 Born on 15 May 1953 in Reading, Michael Gordon Oldfield was a normal boy who went to school. On one of his birthdays he got a guitar from his father, who was a doctor, and began to play guitar all day. When he was 14, he left school and played guitar in local folk clubs. On his 15th he and his sister Sally started the folk duo The Sallyangie, and they released two singles and an album called "Children of The Sun". The folk duo lasted one year and Mike formed a folk group Barefoot with his brother Terry. Barefoot didn't last long either, and in 1969 Mike joined Kevin Ayers and The Whole World. He began there as a bassist. The Whole World featured the keyboardist David Bedford, who worked a lot with Mike later in Mike's career. The band ended in 1971. Mike began to spend much time at the Abbey Road Studios to make a demo of Tubular Bells, and he tried out all the instruments. He also had a job as guitarist at the musical Hair. Mike was kicked out of the studios many times by The Beatles because they practiced there too. As Mike said: "They were the gods there". After the demo was finished, he gave the demo tape to every record company and asked to listen to it. But none liked it and said it wasn't "commercial". Then he met Richard Branson, who ran some record stores, and Richard liked the demo very much. Mike also met Tom Newman who was a friend of Richard Branson. Richard decided to launch a record label and started a contract with Mike. Tom gave Richard the idea to borrow £25,000 and buy the Manor near Oxfordshire. There they build a studio. Mike moved in and learned how to enigeer and produce. And of course, he began to make Tubular Bells.
Mike didn't feel very happy. He retreated to a house on a remote hilltop in Herefordshire, were he damped his panic attacks. After the succes of Tubular Bells, which stayed a few years on top of the UK charts, Mike made Hergest Ridge, a more gentle piece of music. After that he made Ommadawn, which means "the fool" in Gaelic. After Ommadawn, Mike moved to his house, to evade the constant pressure of music business. It didn't work well with Mike Oldfield. He had a up and down life. With his family it didn't work well either. His mother began to become very depressive when Mike was 4. She spend most of here life in mental hospitals. Mike: "I witnessed some terrible scenes of humiliation and violence. So many times. Especially in the night. I saw her being carted off in an ambulance. I would go and see her the next day in these weird places full of very weird people, then she would come back and be all right for a week or so and then gradually get more and more upset, and then in the night it would happen again. For years." In 1975, his mother commited suicide. In 1978, he was in a very bad state. His long instrumental pieces became not popular anymore. His girlfriend left him, and he was drinking heavily.
Mike lost his fear of performing on stage as a result of Exegesis, and organised his first tour in 1979. Mike spended much money in it. All the concerts were sold out, but he had lost more money then earned. In the following years, Mike began to make more pop songs. First came Platinum, a nice album, featuring some covers: North Star of Phillip Glass and Gershwin's "I Got Rythm", which was sang by Wendy Roberts. Then Q.E.2 (which stands for Queen Elisabeth 2) came, with covers of Abba's Arrival and Wonderful land of The Shadows. Here Mike began working with Maggie Reilly who would become very important in his career. Phil Collins drummed for Mike in Q.E.2. A few years later Five Miles Out, with the hit song Family Man with Maggie Reilly, was brought out. After that Crises came, where Mike experimented with the Fairlight, as you can hear in the instrumental song Crises. Moonlight Shadow and Shadow On The Wall became hits all over the world. Discovery was made, featuring nine typical lovely pop songs with Maggie Reilly and Barry Palmer, and one lovely instrumental song The Lake. Mike made a film score for the movie The Killing Fields, with the help of David Bedford. In 1987, Islands appeared, featuring a new singer. The Norwegian Anita Hegerland. A video was also made of the album which features the longest video clip ever, the Wind Chimes. Mike had four co-producers: Simon Phillips, a drummer who was in Mike's career since Crises, Alan Shacklock, Geoffrey Downes, and Michael Cretu, who is now famous with his Enigma recordings. Michael Cretu and Mike Oldfield are very good friends. And there were four singers on Islands: Anita Hegerland, Bonnie Tyler, Kevin Ayers and Jim Price. After that a typical pop album appeared. Earth Moving features no instrumental song but is a very good album. On this album Maggie Reilly had sung for the last time. Mike Oldfield had a big conflict with Richard Branson and, against the modern songs, Mike made a very good acoustic album called Amarok. This album is sometimes known as Ommadawn 2. This album features only one instrumental song, which is 60 minutes long. And it has some strange instruments too. Hoover, shoes, fingernails, spoon, glass of water, toy dog, teeth and many other instruments were used in Amarok. Richard Branson first wanted to sell this record with the name Tubular Bells 2, because it would sell better. Mike refused and finally it was called Amarok. However, the sales were poor. Too bad, because this is one of the best albums and it is acoustic too! That's why it's one of the best albums for every Oldfield fan.
Tubular Bells 2 was made! With the help of Trevor Horn it was a brilliant piece of music. Oldfield organised a concert at The Edingburgh Castle, which was a giant success. The Songs Of Distant Earth appeared two years later, with CD-ROM material in it, which can be viewed on a Mac. This album was based on the book The Songs Of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke. Voyager was released in 1996, while Mike was setting a new home on Ibiza. The album features lovely Celtic songs, inspired by Scottish, Irish and Spanish folk songs. In 1998, Mike made Tubular Bells 3, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Tubular Bells. This album features dance, rock and flamenco music, which was inspired by the staying on Ibiza. Mike had an accident once on Ibiza. He was drunk behind the wheel of his white Mercedes and crashed. His license was taken by the police temporary. After that, Mike was bored on Ibiza and moved back to his house in Buckinghamshire. He made Guitars this year, which only features guitars. No computers. And the drums and synths were made by guitars. This is a very gentle album. Mike's Millenium Bell was released in 1999. It celebrates 2000 years of music. It features a lot of orchestra, and one "dancey" track, "The Millenium Bell". Mike played songs from The Millenium Bell, and older songs on the Berlin 2000 concert. |
The first record
of Tubular Bells appeared in June 1973. And it was the first official release
of Virgin Records; V2001. For this piece of music were no one could find
a category for, the public and critics were very enthusiastic. Over 16
million copies of Tubular Bells were sold worldwide. And Mike began to
become more famous, and because he played so many instruments.
With a little hope,
he enlisted in a course in Exegesis, an "encounter group movement flourishing
at the time, in which clients were encouraged to face their worst terrors."
And it helped. It helped very much. A new Mike Oldfield was born. The media
was amazed when they saw Oldfield. He had short hair, and gave many interviews.
He took flying lessons, to loose his fear of flying. He was photographed
naked in the pose of Rodin's The Thinker. He made the album Incantations
and the disco record Guilty. And he married the sister of the Exegesis
leader, Robert D'Aubigny, but divorce her three months later.
Heaven's Open was
made very quickly because then Mike had ended his contract with Virgin.
He moved to WEA and had a big suprise for everyone.