Mike Oldfield and Dave’s problem with the original Tubular Bells album cover
When Tubular Bells first became available I bought the album and invited a friend over one Friday night to have a listen .. Dave, a calm enough fellow normally but a bit menacing in the water and even more so under the drink. Big and red-haired, plus he was a goofy-foot and lacking in recognising prior ownership when presented with a snaking opportunity on the wave of the day his best mate had been waiting half an hour for.
Dave took one look at the album cover and had to be reminded it didn’t belong to him as it was his immediate intention rip it up into small pieces and flush it down the toilet and being on a septic system I didn’t need a blockage problem. Come to think of it I didn’t need Dave waking the neighbours as he broadcast his rage as I shovelled him out of the front door and across the street to his home, a modest Warriewood bungalow like mine where his family, also like mine were no doubt cowering.
Dave’s problem was the wave quality in the original album cover shot. Being there was none, quality-wise.
’What does it $&@=(fu#)en take?’ He roared, ‘ all a man has to is F$&6xcken wait for the right fuc#$&en conditions to get the shot fuck#&@/en right.’
But Dave didn’t let it rest… and Mike Oldfield finally flinched ..
Because years later we ended up with this ..
Only a surfer knows the feeling ..
petebowes.com 
Dave got back to me – ‘lovely’ he wrote, being a man of few words.