THE ART IN HEAVEN CONCERT LIVE IN BERLIN (DVD)

Though as a progressive music event, The Art In Heaven Concert sometimes leaves something to be desired, as a New Year's event it was quite a spectacular show. Mike goes all out and performs with an orchestra and a choir. The concert was an outdoor affair in Berlin complete with light show and fireworks, of course. The music is a mix of "classic" Oldfield" along with pieces written specifically to commemorate the start of the new millennium. Kind of amusing to see everyone trying to keep warm out there, probably would have all frozen to death without the lights. All in all, an enjoyable performance and more entertaining to watch than standard New Year's fare if you happen to be staying at home. An essential DVD for Oldfield fans but probably of less interest to others.

OK the main emphasis of this release was to capitalise on the Millenium Bell concert held in Berlin at the turn of the century. At this time Mike Oldfield was ruthlessley gleaning as much money he could from the Tubular Bells brand. And in fairness to the musician he has created a strong brand out of his debut album and some of the follow ups especially TBII were very good. The album itself Millenium Bell was very weak, this concert though was a celebration of this event and visually it is not too bad. Eighty minutes of pretty much a mixed bag of songs. From the album itself I would recommend the Broad song, also known as Broad Sunlit Uplands off MB and Art In Heaven. In terms of other classic songs covered it is nice to see Portsmouth played live and Secrets off TBIII. Nothing spectacular here but Mike Oldfield does seem more relaxed and at ease on this show.

Happy new year!

We are at the present moment almost ten years into the new millennium. This means that in only a few days it is exactly ten yeas ago this concert was recorded live in Berlin on New Years Eve 1999/2000. The set list consists of some Oldfield classics as well as some songs from his then new album The Millennium Bell. In addition there is a brand new song (as a special feature) composed especially for the concert called Art In Heaven.

The show begins with an excerpt from the classic Tubular Bells. Other classic songs performed are Moonlight Shadow and Shadow On The Wall both from the Crisis album. There is also a snippet of Tubular Bells III that I have a soft spot for myself. As Mike himself is a rather laid back and shy person, the "master of ceremonies" here is really that gorgeous black woman with the cowboy hat. Sadly, this classic segment of the show is over all too quickly

Next up is the The Millennium Bell. Some parts of this is performed with an orchestra and choir. Mike himself is quite lost among the very large cast of musicians. I have not heard the original Millennium Bell studio album, but what I hear here is not particularly impressive. Indeed, the momentum that was built up during the first part is somewhat lost here. The large Berlin audience seem rather happy though, and I'm sure they had a great evening. The main part of the concert is over just before midnight and there is a count down to the new millennium on stage.

The encore is Art In Heaven, and as the title implies this features a massive light show amongst all the fireworks. The piece begins with a small excerpt from The Songs Of Distant Earth, one of Oldfield's best album in recent years, and ends with an excerpt from Beethoven's Ninth, but the rest is, as I have said, especially composed for the concert. Compared to The Millennium Bell itself, Art In Heaven features a lot more of Mike's electric guitar and is for that reason more interesting in my opinion. But it is not a great or particularly memorable piece by any means.

The special features include a making of documentary and an interview with Mike.

If you don't know what music to play on New Years Eve, this will do fine. But if you are looking for the best DVD release of Mike Oldfield this is certainly not the one. I can really recommend this for fans and collectors only.

Nice photo op, poor rock concert

You could be forgiven for getting excited and thinking this DVD was as amazing as the TB3 concert from a few years ago, after watching the first one-third to half of the concert. Sure, Mike is a bit slower and sure, the supporting musicians are not as impressively arranged or utilized, but still....there are some great moments during the first 5 or so tracks. And then the second half of the show arrives and the whole thing goes straight over the cliff of lame-ness. I'm going to spare you my tirade about the awful second half of this show and its feelgood "we are the world" like singalongs that makes me gag. I'll say only that while the emotions and goodwill on display are wonderful for a "PBS celebrates the Millennium!" show, they are brutal as a rock concert for the Mike Oldfield fan. So let's stick with what did work. The first third of the show was full of nice moments of "Mike the guitarist" burning it up, creating sound and power with one guitar that shakes the city. It was so amazing how much control he has with the instrument and he similarly impressed with a beautiful, extended piano solo. Lovely leads and feisty vocals gave us some nice treatments of old singles like "Moonlight Shadow", "Portsmouth", and "Shadow on the Wall." But what was a 3-star event early on becomes mired in material that sells short both rock and roll, as well as world music. Both may be great in their own arena, but together they suck the power and purpose out of each other in my opinion. Stick with the TB3 show to witness Mike's ability to pull off a major musical event, or get his old live stuff to see his rock prowess on display. Avoid this one at all cost unless you are a huge Oldfield fan and have to see even the subpar stuff.