Mike Oldfield

English musician, songwriter and producer

Since 1953

Listen

Follow

Upcoming shows

Wed Oct 21 Fareham, United Kingdom · Fareham Live Tickets
Thu Oct 22 Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom · Southend Cliffs Pavilion Tickets
Mon Mar 1 Nottingham, United Kingdom · Nottingham Royal Concert Hall Tickets
Tue Mar 2 York, United Kingdom · York Barbican Tickets
Thu Mar 4 Edinburgh, United Kingdom · Edinburgh Usher Hall Tickets
Fri Mar 5 Glasgow, United Kingdom · Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Tickets
Sat Mar 6 Gateshead, United Kingdom · Gateshead Glasshouse Tickets
Mon Mar 8 Eastbourne, United Kingdom · Eastbourne Congress Theatre Tickets
Tue Mar 9 Guildford, United Kingdom · Guildford G Live Tickets
Thu Mar 11 Basingstoke, United Kingdom · Basingstoke The Anvil Tickets
Fri Mar 12 Oxford, United Kingdom · Oxford New Theatre Tickets
Sun Mar 14 Birmingham, United Kingdom · Birmingham The Alexandra Theatre Tickets
Mon Mar 15 Sheffield, United Kingdom · Sheffield City Hall Tickets
Tue Mar 16 Liverpool, United Kingdom · Liverpool Philharmonic Hall Tickets
Wed Mar 17 Manchester, United Kingdom · Manchester Bridgewater Hall Tickets
Fri Mar 19 London, United Kingdom · London Cadogan Hall Tickets
Sun Mar 21 Poole, United Kingdom · Poole Lighthouse Tickets
Mon Mar 22 Poole, United Kingdom · Brighton Dome Tickets

Add the dates to my calendar · RSS feed

Tour dates elsewhere: Songkick

About

Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is a retired English 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 25 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 the 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.

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Also in Français

Mike Oldfield, né le 15 mai 1953 à Reading (Berkshire), est un musicien multi-instrumentiste et auteur-compositeur britannique.

Il est surtout connu pour son premier album studio Tubular Bells (1973), qui est devenu un succès critique et commercial inattendu et a lancé sa carrière tout en permettant l'essor de la société Virgin. Il est également connu pour sa chanson pop Moonlight Shadow, succès commercial dans les années 1980.

Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0