Mike Oldfield

After leaving school Oldfield accepted an invitation from his sister Sally to form a folk duo The Sallyangie, taking its name from her name and Oldfield's favourite Jansch tune, "Angie".[13] They toured England and Paris and struck a deal with Transatlantic Records, for which they recorded one album, Children of the Sun (1969). After they split in the following year Oldfield suffered a nervous breakdown. He auditioned as bassist for Family in 1969 following the departure of Ric Grech, but the group did not share Roger Chapman's enthusiasm towards Oldfield's performance.[14] Oldfield spent much of the next year living off his father and performing in an electric rock band named Barefoot that included his brother Terry on flute, until the group disbanded in early 1970.[15][16]

In February 1970, Oldfield auditioned as the bassist in The Whole World, a new backing band that former Soft Machine vocalist Kevin Ayers was putting together. He landed the position despite the bass being a new instrument for him, but he also played occasional lead guitar and later looked back on this time as providing valuable training on the bass.[17][11] Oldfield went on to play on Ayers's albums Shooting at the Moon (1970) and Whatevershebringswesing (1971), and played mandolin on Edgar Broughton Band (1971).[16] All three albums were recorded at Abbey Road Studios, where Oldfield familiarised himself with a variety of instruments, such as orchestral percussion, piano, Mellotron, and harpsichord, and started to write and put down musical ideas of his own.[11] While doing so Oldfield took up work as a reserve guitarist in a stage production of Hair at the Shaftesbury Theatre, where he played and gigged with Alex Harvey. After ten performances Oldfield grew bored of the job and was fired after he decided to play his part for "Let the Sunshine In" in 7/8 time.[11][12]

By mid-1971, Oldfield had assembled a demo tape containing sections of a longform instrumental that became "Tubular Bells (Part One)", initially entitled "Opus One". After attempts to persuade record labels to take on the project came to nothing, in September 1971 Oldfield, now a session musician and bass guitarist for the Arthur Louis Band, attended recording sessions at The Manor Studio near Kidlington, Oxfordshire, owned by businessman Richard Branson and run by engineers Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth.[12] Branson already had several business ventures and was about to launch Virgin Records with Simon Draper. Newman and Heyworth heard some of Oldfield's demos and took them to Branson and Draper, who eventually gave Oldfield one week of recording time at The Manor. During this week, he completed "Part One" of Tubular Bells; "Part Two" was compiled between February and April 1973.[18]

By the end of January 1973, Branson had agreed to release Tubular Bells himself and secured Oldfield with a six-album deal with Virgin, with an additional four albums as optional.[19] Tubular Bells was released on 25 May 1973 as the first album on the Virgin label. Oldfield played more than twenty different instruments in the multi-layered recording, and its style moved through diverse musical genres. Its 2,630,000 UK sales puts it at No. 34 on the list of the best-selling albums in the country. The title track became a top 10 hit single in the US after the opening was used in The Exorcist film in 1973. It is today considered to be a forerunner of the new-age music movement.[20]

In 1974, Oldfield played the guitar on the critically acclaimed album Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt.

In late 1974, his follow-up LP, Hergest Ridge, was No. 1 in the UK for three weeks before being dethroned by Tubular Bells. Although Hergest Ridge was released over a year after Tubular Bells, it reached No. 1 first. Tubular Bells spent 11 weeks (10 of them consecutive) at No. 2 before its one week at the top. Like Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge is a two-movement instrumental piece, this time evoking scenes from Oldfield's Herefordshire country retreat. It was followed in 1975 by the pioneering world music piece Ommadawn released after the death of his mother Maureen.[21][12]

In 1975, Oldfield recorded a version of the Christmas piece "In Dulci Jubilo" which charted at No. 4 in the UK.

In 1975, Oldfield received a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Composition in "Tubular Bells – Theme from The Exorcist".

In 1976, Oldfield and his sister joined his friend and band member Pekka Pohjola to play on his album Mathematician's Air Display, which was released in 1977. The album was recorded and edited at Oldfield's Througham Slad Manor in Gloucestershire by Oldfield and Paul Lindsay.[22] Oldfield's 1976 rendition of "Portsmouth" remains his best-performing single on the UK Singles Chart, reaching No. 3.[23]

Oldfield recorded the double album Incantations between December 1977 and September 1978. introduced more diverse choral performances from Sally Oldfield, Maddy Prior, and the Queen's College Girls Choir. When it was released on 1 December 1978, the album went to No. 14 in the UK and reached platinum certification for 300,000 copies sold.

In June 1978, during the recording of Incantations, Oldfield and his siblings completed a three-day Exegesis seminar, a controversial self-assertiveness program based on Werner Erhard's EST training program. The experience had a significant effect on Oldfield's personality, who recalled that he underwent a "rebirth experience" by reliving past fears. "It was like opening some huge cathedral doors and facing the monster, and I saw that the monster was myself as a newborn infant, because I'd started life in a panic."[16][24] Following the Exegesis seminar, the formerly reclusive Oldfield granted press interviews, posed nude for a promotional photo shoot for Incantations, and went drinking with news reporters. He had also conquered his fear of flying, gained a pilot's license, and bought his own plane.[25]

In 1979, Oldfield supported Incantations with a European tour that spanned 21 dates between March and May 1979. The tour was documented with the live album and concert film, Exposed. Initially marketed as a limited pressing of 100,000 copies, the strength of sales for the album were strong enough for Virgin to abandon the idea shortly after, transferring it to regular production.[16]

Oldfield's music was used for the score of The Space Movie (1980), a Virgin Films production that celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.[26] In 1979, he recorded a version of the signature tune for the BBC children's television programme Blue Peter, which was used by the show for 10 years.[27]

Oldfield's fifth album, Platinum, was released in November 1979 and marked the start of his transition from long compositions towards mainstream and pop music. Oldfield performed across Europe between April and December 1980 with the In Concert 1980 tour.

In 1980, Oldfield released QE2, named after the ocean liner, which features a variety of guest musicians including Phil Collins on drums. This was followed by the European Adventure Tour 1981, during which Oldfield accepted an invitation to perform at a free concert celebrating the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in Guildhall. He wrote a new track, "Royal Wedding Anthem", for the occasion.[16]

His next album, Five Miles Out, followed in March 1982, which features the 24-minute track "Taurus II" occupying side one. The Five Miles Out World Tour 1982 saw Oldfield perform from April to December of that year. Crises saw Oldfield continue the pattern of one long composition with shorter songs. The first single from the album, "Moonlight Shadow", with Maggie Reilly on vocals, became Oldfield's most successful single, reaching No. 4 in the UK[16] and No. 1 in nine other countries. The subsequent Crises Tour in 1983 concluded with a concert at Wembley Arena to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Tubular Bells.

Oldfield later turned to film and video, writing the score for Roland Joffé's acclaimed film The Killing Fields and producing substantial video footage for his album Islands. Islands continued what Oldfield had been doing on the past couple of albums, with an instrumental piece on one side and rock/pop singles on the other. Of these, "Islands", sung by Bonnie Tyler and "Magic Touch", with vocals by Max Bacon (in the US version) and Glasgow vocalist Jim Price (Southside Jimmy) in the rest of the world,[28] were the major hits. In the US "Magic Touch" reached the top 10 on the Billboard album rock charts in 1988. During the 1980s, Oldfield's then-wife, Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland, contributed vocals to many songs including "Pictures in the Dark".

Released in July 1989, Earth Moving features seven vocalists across the album's nine tracks.[16] It is Oldfield's first to consist solely of rock and pop songs, several of which were released as singles: "Innocent" and "Holy" in Europe, and "Hostage" in the US.

For his next instrumental album, Virgin insisted that Oldfield use the title Tubular Bells 2. Oldfield's rebellious response was Amarok, an hour-long work featuring rapidly changing themes, unpredictable bursts of noise and a hidden Morse code insult, stating "Fuck off RB", allegedly directed at Branson.[29][30] Oldfield did everything in his power to make it impossible to make extracts and Virgin returned the favour by barely promoting the album. [31]

in February 1991, Oldfield released his final album for Virgin, Heaven's Open, under the name "Michael Oldfield". It marks the first time he handles all lead vocals. In 2013, Oldfield invited Branson to the opening of St. Andrew's International School of The Bahamas, where two of Oldfield's children were pupils. This was the occasion of the debut of Tubular Bells for Schools, a piano solo adaptation of Oldfield's work.[32]

By early 1992, Oldfield had secured Clive Banks as his new manager and had several record label owners listen to his demo of Tubular Bells II at his house. Oldfield signed with Rob Dickins of WEA Warner and recorded the album with Trevor Horn as producer.[14] Released in August 1992, the album went to No. 1 in the UK. Its live premiere followed on 4 September at Edinburgh Castle which was released on home video as Tubular Bells II Live. Oldfield supported the album with his Tubular Bells II 20th Anniversary Tour in 1992 and 1993, his first concert tour since 1984. By April 1993, the album had sold over three million copies worldwide.[25]

Oldfield continued to embrace new musical styles, with The Songs of Distant Earth (based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel of the same name) exhibiting a softer new-age sound. In 1994, he also had an asteroid, 5656 Oldfield, named after him.[33][34]

In 1995, Oldfield continued to embrace new musical styles by producing the Celtic-themed album Voyager. In 1992, Oldfield met Luar na Lubre, a Galician Celtic-folk band (from A Coruña, Spain), with the singer Rosa Cedrón. The band's popularity grew after Oldfield covered their song "O son do ar" ("The sound of the air") on his Voyager album.

In 1998, Oldfield produced the third Tubular Bells album (also premiered at a concert, this time in Horse Guards Parade, London), drawing on the dance music scene at his then new home on the island of Ibiza. This album was inspired by themes from Tubular Bells, but differed in lacking a clear two-part structure.

During 1999, Oldfield released two albums. The first, Guitars, used guitars as the source for all the sounds on the album, including percussion. The second, The Millennium Bell, consisted of pastiches of a number of styles of music that represented various historical periods over the past millennium. The work was performed live in Berlin for the city's millennium celebrations in 1999–2000.

He added to his repertoire the MusicVR project, combining his music with a virtual reality-based computer game. His first work on this project is Tr3s Lunas launched in 2002, a virtual game where the player can interact with a world full of new music. This project appeared as a double CD, one with the music, and the other with the game.

In 2002 and 2003, Oldfield re-recorded Tubular Bells using modern equipment to coincide the 30th anniversary of the original. He had wanted to do it years before but his contract with Virgin kept him from doing so.[35] This new version features John Cleese as the Master of Ceremonies as Viv Stanshall, who spoke on the original, died in the interim. Tubular Bells 2003 was released in May 2003.

On 12 April 2004 Oldfield launched his next virtual reality project, Maestro, which contains music from the Tubular Bells 2003 album and some new chillout melodies. The games have since been made available free of charge on Tubular.net.[36] A double album, Light + Shade, was released on Mercury Records in 2005, with whom Oldfield had recently signed a three-album deal. The two discs contain music of contrasting moods, one relaxed (Light) and the other more edgy and moody (Shade). Oldfield headlined the pan-European Night of the Proms tour, consisting of 21 concerts in 2006 and 2007.[37]

His autobiography Changeling was published in May 2007 by Virgin Books.[38] In March 2008 Oldfield released his first classical album, Music of the Spheres; Karl Jenkins assisted with the orchestration.[39] In the first week of release the album topped the UK Classical chart and reached number 9 on the main UK Album Chart. A single "Spheres", featuring a demo version of pieces from the album, was released digitally. The album was nominated for a Classical Brit Award, the NS&I Best Album of 2009.

In 2008, when Oldfield's original 35-year deal with Virgin Records ended, the rights to Tubular Bells and his other Virgin releases were returned to him,[40] and were then transferred to Mercury Records.[36] Mercury issued a press release on 15 April 2009, noting that Oldfield's Virgin albums would be re-released, starting 8 June 2009. These releases include special features from the archives.[41] As of 2013 a further seven albums have been reissued and compilation albums have been released such as Two Sides.[42][43]

In March 2010, Music Week reported that publishing company Stage Three Music had acquired a 50% stake in the songs of Oldfield's entire recorded output in a seven-figure deal.[44][45][46]

In 2008, Oldfield contributed an exclusive song ("Song for Survival") to a charity album called Songs for Survival, in support of Survival International.[47] Oldfield's daughter, Molly, played a large part in the project.[48] In 2010 lyricist Don Black said in an interview with Music Week that he had been working with Oldfield.[49] In 2012, Oldfield was featured on Terry Oldfield's Journey into Space album and on a track called "Islanders" by German producer Torsten Stenzel's York project. In 2013 Oldfield and York released a remix album titled Tubular Beats.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, Oldfield performed renditions of Tubular Bells, "Far Above the Clouds" and "In Dulci Jubilo" during a segment about the National Health Service.[12] This track appears on the Isles of Wonder album which contains music from the Danny Boyle-directed show.

In October 2013, the BBC broadcast Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story, an hour-long appreciation of Oldfield's life and musical career, filmed on location at his home recording studio in Nassau.[50]

Oldfield's latest rock-themed album of songs, titled Man on the Rocks, was released on 3 March 2014 by Virgin EMI. The album was produced by Steve Lipson. The album marks a return of Oldfield to a Virgin branded label, through the merger of Mercury Records UK and Virgin Records after Universal Music's purchase of EMI. The track "Nuclear" was used for the E3 trailer of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Interviewed by Steve Wright in May 2015 for his BBC Radio 2 show, Oldfield said that he was currently working on a "prequel to Tubular Bells" which was being recorded using analogue equipment as much as possible. He suggested that the album might only be released on vinyl. The project is in its infancy and would follow his current reissue campaign. Oldfield suggested that it would be released "in a couple of years".[51]

On 16 October 2015 Oldfield tweeted, via his official Twitter account "I am continuing to work on ideas for "A New Ommadawn" for the last week or so to see if [...] the idea actually works.[52]" On 8 May 2016, Oldfield announced via his Facebook group page that the new Ommadawn project with the tentative title of Return to Ommadawn is finished, and he is awaiting a release date from the record company. He also suggested that he may soon be starting work on a possible fourth Tubular Bells album.[12]

Oldfield's latest album, Return to Ommadawn was released on 20 January 2017 and reached #4 in the UK Album Chart.[53] On 29 January 2017, Oldfield again hinted at a Tubular Bells 4 album via his official Facebook fan page; he uploaded photos of new equipment and a new Fender Telecaster guitar with the caption "New sounds for TB4!"[54]

Over the years, Oldfield has used a range of guitars. Among the more notable of these are:

1963[Notes 1] Fender Stratocaster

Serial no. L08044, in salmon pink (fiesta red). Used by Oldfield from 1984 (the Discovery album) until 2006 (Night of the Proms, rehearsals in Antwerp). Subsequently, sold for £30,000 at Chandler Guitars.

1989 PRS Artist Custom 24

In amber, used by Oldfield from the late 1980s to the present day.

1966 Fender Telecaster

Serial no. 180728, in blonde. Previously owned by Marc Bolan, this was the only electric guitar used on Tubular Bells.[56] The guitar was unsold at auction by Bonhams in 2007, 2008 and 2009 at estimated values of, respectively, £25,000–35,000, £10,000–15,000 and £8,000–12,000;[57][58][59] Oldfield has since sold it and donated the £6500 received to the charity SANE.[60]

Various Gibson Les Paul, Zemaitis and SG guitars

Used extensively by Oldfield in the 1970s and 80s. The most notable Gibson guitar Oldfield favoured in this time period was a 1962 Les Paul/SG Junior model, which was his primary guitar for the recording of Ommadawn, among other works. Oldfield is also known to have owned and used an L6-S during that model's production run in the mid-1970s. On occasion, Oldfield was also seen playing a black Les Paul Custom, an early reissue model built around 1968.

Oldfield used a modified Roland GP8 effects processor in conjunction with his PRS Artist to get many of his heavily overdriven guitar sounds from the Earth Moving album onwards.[56] Oldfield has also been using guitar synthesizers since the mid-1980s, using a 1980s Roland GR-300/G-808 type system, then a 1990s Roland GK2 equipped red PRS Custom 24 (sold in 2006) with a Roland VG8,[56] and most recently a Line 6 Variax.

Oldfield has an unusual playing style, using fingers and long right-hand fingernails and different ways of creating vibrato: a "very fast side-to-side vibrato" and "violinist's vibrato".[61] Oldfield has stated that his playing style originates from his musical roots playing folk music and the bass guitar.[8]

Over the years, Oldfield has owned and used a vast number of synthesizers and other keyboard instruments. In the 1980s, he composed the score for the film The Killing Fields on a Fairlight CMI.[56] Some examples of keyboard and synthesised instruments which Oldfield has made use of include Sequential Circuits Prophet-5s (notably on Platinum and The Killing Fields), Roland JV-1080/JV-2080 units (1990s), a Korg M1 (as seen in the "Innocent" video), a Clavia Nord Lead and Steinway pianos. In recent years, he has also made use of software synthesis products, such as Native Instruments.[62]

Oldfield has occasionally sung himself on his records and live performances, sometimes using a vocoder as a resource. It is not unusual for him to collaborate with diverse singers and to hold auditions before deciding the most appropriate for a particular song or album. Featured lead vocalists who have collaborated with him include:

Oldfield has self-recorded and produced many of his albums, and played the majority of the featured instruments, largely at his home studios. In the 1990s and 2000s he mainly used DAWs such as Apple Logic, Avid Pro Tools and Steinberg Nuendo as recording suites.[63] For composing orchestral music Oldfield has been quoted as using the software notation program Sibelius[38] running on Apple Macintoshes.[64] He also used the FL Studio DAW on his 2005 double album Light + Shade.[65] Among the mixing consoles Oldfield has owned are an AMS Neve Capricorn 33238, a Harrison Series X,[66] and a Euphonix System 5-MC.[67]