The teenage multi-instrumentalist whose Tubular Bells launched Virgin Records
Mike Oldfield was fifteen when he walked out of school rather than cut his hair. A few years later, his largely instrumental Tubular Bells became the first release on Richard Branson's new Virgin label, sold over 2.7 million copies in Britain and supplied the eerie opening of The Exorcist.
Born in Reading on 15 May 1953 to a family doctor and an Irish nurse, Oldfield had a hard childhood. His parents placed a younger brother with Down syndrome in an institution and told the other children the baby had died, and his mother, hooked on prescribed barbiturates, spent much of her remaining life in mental institutions. He picked up guitar at ten, learning by copying the folk players Bert Jansch and John Renbourn from records, and by twelve was earning up to four pounds a gig.
After quitting school he formed the folk duo the Sallyangie with his sister Sally, then in 1970 won the bass job in Kevin Ayers's backing band the Whole World, though bass was new to him. Sessions at Abbey Road let him experiment with orchestral percussion, piano, Mellotron and harpsichord, and he began sketching a long instrumental piece first called Opus One. He was also briefly a reserve guitarist in Hair, sacked for playing Let the Sunshine In in 7/8 time.
Labels ignored his demo until he attended sessions at The Manor, a studio owned by Branson, in September 1971. Released on 25 May 1973, Tubular Bells had him playing more than twenty instruments and ranks 42nd among Britain's best-selling albums. Its follow-up Hergest Ridge reached the top of the UK chart first, only to be unseated by Tubular Bells itself, which had lingered in second place for 11 weeks. In 1975 the theme earned him a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition.
Later records turned more commercial: Crises in 1983 carried the worldwide hit Moonlight Shadow, sung by Maggie Reilly, and Portsmouth, from 1976, remains his best UK single after peaking at number 3. He left Virgin for WEA, made Tubular Bells II and III, performed at the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, and signed off with Return to Ommadawn in 2017. His label announced his retirement in 2023.
Source: Mike Oldfield
