Mike Oldfield

Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English retired musician, songwriter and producer best known for his debut album ''Tubular Bells'' (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a guitarist, Oldfield played a range of instruments, which included keyboards and percussion, as well as vocals. He had adopted a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock, world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient and new age music. His discography includes 26 studio albums, nine of which have reached the UK top ten.

Oldfield took up the guitar at age ten and left school in his teens to embark on a music career. From 1967 to 1970, he and his sister Sally Oldfield were a folk duo, the Sallyangie, after which he performed with Kevin Ayers before starting work on ''Tubular Bells'' in 1971. The album caught the attention of Richard Branson, who agreed to make it the first ever release on his new label Virgin Records. Its opening was used in the horror film ''The Exorcist'' and the album went on to sell over 2.7 million copies in the UK. Oldfield followed it with ''Hergest Ridge'' (1974), ''Ommadawn'' (1975) and ''Incantations'' (1978). Like ''Tubular Bells'', these albums consist of longform, mostly instrumental pieces.

In the late 1970s, Oldfield began to tour and release more commercial and song-based music, beginning with ''Platinum'' (1979), ''QE2'' (1980) and ''Five Miles Out'' (1982). His most successful album of this period was ''Crises'' (1983), which features the worldwide hit single "Moonlight Shadow" with vocalist Maggie Reilly. After leaving Virgin and signing with WEA, the 1990s saw him release ''Tubular Bells II'' (1992) and ''Tubular Bells III'' (1998) among other albums, and he experimented with virtual reality and gaming content with his MusicVR project. In 2012, Oldfield performed at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games held in London, while 2017 saw the release of his final album, ''Return to Ommadawn''. Oldfield's label announced his retirement in 2023. Provided by Wikipedia