Mike Oldfield

Michael Gordon Oldfield (born May 15, 1953 in Reading, England) is a multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music and more recently dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature.

History

Oldfield's parents are Maureen and Raymond Oldfield. His sister Sally and brother Terry are successful musicians in their own right and have appeared on several of his albums. Mike and his siblings were raised Roman Catholic, the faith of their Irish ^* mother. He and the Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland have two children together.

Early career

Oldfield's career began fairly early in his life, playing acoustic guitar in local folk clubs. At this time, he already had two fifteen minute instrumental pieces in which he would "go through all sorts of moods", a precursor to his landmark 1970s compositions. In his early teens, Oldfield was involved in a 'beat group' playing Shadows style music (he has often cited Hank Marvin as a major influence, and would later cover the Shadows' song Wonderful Land). In 1967 he and his sister Sally formed the folk duo The Sallyangie and were signed to Transatlantic Records after exposure in the local folk scene. An album, Children of the Sun was issued in 1968. After Sallyangie disbanded, he formed another duo with his brother Terry, called Barefoot, which took him back to rock music.

In 1970 he joined ex-Soft Machine vocalist Kevin Ayers' backing group The Whole World playing bass. The band also included keyboardist and composer David Bedford, who quickly befriended Oldfield and encouraged him in his composition of an early version of Tubular Bells. Bedford would later arrange and conduct an orchestral version of that album. With Ayers, Oldfield recorded two albums, Whatevershebringswesing and Shooting At The Moon. Both albums featured early versions of what would become his trademark sound.

Having recorded a demo version of Tubular Bells, Oldfield attempted to convince someone in the music industry to take the project on, but was told the project was unmarketable. However, in 1972 he met a young Richard Branson who was setting up his own record label, Virgin Records, and after playing the demo to engineers Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth, he began recording the 1973 version of the album. "Mike Oldfield biography"

(1973-1991) Virgin years

Oldfield's most famous work is Tubular Bells, an instrumental composition recorded in 1972 and launched on May 25, 1973 as the inaugural album of Richard Branson's Virgin Records label. The album was groundbreaking, as Oldfield played more than twenty different instruments in the multi-layered recording, and its style progressed continuously, covering many diverse musical genres. The album quickly reached the top 10 in UK album sales and stayed in the chart for 247 weeks. In the US, it received attention chiefly by appearing in the soundtrack to The Exorcist. In the autumn of 1974, the follow-up LP, Hergest Ridge, was No 1 in the UK for three weeks before being dethroned by Tubular Bells. In 1979, Tubular Bells was used as the main musical score for The Space Movie, a Virgin movie that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. The Exorcist track is the score used for the landing sequence of the Apollo flights.

Like Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge took the form of a two-movement instrumental piece, this time evoking scenes from Oldfield's Herefordshire country retreat. This was followed in 1975 with the pioneering world music piece Ommadawn, and 1978's Incantations which introduced more diverse choral performances from Sally Oldfield, Maddy Prior and the Queen's College Girls Choir.

Around the time of Incantations, Oldfield underwent a controversial self-assertiveness therapy course known as Exegesis. No doubt as a result of this, the formerly reclusive musician staged a major European tour to promote the album, chronicled in his live album Exposed, much of which was recorded at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham, the first ever concert at that venue.

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

The early 1980s saw Oldfield make a transition to "mainstream" popular music, beginning with the inclusion of shorter instrumental tracks and contemporary cover versions on Platinum and QE2 (the latter named after the cruise ship). Soon afterwards he turned his attention to songwriting, with a string of collaborations featuring various lead vocalists alongside his trademark searing guitar solos. The best known of these is "Moonlight Shadow", his 1983 hit with Maggie Reilly, which took John Lennon's death as one of its themes. This song has been covered by various other artists, including Aselin Debison (Canadian folk singer) and DJ Mystic (electronic/techno). In 2002 it was a huge hit in central Europe for the German dance act Groove Coverage.

The most successful Oldfield composition on the US pop charts during this period was actually a cover version — Hall & Oates's remake of "Family Man" for the duo's 1982 album H20.

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. This was, however, a time of much friction with his record label. Virgin Records reportedly insisting that any future instrumental album should be billed as Tubular Bells 2. Oldfield's rebellious response was Amarok, an hour-long work featuring rapidly changing themes (supposedly devised to make cutting a single from the album impossible), unpredictable bursts of noise, and a very cleverly-hidden Morse code insult directed at Richard Branson. Although regarded by many fans as his greatest work, it was not a commercial success. His parting shot from the Virgin label was Heaven's Open, which continued the veiled attacks on Branson but was notable for being the first time Oldfield had contributed all the lead vocals himself. Some say this was due to his desire to quit Virgin as soon as possible (he had previously stated that his voice did not belong on his recordings).

(1992-2003) Warner years

On the Warner label Oldfield continued to embrace new musical styles, with Tubular Bells II (a re-interpretation of Tubular Bells., which was premiered at a live concert at Edinburgh Castle, The Songs of Distant Earth (the latter based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel of the same name) exhibiting a softer "New Age" sound, and Tubular Bells III (also premiered at a concert, this time in Horse Guards Parade, London), drawing from the dance music scene at his new home on the island of Ibiza.

During 1999 Oldfield released two albums. The first, Guitars, which 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 stages over the past millennium. The work was performed live in Berlin for the city's millennium celebrations in 1999-2000.

Most recently, he added to his repertoire the Music VR 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 2003 he released Tubular Bells 2003, a re-recording of the original Tubular Bells, on CD, SACD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-Audio. This was done to fix many imperfections in the original that existed due to the recording technologies of the early 1970s and limitations in time that he could spend in the recording studio. This celebrated the 30th anniversary of Tubular Bells, and Oldfield's 50th birthday. The DVD-Audio version has the same content as the CD version in surround, and some demos of the original Tubular Bells. The SACD version has a unique mix of the main Tubular Bells soundtrack, plus the same CD content as the CD and DVD. In the 2003 version, the original voice of the 'Master of Ceremonies' was replaced by the voice of John Cleese.

(2004- . . . .) Recent years

On 12 April, 2004 Oldfield launched his next virtual reality project called Maestro which contains music from the Tubular Bells 2003 album and also some new chillout melodies. The demo versions of the games can be found on the official Mike Oldfield homepage.

A double album, Light & Shade is released on Mercury Records, with whom Mike 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"). The album was released on 26 September 2005.

In an interview on BBC Radio 2's Steve Wright show, broadcast February 23, 2006, Oldfield elaborated on his next project saying he was working on a long instrumental — probably in three parts and without any drum loops. He also mentioned the possibility of a tour.

Although probably unrelated to this new project, he will be headlining the German Night of the Proms tour, consisting of 18 concerts in December 2006.

Discography

Studio albums

1973 – Tubular Bells
1974 – Hergest Ridge
1975 – Ommadawn
1978 – Incantations
1979 – Platinum (also named Airborn for the US release)
1980 – QE2
1982 – Five Miles Out
1983 – Crises
1984 – Discovery
1987 – Islands
1989 – Earth Moving
1990 – Amarok
1991 – Heaven's Open
1992 – Tubular Bells II
1994 – The Songs of Distant Earth
1996 – Voyager
1998 – Tubular Bells III
1999 – Guitars
1999 – The Millennium Bell
2002 – Tr3s Lunas aka Tres Lunas
2003 – Tubular Bells 2003
2005 – Light & Shade

Downloads

2006 – Mike Oldfield This iTunes download seems to be confusing many fans. It is unlike any other version known and fans have guessed that it is either; a demo version, a studio session, a live version with audience 'noise' removed or not Mike Oldfield at all! For now it seems something of a mystery and there is no information given by iTunes other than a photo of a vinyl record with the following information.

Title: Mike Oldfield Label: Crown Records, Culver City, California Tracks: Track 1. Tubular Bells, Track 2. Sailors Horn Pipe

(Track lengths appear as 25.01 and 22.46 respectively)

Soundtracks

1984 – The Killing Fields - soundtrack for the movie of the same name, The Killing Fields

Note: Although used in The Exorcist, Tubular Bells (1973) was not a soundtrack album.

Live albums

1979 – Exposed

Compilations, remixes, etc.

1975 – The Orchestral Tubular Bells
1976 – The Orchestral Hergest Ridge (Never officially released)
1976 – Boxed (Versions of Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn mixed into Quadraphonic. Also a 4th LP of shorter tracks)
1979 – Impressions
1980 – Music Wonderland
1981 – Episodes
1985 – The Complete Mike Oldfield
1987 – A Virgin Compilation
1990 – Collector's Edition Box I & II
1993 – Elements - The Best of Mike Oldfield
1993 – Elements - The Best of Mike Oldfield 1973-1991 (4CD)
1997 – XXV: The Essential
2001 – The Best of Tubular Bells
2002 – Collection
2006 – The Platinum Collection

Collaborations

1967 – The Sallyangie by Sallyangie (with his sister Sally Oldfield)
1970 – Shooting at the moon by Kevin Ayers and the Whole World
1971 – Edgar Broughton Band by The Edgar Broughton Band
1971 – Ear Of Beholder by Lol Coxhill
1972 – Nurses Song With Elephants by David Bedford
1973 – Whatevershebringswesing by Kevin Ayers and the Whole World
1973 – Legend by Henry Cow
1974 – Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt
1974 – The Confessions Of Dr Dream And Other Stories by Kevin Ayers
1974 – June 1, 1974 by Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico and Brian Eno (live album)
1974 – Star´s End by David Bedford
1974 – Unrest by Henry Cow
1975 – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by David Bedford
1976 – Odd ditties by Kevin Ayers (compilation of singles and unreleased tracks)
1976 – The Odyssey by David Bedford
1976 – Bandages by The Edgar Broughton Band
1977 – Instructions For Angels by David Bedford
1977 – Mathematicians Air Display (also known as a collaboration with Pekka Pohjola or The Consequences of Indecisions album (original title is Keesojen Lehto, under which it is available on CD from Love Records.))
1977 – Song Of The White Horse by David Bedford
1977 – Fine Old Tom by Tom Newman
1979 – Faerie Symphony by Tom Newman
1979 – Downwind by Pierre Moerlen's Gong
1979 – Downwind Live by Pierre Moerlen's Gong
1979 – Strange Man, Changed Man by Bram Tchaikovsky
1979 – Judy's Gone Down/Jung Lovers by James Vane (single)
1980 – The Concertina Record by Lea Nicholson
1980 – Joy (1981) by Skids
1990 – Natasha by Sally Nathasha Oldfield
1990 – Kâma-Sûtra by Michel Polnareff
1992 – Still life with guitar by Kevin Ayers
1992 – BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert by Kevin Ayers
1995 – Variations On A Rhythm Of Mike Oldfield by David Bedford
1996 – Singing The Bruise by Kevin Ayers
1997 – Snow Blind by Tom Newman
1998 – The Garden Of Love by Kevin Ayers
2000 – Official Bootleg One by Phil Beer
2000 – Do Ya Wanna Play, Carl by Carl Palmer
2002 – From The Banks Of The River Irwell by Max Bacon
2005 – Tag und Nacht by Schiller

References

External links

mikeoldfield.com - The official Mike Oldfield website (requires Flash plugin)

mikeoldfield.org - The official Mike Oldfield information service

tubular.net - Tubular Web, the largest and most well-established Mike Oldfield website.
oldfield.info - A community website; home to the #mike_oldfield IRC channel.
musicvr.com - Official MusicVR support website (purchase and subscription required).
amadian.net - "The Sound Of The Bell" (A huge Mike Oldfield Resource, contains much information on rarities).
^* - The Site of Distant Earth.

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