‘Tubular Bells 2003’ DVD-Audio Delayed Again

The release of ‘Tubular Bells 2003’ will be subject to a lengthy delay, it was confirmed by Warner Music Group earlier today.

The news will come as a major disappointment to Oldfield fans across the globe, but is not totally unexpected, as rumours about further delays have been circulating for a few days.

Apparently, ‘Tubular Bells 2003’ is one of the first DVD-Audio discs being authored in the U.K. and this is largely to blame for the delays. Frank Brunger of Warner Music Group’s London office told High Fidelity Review that “…as was the case in the early days of DVD-Video, they are experiencing ‘teething’ problems in authoring for the DVD-Audio format.

Frank continued: “Unfortunately, there is still no clear release date as we will not issue this disc until it is OK. A confirmed release date will be announced as soon as possible but I doubt if it will be before January now.

This delay not only impacts the U.K. release schedule, but also the availability of the title worldwide. I asked Frank if the U.S. for example, would receive discs on the date indicated by a number of retailers – 11th November. “The U.S. will take their DLT from us so they cannot release until we do!

Frank was unaware of any changes to the content of the disc between the sample received and reviewed by High Fidelity Review (see link below), and the production version.

So, the bottom line is that the DVD-Audio version of ‘Tubular Bells 2003’ is delayed again, perhaps even until early 2004. Bad news indeed, but thanks to Warner Music Group for providing definitive information.