Tubular

It is interesting to me that in 1993 I had been very much energized by the release of Tubular Bells II on CD but completely missed the release of the album Songs of Distant Earth the following year. It interests me because a common point of musical reference for myself, and another chap who was working in the Menasco stress office, Mark Clemente, was the genius of Mike Oldfield.

It was released in November of 1994, but I realise from my diary that I had sat down for a few long chats with Mark during his last week at Menasco in the December and perhaps at that busy time, neither of us knew of the existence of the new album.

The pace of work at Menasco was frenetic, and as I mentioned, the drawing release schedule for the V-22 had basically worn everyone out, so the upcoming Christmas holiday was a very welcome thing, and for Mark Clemente, and a bunch of others in the design office, 1995 would be a transitional year as they migrated to DeHavilland to work on the proposal for the DHC-8 400 series.

If I flash forward a few years, to 1998, I was again stoked to learn of a new album from Mike Oldfield which of course was Tubular Bells III, however, during those extremely busy years, where I too would be gainfully employed at Menasco on the 400 series MLG, I had missed a second significant Mike Oldfield album release entitled Voyager.

It was not until a year or so after that, that Mark and myself were once again working together and during one of our musical chats he informed me of those two albums and it was an amazing feeling of emotion for me, especially with the magnificent album Songs of Distant Earth, that I had finally discovered my "lost years" of Mike Oldfield.