Mike Oldfield

The son of a doctor, Oldfield was a young guitar protégé who funneled his amazing imagination into Tubular Bells - the groundbreaking 1973 album that became an international phenomenon and launched Richard Branson's Virgin empire. Oldfield's first serious step into the music was accompanying sister Sally Oldfield in the group The Sallyangie, who made one album Children of the Sun in 1968. He later joined Kevin Ayers' band before playing 20 different instruments on his complex instrumental opus Tubular Bells; which became the first release on the Virgin label and remains one of the biggest-selling British albums of all time. Heavily featured in the movie The Exorcist, it's now regarded as the godfather of new age music. Oldfield went on to experiment with other styles and even had hit singles with In Dulci Jubilo (1975), Portsmouth (1976) and Moonlight Shadow (1983) featuring singer Maggie Reilly. He later wrote film scores, most notably The Killing Fields, but during the 1990s he returned to his original theme, releasing Tubular Bells 2 and 3.

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