[32] He leased studio time to fledgling artists, including multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, whose debut album Tubular Bells (1973) was the first release for Virgin Records and became a chart-topping best-seller.

Collaborating with EMI, Peter Jamieson orchestrated the partnership on Richard Branson's boat, leading to the concise and impactful title "Now That's What I Call Music!," inspired by a Danish Bacon poster[37] gifted to Simon Draper.

Richard Branson's introduction to the antique shop owned by Joan Templeman,[38] played a pivotal role in his growing fascination with old signs and advertisements, ultimately shaping the collection.

[64] The Daily Mail ran a campaign against his bid; Vince Cable, financial spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, suggested in the House of Commons that Branson's criminal conviction for tax evasion might be felt by some as a good enough reason not to trust him with public money.

[71] After the end of the season and the subsequent purchase of Brawn GP by Mercedes-Benz, Branson invested in an 80% buyout of Manor Grand Prix,[72][73] with the team being renamed Virgin Racing.

[74] Branson and Tony Fernandes, owner of Air Asia and Lotus F1 Racing, had a bet for the 2010 F1 season where the losing team's boss should work on the winner's airline during a charity flight dressed as a stewardess.

[80] Four commercial customers have already contracted for launches and two companies are developing standardised satellite buses optimised to the design of LauncherOne, in expectation of business opportunities created by the new smallsat launcher.

[91] The announced winner of the 2017 Virgin StartUp's Foodpreneur prize was The Snaffling Pig Co., which won a six-week rental space at Intu Lakeside, the retail center with the highest foot traffic in the United Kingdom.

[92] In October 2017, Branson appeared on the Season 9 Premiere of Shark Tank as a guest investor,[93] where he invested in Locker Board,[94] a sustainable line of skateboards invented by 11-year-old, Carson Kropfl.

[99][100] In September 2018, Branson took part in his fourth Virgin Strive Challenge, where he and a core team travelled more than 2,000 km from Cagliari in Sardinia to the summit of Mont Blanc entirely under human and sail power.

In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic which saw a dramatic decline in international air travel of around 60% globally,[102] Branson and Virgin attracted criticism by asking staff to take eight weeks' unpaid leave.

[107] On 11 July 2021, Richard Branson took a flight with Beth Moses, Sirisha Bandla and Colin Bennett and reached edge of space (86 kilometers or 53 miles) on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft called VSS Unity.

In March 2004, Branson set a record by travelling from Dover to Calais in a Gibbs Aquada in 1 hour, 40 minutes and 6 seconds, the fastest crossing of the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle.

After two days, four hours, winds of force 7 to 9 (strong gale), and seas of 40 feet (12 m), a 'monster wave' destroyed the spinnaker, washed a ten-man life raft overboard and severely ripped the mainsail.

[119] Branson has guest starred, usually playing himself, on several television shows, including Friends, Baywatch, Birds of a Feather, Only Fools and Horses, The Day Today, a special episode of the comedy Goodness Gracious Me and Tripping Over.

He was also the star of a reality television show on Fox called The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best (2004), in which sixteen contestants were tested for their entrepreneurship and sense of adventure and only lasted one season.

[110] His high public profile often leaves him open as a figure of satire—the 2000 AD series Zenith features a parody of Branson as a supervillain, as the comic's publisher and favoured distributor and the Virgin group were in competition at the time.

He is also caricatured in The Simpsons episode "Monty Can't Buy Me Love" as the tycoon Arthur Fortune, as the ballooning megalomaniac Richard Chutney (a pun on Branson, as in Branston Pickle) in Believe Nothing, and voiced himself in "The Princess Guide".

[121] He makes a number of brief and disjointed appearances in the documentary Derek and Clive Get the Horn (1979), which follows the exploits of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore recording their final comedy album.

Branson then made a cameo appearance in The Soup, playing an intern working under Joel McHale who had been warned against getting into water fights with Stephen Colbert, and being subsequently fired.

[126] At the 2012 Pride of Britain Awards on ITV on 30 October, Branson, along with Michael Caine, Elton John, Simon Cowell and Stephen Fry, recited Rudyard Kipling's poem "If—" in tribute to the 2012 British Olympic and Paralympics athletes.

[129] In the late 1990s, Branson and musician Peter Gabriel discussed with Nelson Mandela their idea of a small group of leaders working to solve difficult global conflicts.

Through Carbon War Room initiative he has focused efforts on finding sustainable alternatives for three industry sectors: shipping, energy efficiency and aviation and renewable jet fuels.

[134][135] Fundraising activity to support the school is achieved by The Sunday Times Fast Track 100, sponsored by Virgin Group, at its yearly event, where places to join Richard Branson on trips to South Africa to provide coaching and mentoring to students are auctioned to attendees.

[149] After Nagaenthran was executed by hanging at Changi Prison, Branson expressed disappointment in Singapore for its "relentless machinery of death" since it left "no room for decency, dignity, compassion, or mercy".

"[158][159] On 1 December 2020 Virgin Orbit launched The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship, designed to offer paid work experience and mentorship in the aerospace industry for 'extraordinary Black students.

[213] In 2007, Branson was ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church Monastery to conduct an on-flight wedding as part of a marketing effort for domestic flights in the USA on Virgin America airline.

[217] A spokesperson for Branson confirmed to The Sun newspaper that members of the band had been invited for a party on the island in 2010, but that he and friends and family in attendance had "no recollection" of the events and that "there would never have been any intention to offend or make anyone feel uncomfortable.

[219] Then in 2014 he broke the Guinness World Record for most people riding a surfboard by kiting with three women attached to him, including professional kiteboarder Susi Mai and entrepreneur Alison Di Spaltro.

Owing to his interest in humanitarian and ecological issues, Branson also lists Al Gore's best-selling book, An Inconvenient Truth, and The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock among his favourites.