In early 1973, a 19-year-old musician from south-east England was on the cusp of mega-stardom as he prepared to release his debut solo album. Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells was unlike anything else at the time and went on to transform the former folk artist into a multi-platinum-selling global sensation. In an exclusive interview for Prog, Oldfield celebrates the groundbreaking ambient record’s 50th anniversary reissue with the story of its creation and the sequels it inspired.
Undoubtedly one of the most naturally gifted musicians ever to have come out of England, Mike Oldfield celebrates his 70th birthday this year, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of his first solo album, Tubular Bells. Born in Reading, Berkshire, Mike’s first professional music experience came as half of folk duo, The Sallyangie, alongside his sister Sally. He then came to the attention of Kevin Ayers, playing on two classic albums, Shooting At The Moon and Whatevershebringswesing. By 1971, Oldfield was a bassist in blues-rock group The Arthur Louis Band and worked on solo material in his spare time. It was in September of that year that a fateful meeting occurred. The Arthur Louis Band decamped for recording sessions to The Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, a newly built facility owned by businessman Richard Branson and run by producer-engineers Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth.
It was Newman and Heyworth who first heard the solo material that Oldfield was working on. Impressed by the young multi-instrumentalist’s skill and vision, the pair were determined to record his work. They soon talked Branson into allocating official studio time for Oldfield’s project and the finished album went on to become the very first release on Virgin Records. Since then, Tubular Bells has grown into a phenomenon, and Mike Oldfield has enjoyed a long and illustrious career. Speaking from his home in the Bahamas, Oldfield talks with passion of his formative musical experiences. “I remember awakening to the existence of music when I was about six years old,” he says. “Our family had a Dansette record player at the time and my earliest memorable tune was The Teddy Bears’ Picnic. I tried to request it on the radio but they never played it for me.
“Then I began to hear my mother playing Puccini’s opera, Madama Butterfly, which was probabl
