Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English retired musician, songwriter and producer best known for his debut studio album Tubular Bells (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success.

In 1971, Oldfield started work on Tubular Bells which caught the attention of Richard Branson, who agreed to release it on his new label, Virgin Records.

His most successful album of this period was Crises (1983), which features the worldwide hit single "Moonlight Shadow" with vocalist Maggie Reilly.

After signing with WEA in the early 1990s, Oldfield's most significant album of the decade was Tubular Bells II (1992) and he experimented with virtual reality and gaming content with his MusicVR project.

When he was thirteen, the family moved to Harold Wood, Essex, and Oldfield attended Hornchurch Grammar School where, having already displayed musical talent, he earned one GCE qualification in English.

[13] He learned technique by copying parts from songs, by folk guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, that he played on a portable record player.

"[14] By the time he was twelve, Oldfield played the electric guitar and performed in local folk and youth clubs and dances, earning as much as £4 (equivalent to £98 in 2023) per gig.

He auditioned as bassist for Family in 1969 following the departure of Ric Grech, but the group did not share Roger Chapman's enthusiasm towards Oldfield's performance.

[17] Oldfield spent much of the next year living off his father and performing in an electric rock band named Barefoot that included his brother Terry on flute, until the group disbanded in early 1970.

[19] All three albums were recorded at Abbey Road Studios, where Oldfield familiarised himself with a variety of instruments, such as orchestral percussion, piano, Mellotron and harpsichord, and started to write and put down musical ideas of his own.

[21] Branson agreed to release Tubular Bells as the first record on the Virgin label and secured Oldfield a six-album deal with an additional four albums as optional.

Like Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge is a two-movement instrumental piece, this time evoking scenes from Oldfield's Herefordshire country retreat.

In 1976, Oldfield and his sister joined his friend and band member Pekka Pohjola to play on his album Mathematician's Air Display, which was released in 1977.

Initially marketed as a limited pressing of 100,000 copies, the strength of sales for the album were strong enough for Virgin to abandon the idea shortly after, transferring it to regular production.

[19] During the tour Oldfield released the disco-influenced non-album single "Guilty", for which he went to New York City to find the best session musicians and write a song with them in mind.

[28] Oldfield's fifth album, Platinum, was released in November 1979 and marked the start of his transition from long compositions towards mainstream and pop music.

This was followed by the European Adventure Tour 1981, during which Oldfield accepted an invitation to perform at a free concert celebrating the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in Guildhall.

Of these, "Islands", sung by Bonnie Tyler and "Magic Touch", with vocals by Max Bacon (in the US version) and Glasgow vocalist Jim Price (Southside Jimmy) in the rest of the world,[29] were the major hits.

[30] Oldfield's rebellious response was Amarok, an hour-long work featuring rapidly changing themes, unpredictable bursts of noise and a hidden Morse code insult, stating "Fuck off RB", allegedly directed at Branson.

[34] By early 1992, Oldfield had secured Clive Banks as his new manager and had several record label owners listen to his demo of Tubular Bells II at his house.

[35] Oldfield continued to embrace new musical styles, with The Songs of Distant Earth (based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel of the same name) exhibiting a softer new-age sound.

In 1998, Oldfield produced the third Tubular Bells album (also premiered at a concert, this time in Horse Guards Parade, London), drawing on the dance music scene at his then new home on the island of Ibiza.

On 12 April 2004, Oldfield launched his next virtual reality project, Maestro, which contains music from the Tubular Bells 2003 album and some new chillout melodies.

[51] In 2012, Oldfield was featured on Journey into Space, an album by his brother Terry, and on the track "Islanders" by German producer Torsten Stenzel's York project.

In 2015, Oldfield told Steve Wright on his BBC radio show that a sequel album to Tubular Bells was in early development, which he aimed to record on analogue equipment.

Among the more notable of these are: Oldfield used a modified Roland GP8 effects processor in conjunction with his PRS Artist to get many of his heavily overdriven guitar sounds from the Earth Moving album onwards.

[60] Some examples of keyboard and synthesised instruments which Oldfield has made use of include Sequential Circuits Prophet-5s (notably on Platinum and The Killing Fields), Roland JV-1080/JV-2080 units (1990s), a Korg M1 (as seen in the "Innocent" video), a Clavia Nord Lead and Steinway pianos.

It was answered by Amy Lauer; the pair dated, but the relationship was troubled by Oldfield's bouts of alcohol and substance abuse and it ended after two months.

"[19][82] Following the Exegesis seminar, the formerly reclusive Oldfield granted press interviews, posed nude for a promotional photo shoot for Incantations and went drinking with news reporters.

[87] Oldfield has remarked that while he is close to other celebrity residents in the Bahamas, he chose not to live within a wealthy gated community with staff and described his lifestyle as "austere.