section, but I guess that is just his way - since many of his pieces can be ridiculously and technically complicated at times (as stated by Billboard magazine reviewing his Tubular Bells 2 concert in Edinburgh.) You can tell however that Oldfield is not that comfortable at times do to the blinding lights on and off stage and the constant explosion of fireworks from around him. He is a very quiet person underneath. All in all this concert is great!! Worth buying - definetly!!! :) Oh yes and the light show 'Art in Heaven' is brilliant!! Absolutely beautiful - bet it was even more so in person!! Bottom line... buy this concert... hopefully it'll send a clear message to Warner Home Video to release more Oldfield DVD's here in America!! FINGERS CROSSED or Tubular-tied! ;)
Rating:
Summary: At Last...Mike Oldfield on DVD in North America
Review: I have been a fan of Mike Oldfield since I was in high school, and Oldfield was a young, but talented, composer/musician who had the extreme good fortune to have an excerpt from his premier album included in the movie "The Exorcist". The minimum wage was [much lower], and I took my first paycheck from my first job and bought a copy of the aforementioned "Tubular Bells". Unfortunately, Oldfield's popularity in the US has never been as high as it was then, even though his best work was still several years in the future ("Ommadawn").Very popular in Europe, Oldfield has several concert videos available in PAL VHS and Region 2 DVD, but never before has a Mike Oldfield concert video been available that we fans in the US could easily view. This video is definitely worth the wait. I am only giving it 4 stars because of its relatively short length, and the fact that many of Oldfield's classics are not included. The first part of the concert consists of older works, including a very abbreviated "Tubular Bells", which some may know as "Theme from the Exorcist", the folksy "Portsmouth", and the pop tune "Moonlight Shadow". The second half are selections from "The Millennium Bell" which, as I understand it, were premiered at this concert. Inexplicably, the culminating piece of the concert, "Art In Heaven" is included as a separate selection from the main menu. Oldfield is joined on stage by the usual assortment of vocalists, and musicians, plus a string orchestra and large choir. It is obviously very cold (the concert was filmed on New Year's Eve 1999 in Berlin), and the music is accompanied by the sounds of fireworks from the audience, but it is still great to see Oldfield play guitar for the first time. He has a very distinctive sound, and it was very interesting to finally see how he plays. Oldfield fans will not be disappointed, but they will be left wanting more. Hopefully this DVD will sell well enough to convince the powers that be to release Oldfields other concert videos on Region 1 DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Good Music, Not So Good Production
Review: I have been a Mike Oldfield fan for may years and have yearned for a DVD or VHS copy of any one of is many concerts. When I discovered this DVD I was delighted. And I watched it with great anticipation I was lifted up by Mike's amazing God given, gift for music. I can't tell you how great the music was!!! The behind the scenes look at the productions is impressive, and this is comming form a guy who has done live stage productions. The equipment and tech stuff is amazing. The only draw back that I saw was the switching of the video for the concert was something my cat could have done. I edit video for a living and coming from an expert I was very dissapointed. But if you have never edited video or know anything about the field you will still notice the lack of production quality. Mike does look annoyed at all the moving cameras around him, as well as the consistant explosions of fireworks durring the concert (another annoyance.) The Video of Art In Heaven is an amazing piece of music that is an origianl compulation of some of Mike's greatest pices as well as some new ones made specificly for the concert. But again my cat would do a better job of the editing. The over use of layered video and chroma-keyed fireworks becomes very "hokey". In fact there are a few spots where it looks like the missed some to the original special efects in the concert and the tried to digitaly recreate them. HA HA.
All in all, I do highly recomend the DVD. It is Mike's only american DVD you can by that is in an NTSC format. If you like Mike I recomend buying a PAL or SECAM DVD deck and TV. Then buy the european DVDs that are available over in europe. But that is if your a big fan of Mike Oldfield. And can be expensive with shipping and handleing.
Rating:
Summary: An awesome show!
Review: I knew this would be good going into it since it came from Mike Oldfield. I have been a fan of MO for decades and have never been disappointed in anything he has done. This turned out to be exactly what I expected of MO. Incredible musicianship and an incredible production. If you like MO. Buy this DVD. You will not be disappointed. Trust me even if you don't know me.
Rating:
Summary: An awesome show!
Review: I knew this would be good going into it since it came from Mike Oldfield. I have been a fan of MO for decades and have never been disappointed in anything he has done. This turned out to be exactly what I expected of MO. Incredible musicianship and an incredible production. If you like MO. Buy this DVD. You will not be disappointed. Trust me even if you don't know me.
Rating: 
Summary: Oldfield dvd finally!
Review: I've been a huge fan of Oldfield since the original Tubular Bells. This show is a New years eve affair shot in Berlin 2000. Mike looks cold and unhappy.
The first half includes mediocre versions of his "classic" work, while the second half is new stuff ("new-agey" new stuff). The Art in Heaven piece is pretty good.
What Mike needs to do now in his career is release some dvd of his great shows from the 70's and 80's, material that's been circulated on ... bootlegs for years. This would really please his fans and hopefully inspire him to write some new music...let's face it, his last good work was Tubular Bells 2, way back in 1992!
Rating:
Summary: Oldfield dvd finally!
Review: I've been a huge fan of Oldfield since the original Tubular Bells. This show is a New years eve affair shot in Berlin 2000. Mike looks cold and unhappy.
The first half includes mediocre versions of his "classic" work, while the second half is new stuff ("new-agey" new stuff). The Art in Heaven piece is pretty good.
What Mike needs to do now in his career is release some dvd of his great shows from the 70's and 80's, material that's been circulated on ... bootlegs for years. This would really please his fans and hopefully inspire him to write some new music...let's face it, his last good work was Tubular Bells 2, way back in 1992!
Rating: 
Summary: Great artist, lousy presentation.
Review: Like the other reviewers, I've been an Oldfield fan for many years. I'm glad to finally get a legal copy of one of his live performances. However, I wish it could have been better. The audio mix is good, except for one or two points where it fades out momentarily for no apparent reason. The video editing is very amateurish: It cuts to long shots and crowd shots that are obviously very out of sync with the audio; There were fireworks, somewhere, but you hardly see them; They hold shots for way too long on vocalists who are obviously lip-syncing their parts (for production reasons). The 'Art in Heaven' segment looks like something you get from a rookie editor: Continuous crossfades and keyed images with no syncronization to anything actually going on during the event. Overall, the entire DVD is more of a 'resume piece' for the director, who happened to also be the lighting designer for the live event. No, the lighting wasn't that impressive either. Buy this DVD for your collection, buy it to support Mike Oldfield's endevours, but don't expect to be impressed by it.
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