Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield at Nokia Night of the Proms in December 2006

Michael Gordon "Mike" Oldfield (born May 15, 1953 in Reading , England ) is a British multi-instrumentalist , composer and songwriter . He mixes elements from rock , ethnic and classical music . He celebrated his breakthrough and his most famous composition with Tubular Bells. He had his greatest chart success in the 1980s with songs such as Moonlight Shadow , Shadow on the Wall and Pictures in the Dark .

life and work

Private

Oldfield's parents are Raymond and Maureen Oldfield. His sister Sally and brother Terry appeared on several of his albums. Sally Oldfield released several of her own albums and was quite successful commercially, for example with the title Mirrors .

Mike Oldfield earned a pilot's license in 1980.

Mike Oldfield was first married to Diana D'Aubigny for a few weeks. From his second marriage to Sally Cooper his children Molly, Dougal and Luke were born. From 1987 to 1991 he was in a relationship with Anita Hegerland , with whom he has a daughter named Greta and a son named Noah. In May 2003 Mike Oldfield celebrated his 50th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the publication of Tubular Bells, and married his third wife, Fanny. With her he has two sons named Jake and Eugene; this relationship ended in 2013. Oldfield's eldest son Dougal died on May 17, 2015 at the age of 33.

Tubular bells

Pattern from Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells

Oldfield's most famous composition is his debut album Tubular Bells (German: tubular bells ), which he recorded in 1972/73 and published on May 25, 1973. His approach was groundbreaking, because as a 19-year-old he recorded various musical styles with 20 different instruments on multiple soundtracks . The focus is on a theme with changing time signatures, which is unusual for popular music. After the release, the album sold faster than the newly founded record label Virgin Records from London could have the records reprinted. Tubular Bells made this label and its owner Richard Branson famous overnight. In 2014, he said that the album might never have existed without scary LSD trips.

The album quickly reached the top ten on the UK album charts and stayed there for an impressive 247 weeks. In the United States , Tubular Bells was best known because a short sequence from it was used in the hit horror film The Exorcist . For this version, Oldfield received a 1975 Grammy for "Best Instrumental Composition".

Follow-up albums (1974–1978)

Oldfield's second album Hergest Ridge was more pastoral and melodic, including the passage “Electronic Thunderstorm”, in which 90 guitars ( overdub ) can be heard simultaneously. The album was number 1 in the UK for three weeks. The successor Ommadawn contained many folkloric elements and is an early example of world music . 1978 Oldfield published his fourth studio work, the double album Incantations , in which he processed chants and literary texts.

In addition to his instrumental works, Oldfield interpreted traditional melodies for single releases. B. In Dulci Jubilo (1975), Portsmouth (1976) or the Wilhelm Tell Overture (1977). He also worked with other musicians. Eight of these collaborations were published as part of the Boxed collection in 1976 . In 1977 Mike and Sally Oldfield took part in the recording of the album Keesojen Lehto by the Finnish musician Pekka Pohjola . This album was re-released in 1981 under the name The Consequences Of Indecisions under Oldfield's name.

For the shy Mike Oldfield, the sudden success was a burden; there were escape reactions and breakdowns. In 1978 he took part in the controversial self-confidence course Exegesis, which also inspired him to write the self-accusing piece Guilty (1979). Oldfield went on an extensive tour of Spain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Great Britain. The resulting recordings were combined to form the live album Exposed , also released in 1979 .

Pop music phase (1979–1989)

In 1979 he recorded a new version of the topic for the BBC's then 20-year-old children's program , Blue Peter , and thus accompanied an entire generation of Britons.

With his fifth studio album, Platinum (1979), Oldfield broke new ground. The first half of the work consisted of an 18-minute instrumental piece, the second half contained short pieces, including a cover version of George Gershwin's I Got Rhythm . The album QE2 (1980) continued this trend. The album opened with a 10-minute piece of music Taurus I , the rest of QE2 consisted of shorter, mostly instrumental pieces and contained two cover versions. Oldfield began to write his own songs. Sung by various artists, he accompanied them with the guitar , usually with a longer solo . Five Miles Out (1982) and Crises (1983) returned to split into a longer instrumental piece and several shorter individual pieces, with the proportion of songs now increasing. Crises also featured Oldfield's biggest hit single , Moonlight Shadow sung by Maggie Reilly , which is often mistakenly believed to be about the death of John Lennon , and the hit Shadow on the Wall (1983, sung by Roger Chapman ).

In 1984 Oldfield released the album Discovery (1984), which contained the hit To France (1984), sung again by Maggie Reilly. In the same year he composed the soundtrack for Roland Joffé's film The Killing Fields - Schreiendes Land . After further single releases, including Pictures in the Dark (1985), Oldfield took a creative break before returning with Islands in 1987 .

At the time, Oldfield was living with the Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland , whose voice had appeared in several of his songs since Pictures In The Dark .

Separation from Virgin (1989–1991)

During the 1980s, there were increasing conflicts with Virgin Records . Oldfield felt pushed into the pop music direction by his record company and his instrumental works were badly marketed. Suggestions to call a new instrumental album Tubular Bells II for the purpose of better marketing , he rejected repeatedly. He gave in to the pop music demands in 1989 when he released Earth Moving for the first time, an album without an instrumental piece. The following year, however, a rebellious response followed with Amarok (1990). The one-hour work contains constantly changing topics. The continuous 60 minute long track on the CD could not simply be divided into two parts for both sides of an LP . The Morse code found on the album at minute 48 means "fuck off rb", which should underline his quarrel with Richard Branson , the boss of Virgin. It is an experimental album with humorous parts and varied styles. On Oldfield's last record for Virgin, " Heaven's Open " (which he released as "Michael Oldfield" in 1991), he sang all of the pieces himself, for which he took singing lessons. He later said his voice didn't belong on his records.

Warner (1992-2005)

After joining Warner , Oldfield released the continuation of his first album, which Virgin refused to accept. Tubular Bells II (1992) followed closely the structure of the first work, but processed other themes and musical influences. This was followed by the album The Songs of Distant Earth (1994) based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke , the Celtic-folkloric Voyager and Tubular Bells III , which picks up on the influences of techno and dance music from his homeland Ibiza at the time . In 1999 Mike Oldfield released the album Guitars , in which all notes were generated with the help of guitars .

To celebrate the turn of the millennium in 1999/2000, Oldfield performed at the Victory Column in Berlin for the “Art in Heaven Concert”, where he also performed parts from the album The Millennium Bell live in front of almost 600,000 spectators .

In 2002 the album Tr3s Lunas was released . At the same time he published a computer game of the same name, which, however, had no commercial success. However, the game was well received by fans because it contained many new melodies . The successor Maestro was technically not a further development, contained hardly any new music and was also unsuccessful.

In May 2003, on the occasion of his 50th birthday and the 30th anniversary of the publication of Tubular Bells , he released Tubular Bells 2003 , a new recording of his first work, on CD and audio DVD in personally mixed 5.1 surround sound . Oldfield said that it was able to improve many of the imperfections of the original, due to the recording technology of the time and the time constraints on studio recording (page 1 of the megaseller had to be recorded in just one week in 1973).

Mercury Records (since 2005)

Mike Oldfield on Night of the Proms (2006)

In May 2005, Mike Oldfield signed a contract with Mercury Records for three new albums. The first is a double album that was released on October 7, 2005 and is called " Light + Shade ". As on Tr3s Lunas , he is committed to the chill-out trend. The album contains software (U-MYX) with which you can create your own mix.

In December 2006 Mike Oldfield could be seen live in Germany for the first time since the Millennium Concert in 1999. He was one of the headliners at the Nokia Night of the Proms . He played special arrangements of his classics "Tubular Bells" and " Ommadawn ". In addition, "Moonlight Shadow", "To France" and "Shadow On The Wall" could be heard. The vocals for these pieces were provided by Miriam Stockley , who had already sung for him during the Millennium Concert, and John Miles .

On March 14, 2008, three days before the UK release, Oldfield's album Music Of The Spheres was released in Germany. He then returned to his classical roots in collaboration with musicians such as the pianist Lang Lang and the New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra . A week earlier (March 7th) the work was premiered in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao , Spain , in front of invited guests and with the participation of Hayley Westenra.

From 2009, Oldfield's early albums appeared in remixed versions on his new record company, Mercury. So far are Tubular Bells (June 2009), Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn (June 2010), Incantations (July 2011), Platinum and QE2 (July 2012), Five Miles Out and Crises (September 2013), as well as Discovery and the soundtrack for The Killing Fields (January 2016) has been re-released. In addition to a new stereo remix personally produced by Oldfield, the CDs also contain bonus pieces such as single B-sides, demo versions, in the case of Hergest Ridge, for the first time since 1976, his original mix from 1974, and new ones in a limited deluxe edition on accompanying bonus DVDs 5.1 surround mixes in Dolby Digital .

On July 27, 2012, he performed at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London and accompanied the scenic performance with newly arranged excerpts from Tubular Bells , Tubular Bells III and In dulci jubilo (sometimes played with huge tubular bells in the back of the stage). On February 1, 2013, the remix album Tubular Beats by Mike Oldfield and Torsten Stenzel was released under the Edel label , for which Tarja Turunen recorded the vocals for the song Never Too Far .

In October 2013, Mike Oldfield announced the release of a new album on January 27, 2014. The album called Man on the Rocks , co-produced with Stephen Lipson , was finally released on March 3, 2014 and contained eleven new songs, all sung by Luke Spiller .

On January 20, 2017, his latest album Return to Ommadawn , which refers to the album Ommadawn , was released.

Discography

→ Main article : Mike Oldfield / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1973	Tubular bells	DE37 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	UK1 × 9 Nine-fold platinum (286 weeks)UK	US3 gold (45 weeks)US	First published: May 25, 1973 UK sales: + 2,760,000
1974	Hergest Ridge	-	-	-	UK1 gold (17 weeks)UK	US87 (10 weeks) US	First published: August 28, 1974 Sales: + 100,000
1975	The Orchestral Tubular Bells	-	-	-	UK17th silver (7 weeks)UK	-	First published: Jan 17, 1975 Sales: + 60,000
	Ommadawn	-	-	-	UK4th gold (23 weeks)UK	US146 (7 weeks) US	First published: October 28, 1975 Sales: + 100,000
1978	Incantations	DE41 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	UK14th platinum (18 weeks)UK	-	First published: November 24, 1978 Sales: + 300,000
1979	Platinum	DE11 gold (97 weeks)DE	AT17 (1½ months) AT	-	UK24 gold (10 weeks)UK	-	First published: November 23, 1979 Sales: +350,000
1980	QE2	DE12 gold (59 weeks)DE	AT18 (4½ months) AT	-	UK27 gold (12 weeks)UK	US174 (3 weeks) US	First published: October 31, 1980 Sales: +350,000
1982	Five Miles Out	DE7th gold (48 weeks)DE	AT10 (3½ months) AT	-	UK7th gold (27 weeks)UK	US164 (5 weeks) US	First published: March 16, 1982 Sales: +350,000
1983	Crises	DE1 platinum (50 weeks)DE	AT2 (9 months) AT	CH5 (20 weeks) CH	UK6th gold (30 weeks)UK	-	First published: May 27, 1983 Sales: + 600,000
1984	Discovery	DE1 gold (34 weeks)DE	AT3 (19 weeks) AT	CH1 (28 weeks) CH	UK15th gold (16 weeks)UK	-	First published: June 25, 1984 Sales: +350,000
1987	Iceland	DE9 gold (22 weeks)DE	AT10 (½ month) AT	CH4 (14 weeks) CH	UK29 gold (5 weeks)UK	US138 (8 weeks) US	First published: September 7, 1987 Sales: +350,000
1989	Earth moving	DE1 gold (23 weeks)DE	AT21 (2 months) AT	CH3 gold (15 weeks)CH	UK30 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 10, 1989 Sales: + 275,000
1990	Amarok	DE16 (14 weeks) DE	AT26 (3 weeks) AT	CH30 (3 weeks) CH	UK49 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: June 14, 1990
1991	Heaven's Open	DE13 (15 weeks) DE	-	CH16 (4 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: February 18, 1991
1992	Tubular Bells II	DE7th gold (23 weeks)DE	AT4 (16 weeks) AT	CH19 (8 weeks) CH	UK1 × 2 Double platinum (30 weeks)UK	-	First published: August 31, 1992 Sales: + 850,000
1994	The Songs of Distant Earth	DE33 (12 weeks) DE	AT20 (5 weeks) AT	CH23 (12 weeks) CH	UK24 gold (9 weeks)UK	-	First published: November 21, 1994 Sales: + 100,000
1996	Voyager	DE15 (12 weeks) DE	AT16 (7 weeks) AT	CH15 (9 weeks) CH	UK12 gold (6 weeks)UK	-	First published: August 21, 1996 Sales: + 100,000
1998	Tubular Bells III	DE9 (9 weeks) DE	AT4 (10 weeks) AT	CH26 (6 weeks) CH	UK4th gold (9 weeks)UK	-	First published: August 31, 1998 Sales: + 100,000
1999	Guitars	DE16 (9 weeks) DE	AT35 (2 weeks) AT	CH34 (2 weeks) CH	UK40 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: May 24, 1999
	The Millennium Bell	DE39 (7 weeks) DE	AT43 (2 weeks) AT	CH94 (2 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: November 26, 1999
2002	Tr3s Lunas	DE19 (8 weeks) DE	AT8 (11 weeks) AT	CH44 (5 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: June 3, 2002
2003	Tubular Bells 2003	DE29 (5 weeks) DE	-	CH55 (2 weeks) CH	UK51 (1 week) UK	-	First published: May 26, 2003
2005	Light + Shade	DE26 (3 weeks) DE	-	CH76 (1 week) CH	-	-	First published: October 7, 2005
2008	Music of the Spheres	DE14 (7 weeks) DE	AT62 (2 weeks) AT	CH37 (4 weeks) CH	UK9 silver (7 weeks)UK	-	First published: March 14, 2008 Sales: + 60,000
2014	Man on the Rocks	DE3 (5 weeks) DE	AT10 (4 weeks) AT	CH9 (5 weeks) CH	UK12 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: March 3, 2014
2017	Return to Ommadawn	DE3 (9 weeks) DE	AT6 (5 weeks) AT	CH8 (6 weeks) CH	UK4 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: January 20, 2017

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Collaboration with other musicians (selection)

• Jon Anderson : In High Places (1983), Shine (1986)
• Kevin Ayers : Shooting At The Moon (1970), Whatevershebringswesing (1972), The Confessions Of Dr Dream And Other Stories (1974), Odd Ditties (1976), Flying Start (1987), Still Life With Guitar (1992), BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (1992), Singing The Bruise (1996), The Garden Of Love (1998)
• Kevin Ayers , Eno , Nico & John Cale : June 1, 1974 (1974)
• Max Bacon : Hostage , Nothing But / Bridge To Paradise (1989), From The Banks Of The River Irwell (2002)
• David Bedford : Nurses Song With Elephants (1972), Star's End (1974), Hergest Ridge (1974), The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (1975), The Odyssey (1976), Instructions For Angels (1977), Incantations (1978) , Exposed (1979), Star Clusters, Nebulae & Places in Devon / The Song Of The White Horse (1985), Variations On A Rhythm Of Mike Oldfield (1995)
• Adrian Belew : Holy (1989)
• The Edgar Broughton Band : Edgar Broughton Band (1971), Bandages (1976)
• Steve Broughton : Tubular Bells (1973)
• Roger Chapman : Shadow on the Wall (1983)
• Phil Collins : Taurus 1 , Sheba (1980)
• Lindsay L. Cooper : Tubular Bells (1973), Hergest Ridge (1974)
• Henry Cow : Legend (1973), Unrest (1974)
• Lol Coxhill : Ear Of The Beholder (1971)
• Michael Cretu : The Time Has Come (1987)
• Helen Pepsi DeMacque : Tubular Bells II; Millenium Bell
• Cara Dillon : Man in the Rain (1998)
• Paul Hardcastle : 19 (1985)
• Anita Hegerland : Pictures In The Dark (1985), North Point , The Time Has Come , When the Night's on Fire (1987), Innocent (1989), Heaven's Open (1991)
• Karl Jenkins : Music of the Spheres (2008)
• Aled Jones : Pictures In The Dark (1985)
• Carol Kenyon : Nothing But / Bridge To Paradise (1989)
• Lang Lang : Music of the Spheres (2008)
• Pierre Moerlen : Ommadawn (1975), Pierre Moerlen's Gong - Downwind (1979), Exposed (1979), Platinum (1979), Pierre Moerlen's Gong - Live (1980)
• Paddy Moloney : Ommadawn (1975), Amarok (1990)
• Tom Newman : Fine Old Tom (1977), Faerie Symphony (1979), Heaven's Open (1991), Snow Blind (1997)
• Sally Oldfield : Tubular Bells (1973), Hergest Ridge (1974), Ommadawn (1975), Incantations (1978), Natasha (1990), Tr3s Lunas (2002)
• Terry Oldfield : Hergest Ridge (1974), Ommadawn (1975)
• Barry Palmer : Crime of Passion (1983), Tricks of the Light , Poison Arrows , Discovery , Saved by a Bell (1984), Pictures In The Dark (1985)
• Carl Palmer : Mount Teide (1982), Do Ya Wanna Play, Carl? (2001)
• Simon Phillips : Crises (1983), Discovery (1984), The Wind Chimes (1987), Heaven's Open (1991)
• Courtney Pine : Heaven's Open (1991)
• Pekka Pohjola : Keesojen Lehto (also known as The Mathematician's Air Display or The Consequences Of Indecisions ) (1977), Exposed (1979)
• Michel Polnareff : Kama Sutra (1990)
• Maddy Prior : Incantations (1978), Exposed (1979)
• Raf Ravenscroft : Earth Moving (1989)
• Maggie Reilly : Taurus 1 , Sheba , Conflict , Arrival , Celt (1980), Mistake , Family Man , Orabidoo , Five Miles Out (1982), Moonlight Shadow , Foreign Affair (1983), To France , Crystal Gazing , Tricks Of The Light , Talk About Your Life (1984), Blue Night (1989)
• Alan Rickman : Tubular Bells II (1992)
• Sallyangie : Children Of The Sun (1968)
• Schiller : Day and Night (2005)
• Skids : Joy (1981)
• Vivian Stanshall : Tubular Bells (1973), The Bell (1993)
• Torsten Stenzel : Tubular Beats (2013)
• Chris Thompson : Runaway Son , See The Light (1989)
• Tarja Turunen : Tubular Beats (2013)
• Bonnie Tyler : Islands (1987)
• Hayley Westenra : Music of the Spheres (2008)
• Robert Wyatt : Rock Bottom (1974), Theater Royal Drury Lane : 8th September 1974 (2005)

Trivia

• The asteroid (5656) Oldfield was named after the musician .
• The free audio software Amarok was named after Oldfield's work Amarok.

literature

• Mike Oldfield: A Man and His Music . Booksurge Llc 2006, ISBN 1-4196-4926-4 .
• Mike Oldfield: Changeling - The Autobiography of Mike Oldfield . Virgin Books, 2007, ISBN 0-7535-1307-2 .

Web links

Commons : Mike Oldfield  - Collection of Images

• Official Mike Oldfield Information Service
• Mike Oldfield at Musik-Sammler.de
• Mike Oldfield in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Mike Oldfield at MusicBrainz (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Paul Lester: Mike Oldfield: 'We wouldn't have had Tubular Bells without drugs' In: The Guardian , March 20, 2014 (interview, English).
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Son of Mike Oldfield died at the age of 33. In: t-Online.de . Retrieved May 22, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Mike Oldfield's son drama - Dougal (33) collapsed dead. In: Express of May 21, 2015 (accessed May 21, 2015).
4. ↑ Mike Oldfield, We wouldn't have had Tubular Bells without drugs , The Guardian , March 20, 2014
5. ↑ This is the year of the expanding man .... In: tubular.net , November 25, 1978 (English).
6. ↑ Time Machine: 'Blue Peter' theme gets 1970s update , medium.com, June 18, 2019
7. ^ Gareth Randall interviews Mike Oldfield. In: tubular.net , June 1, 1995 (interview, English).
8. ↑ Dizzee Rascal, Emeli Sandé, Mike Oldfield perform at Olympics opening ceremony. NME, July 27, 2012, accessed July 29, 2012 . 
9. ↑ Chart positions: DE AT CH UK US
10. ^ Rob Copsey: The UK's biggest studio albums of all time. officialcharts.com, October 13, 2018, accessed November 9, 2018 .