Michael Gordon "Mike" Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English musician and com

poser. His work blends progressive rock with world, folk, classical, electronic,
ambient, and new-age music. He is best known for his 1973 album Tubular Bells
w
hich launched Virgin Records and became a hit after its opening was used as the
theme for the film The Exorcist
and for his 1983 hit single "Moonlight Shadow".[
1] He is also known for his rendition of the Christmas piece "In Dulci Jubilo".
Oldfield has released more than 20 albums with the most recent being a rock them
ed album titled Man on the Rocks, released in 2014.

Contents [hide]
1 Biography 1.1 Early life
1.2 Early career
1.3 Virgin years (1973 1991)
1.4 Warner years (1992 2003)
1.5 Mercury years (since 2004)
2 Multi-instrumentalism and instrument choices 2.1 Guitars
2.2 Keyboards
2.3 Recording
3 Personal life
4 Discography 4.1 Studio albums
5 See also
6 Bibliography
7 Musical scores
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Mike Oldfield's parents are Raymond Oldfield, a general practitioner, and Mauree
n Liston, an Irish nurse.[2] His sister Sally and brother Terry are also success
ful musicians and have appeared on several of Mike's albums. He also had a young
er brother, David, who had Down's syndrome and died in infancy.[3] Oldfield was
born in the Battle Hospital in Reading, Berkshire, and he attended St. Joseph's
Convent School, Highlands Junior School, St. Edward's preparatory school,[4] and
Presentation College in Reading. When he was 13, he moved with his parents to H
arold Wood in Essex and attended Hornchurch Grammar School, where, having alread
y begun his career in music, he took just one GCE examination, in English.[4]
Early career[edit]
Oldfield's career began fairly early, playing acoustic guitar in local folk club
s. At this time, he already had two 15-minute instrumental pieces in which he wo
uld "go through all sorts of moods", precursors to his landmark 1970s compositio
ns. In his early teens, Oldfield was involved in a beat group playing The Shadow
s-style music (he has often cited Hank Marvin as a major influence, and would la
ter cover The Shadows' song "Wonderful Land"). In 1967, Oldfield and his sister
formed the folk duo The Sallyangie and, after exposure in the local folk scene,
were signed to Transatlantic Records. An album, Children of the Sun, was issued
in 1968. After The Sallyangie disbanded, he formed another duo, called Barefoot,
with his brother, which took him back to rock music.[5]

In 1970, Oldfield joined The Whole World

former Soft Machine vocalist Kevin Ayer
s's backing group
playing bass and occasionally lead guitar. He is featured on t
wo Ayers albums, Whatevershebringswesing and Shooting at the Moon. The band also
included keyboardist and composer David Bedford, who quickly befriended Oldfiel
d, encouraged him in his composition of an early version of Tubular Bells and la
ter arranged and conducted an orchestral version of the Tubular Bells album. Old
field was also the reserve guitarist for the musical Hair and played with Alex H
arvey.[6]
Having recorded sections of this early version of Tubular Bells as demo pieces,
Oldfield attempted to persuade record labels to take on the Tubular Bells projec
t. Nothing came of his efforts until September 1971, when he attended recording
sessions at The Manor Studio owned by a young Richard Branson and run by enginee
rs Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth
as bass guitarist for the Arthur Louis Band. Br
anson already had several business ventures and was about to start his own recor
d label, Virgin Records. Newman and Heyworth heard some of Oldfield's demo music
and took it to Branson and Simon Draper, who eventually gave Oldfield one week'
s worth of recording time at The Manor. During this week, he completed "Part One
" of Tubular Bells; "Part Two" was then compiled over a number of months.[7]
Virgin years (1973 1991)[edit]
Tubular Bells is Oldfield's most famous work. The instrumental composition was r
ecorded in 1972 and released on 25 May 1973 as the inaugural album of Richard Br
anson's label Virgin Records. The album was groundbreaking. Oldfield played more
than twenty different instruments in the multi-layered recording, and its style
moved through many diverse musical genres. Its 2,630,000 UK sales put it at No.
34 on the list of the best-selling albums in the country. The title track becam
e a top 10 hit single in the US after the opening was used in The Exorcist film.
It is today considered to be a forerunner of the new-age music movement.[8] In
1974, Oldfield played guitar on the critically acclaimed album Rock Bottom by Ro
bert Wyatt. In late 1974, the follow-up LP, Hergest Ridge, was No. 1 in the UK f
or three weeks before being dethroned by Tubular Bells. Although Hergest Ridge w
as released over a year after Tubular Bells, it reached No. 1 first. Tubular Bel
ls spent 11 weeks (10 of them consecutive) at No. 2 before its one week at the t
op. In 1979, Oldfield's music was used as the musical score for The Space Movie,
a Virgin movie that celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.[
9]
Like Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge is a two-movement instrumental piece, this tim
e 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,[10] and in 1978 by Incantations, which introduced more dive
rse choral performances from Sally Oldfield, Maddy Prior, and the Queen's Colleg
e Girls Choir. In 1975, Oldfield recorded a version of the Christmas piece "In D
ulci Jubilo" which charted at No. 4 in the UK. Oldfield's 1976 rendition of "Por
tsmouth" remains his best-performing single on the UK Singles Chart, reaching No
. 3.[11]
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 Ai
r Display, which was released in 1977. The album was recorded and edited at Oldf
ield's Througham Slad Manor in Gloucestershire by Oldfield and Paul Lindsay.[12]
Around the time of Incantations, Oldfield underwent a controversial self-asserti
veness therapy course known as Exegesis, which had a significant effect on his p
ersonality for some years, he has described, making him more confident and out-g
oing.[13] Possibly as a result, the formerly reclusive musician staged a major T

our of Europe to promote the album, chronicled in his live album Exposed, much o
f which was recorded at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham. In 1979,
he recorded a version of the signature tune of the British children's televisio
n programme Blue Peter, which was used by the show for 10 years.[14] In 1981, Ol
dfield was asked to compose a piece for the Royal Wedding of Charles, Prince of
Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer, titled "Royal Wedding Anthem".[15]
The early 1980s saw Oldfield make a transition to mainstream pop music, beginnin
g with the inclusion of shorter instrumental tracks and contemporary cover versi
ons on Platinum and QE2 (the latter named after the ocean liner). Soon afterward
s he turned to songwriting, with a string of collaborations featuring various le
ad vocalists alongside his characteristic searing guitar solos. The best known o
f these is "Moonlight Shadow", his 1983 hit with Maggie Reilly. The most success
ful Oldfield composition on the US pop charts during this period was actually a
cover version
Hall & Oates's cover of Oldfield's "Family Man" for their 1982 alb
um H2O. Released as the album's third single, it hit the Top 10 during the sprin
g of 1983 and was a hugely popular MTV music video.
Oldfield later turned to film and video, writing the score for Roland Joff's accl
aimed film The Killing Fields and producing substantial video footage for his al
bum Islands. Islands continued what Oldfield had been doing on the past couple o
f albums, with an instrumental piece on one side and rock/pop singles on the oth
er. Of these, "Islands", sung by Bonnie Tyler and "Magic Touch", with vocals by
Max Bacon (in the US version) and Glasgow vocalist Southside Jimmy (in other ver
sions),[16] were the major hits. In the US "Magic Touch" reached the top 10 on t
he Billboard album rock charts in 1988. During the 1980s, Oldfield's then-wife,
Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland, contributed vocals to many songs including "Pi
ctures in the Dark".
Earth Moving was released in July 1989 and was a moderate success. The album was
the first to consist solely of rock/pop songs, several of which were released a
s singles: "Innocent" and "Holy" in Europe, and "Hostage" in the US for album ro
ck stations. This was, however, a time of much friction with his record label. V
irgin Records pressured Oldfield to billing any future instrumental album as Tub
ular Bells 2.[citation needed] Oldfield's rebellious response was Amarok, an hou
r-long work featuring rapidly changing themes (supposedly devised to make cuttin
g a single from the album impossible[citation needed]), unpredictable bursts of
noise, and a hidden Morse code insult, stating "Fuck off RB", directed at Richar
d Branson.[17] It was not a commercial success. His parting shot from the Virgin
label was Heaven's Open, released under the name 'Michael Oldfield'. The album,
notable for being the first time Oldfield had contributed all the lead vocals h
imself, consisted of songs attacking Virgin Records and the rapidly changing ins
trumental piece "Music from the Balcony".[citation needed]
Warner years (1992 2003)[edit]
The very first thing Oldfield did when arriving at his new label, Warner Bros.,
was to write and release Tubular Bells II, the sequel to his first record on Vir
gin, as his final insult to his former label. It was premiered at a live concert
at Edinburgh Castle. He then continued to embrace new musical styles, with The
Songs of Distant Earth (based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel of the same name) exhi
biting a softer new-age sound. In 1994, he also had an asteroid, 5656 Oldfield,
named after him.[18][19]
In 1995, Oldfield continued to embrace new musical styles by producing the Celti
c-themed album Voyager. In 1992, Oldfield met Luar na Lubre, a Galician Celtic-f
olk band (from A Corua, Spain). 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 co

ncert, this time in Horse Guards