Mike Oldfield: 50 years of progressive rock

In the early seventies, a precociously talented 19-year-old English musician managed to convince studio bosses (and notably a struggling Richard Branson) into granting him studio time. He had a plan for an ambitious long piece of music that would become “Tubular Bells”.

The investment paid off handsomely when a part of the music was used in the soundtrack to “The Exorcist”, projecting the album into the charts worldwide and introducing millions of people to progressive rock as a genre.

Oldfield went on to have a successful if discreet career, and Branson has thanked him for giving the Virgin group its first major financial success. "I never thought that the word 'tubular bells' was going to play such an important part in our lives,” he said in 2013. “Virgin going into space most likely wouldn't have existed if we hadn't hired that particular instrument."

There have been numerous re-issues and new versions of Tubular Bells over the years, with occasional live performances. The 50^th anniversary tour originally kicked off in 2023 and has now announced another long list of concerts up until 2025. It is not, however, foreseen that the reclusive Oldfield will actually appear at them.

Among the many odd things you should know about Tubular Bells:

The iconic sleeve was designed by Trevor Key, reportedly paid just £100 (EUR 120 or USD 134) but who went on to design numerous other high-profile releases.

• The working title for the album was “Opus One”.
• The album has sold in excess of 20 million copies.
• In 1985, Oldfield’s publisher demanded a co-writing credit for a similarity to the Paul Hardcastle hit, “19”.
• The title of the fourth album, “Ommadawn”, is a phonetic spelling of the Gaelic “amadán”, idiot. The chant that can be heard, "Amadán ag ceól", means "Idiot singiing".
• Many of the wide range of instruments were hired for the occasion. But the actual tubular bells were from a previous John Cale recording session.
• Not happy with the sound he was getting from them, Oldfield chose a harder hammer and cracked one of the bells.
• In 1986, an interactive Commodore 64 version of the album was released, which used a sound chip to play a simplified re-arrangement of the album, accompanied by some simple 2D visual effects.
• American singer Tori Amos has frequently used the opening Tubular Bells theme in her live show.
• Virgin Airlines dubbed one of their aircraft "Tubular Belle".
• Mike recorded demos for a fourth instalment in the Tubular Bells series in 2017, but never finished them.

The 2024 and 2025 dates include shows across the UK and Europe. More details on Mike Oldfield tour info.

(Michael Leahy. Photo: UMG)

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