Tubular bells.

Because the sound system in the Scrobsmobile is a state of the art tape player and radio, (cds weren't invented when they built this car...), I have a lot of pleasure in grabbing a handful of tapes, and playing them when I get fed up with Radio 4.

The latest batch included Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. I always like it - loved it even, from the very beginning, and may have mentioned before here, that I stayed up one night in 1973 to watch Melvyn Bragg introduce the music being played live by Mike Oldfield and friends. I was hooked thereafter.

Mrs S gave me a real copy soon after I had failed miserably to get a proper reel-to-reel tape made from a friend's album - well you did didn't you, microphone dangling from the curtain rail, tiptoing everywhere for an hour, no swearing!

On the Sevenoaks bypass yesterday, the whole piece thundered out and contentment was the norm, especially the thought that it was twenty-five years old! What a time; loads of years had gone by since we all listened in awe at one chap playing all those instruments. Even Viv Stanshall sounded quaint!

It took me a long, long time to realise, while mistily musing on the five-and-twenty years time warp, that it was in fact not 25 years but 35 years since we all gasped!

How long?