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92-623: Capitol Music Group was formed in February 2007 as a merger of Capitol Records and Virgin Records America in an effort by EMI to restructure and save an average of $ 217 million yearly. Both Virgin Records and Capitol Records, however, remained imprints of the label. Virgin Records CEO Jason Flom was named the head of the division, with Capitol Records CEO Andy Slater resigning after receiving

184-540: A Korg M1 (as seen in the " Innocent " video), a Clavia Nord Lead and Steinway pianos. In recent years, he has also made use of software synthesis products, such as Native Instruments . Oldfield has self-recorded and produced many of his albums, and played the majority of the featured instruments, largely at his home studios. In the 1990s and 2000s he mainly used DAWs such as Apple Logic , Avid Pro Tools and Steinberg Nuendo as recording suites. For composing orchestral music Oldfield has been quoted as using

276-601: A "very fast side-to-side vibrato" and "violinist's vibrato". Oldfield has stated that his playing style originates from his musical roots playing folk music and the bass guitar. Over the years, Oldfield has owned and used a vast number of synthesizers and other keyboard instruments. In the 1980s, he composed the score for the film The Killing Fields on a Fairlight CMI . 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),

368-425: A 7" single) and as a result allowed this relatively unknown band a massive audience as the album sold over 60,000 copies and also reached number 12 in the charts, though it was later redacted its spot on the grounds of the cover price. Other early albums include Gong 's Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible, Pt. 1) , which Daevid Allen has been quoted as having never been paid for. The first single release for

460-473: A connection with Virgin, and some UK and European Virgin albums that were distributed internationally (instead of being manufactured in each country) named Caroline as their American distributor. Some Caroline records bore the label name Caroline Blue Plate , which was mainly used for reissuing on CD many early progressive rock albums and artists from Virgin and Caroline's UK branches. The first Canadian editions were distributed by WEA, and were parallel issues of

552-651: A consortium led by Sony/ATV Music Publishing acquired EMI Music Publishing for $ 2.2 billion. However, the European Union ruled that Sony/ATV would represent over half of all the charting hits in the United Kingdom, and required the company to auction off Virgin Music and Famous Music UK, as well as twelve unrelated authors. In December 2012, BMG Rights Management acquired the Virgin and Famous publishers, and concluded

644-564: A deal with Mercury Records UK , who secured the rights to his catalogue when the rights had reverted to himself. Mercury acquired the rights to Oldfield's back catalogue, in July 2007. Oldfield released his first album on the Mercury label, Light + Shade , in September 2005. It is a double album of music of contrasting mood: relaxed (Light) and upbeat and moody (Shade). In 2006 and 2007, Oldfield headlined

736-525: A demo version of pieces from the album, was released digitally. The album was nominated for a Classical Brit Award, the NS&;I Best Album of 2009. In 2008, when Oldfield's original 35-year deal with Virgin Records ended, the rights to Tubular Bells and his other Virgin releases were returned to him, and were then transferred to Mercury Records. Mercury announced that his Virgin albums would be reissued with bonus content from 2009. In 2009, Mercury released

828-1101: A further £110,000 to his airline. After being acquired by Thorn EMI, Virgin launched several subsidiaries like Realworld Records , Innocent Records , blues speciality label Point Blank Records , and indie music label Hut Recordings , and continued signing new and established artists like Korn , A Fine Frenzy , Thirty Seconds to Mars , Tina Turner , Beenie Man , The Rolling Stones , Spice Girls , The Smashing Pumpkins , We Are Scientists , The Kooks , dcTalk (mainstream releases, contract ended in 2000), Belinda Carlisle , Meat Loaf , Placebo , Janet Jackson (contract ended in 2006), Daft Punk (contract ended in 2008), My Favorite Highway , Does It Offend You, Yeah? , The Future Sound of London , The Chemical Brothers , Brooke Allison , The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus , The Almost , Mariah Carey (contract ended in 2002), N.E.R.D , Laura Marling , Swami , RBD , Thalía and Priscilla Renea . Because business models increasingly diverged, Thorn EMI shareholders voted in favour of demerger proposals on 16 August 1996. The resulting media company became

920-435: A hidden Morse code insult, stating "Fuck off RB", allegedly directed at Branson . Oldfield did everything in his power to make it impossible to make extracts and Virgin returned the favour by barely promoting the album. in February 1991, Oldfield released his final album for Virgin, Heaven's Open , under the name "Michael Oldfield". It marks the first time he handles all lead vocals. In 2013, Oldfield invited Branson to

1012-407: A new Telecaster guitar. A 50th anniversary edition of Tubular Bells was released on 26 May 2023. It features a new master of the original album along with an additional previously unreleased 8-minute track, the "Introduction to Tubular Bells 4 ". "Introduction to Tubular Bells 4 " was recorded by Oldfield as a demo in 2017. His record label indicated that he had decided not to go forward with

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1104-538: A pension reportedly worth more than $ 15 million. As the head of the label, Flom reported directly to EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli. A total of 283 artists signed to Capitol Music Group, including Mims , LeToya Luckett , J. Holiday , Royal Bliss , Mack 10 , Faith Evans , Fat Joe , and since 2007, Katy Perry , Barbara Pravi , Paul McCartney , Duncan Laurence , Calum Scott , Ferras , and Rucka Rucka Ali . In 2014 both Morrissey and Neil Diamond were confirmed to have signed with Capitol Records, Morrissey having signed

1196-603: A portable record player. He tried to learn musical notation but was a "very, very slow" learner, saying: "If I have to, I can write things down. But I don't like to." 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. During a six-month break from music that Oldfield had around this time, he took up painting. In May 1968, when Oldfield turned fifteen, his school headmaster requested that he cut his long hair. Oldfield refused, left abruptly and never returned. It

1288-411: A purple label with round logo up to 1992 when Virgin was acquired internationally. Soon after Virgin Records was founded, the label created a music publisher for its artists, who also served as songwriters. Starting in the 1980s, Virgin Music signed songwriters from other record labels. After Virgin was acquired by EMI, the publisher was folded into EMI Music Publishing as EMI Virgin Music. In 2012,

1380-550: A range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock , world , folk , classical , electronic , ambient and new age music . 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 . In 1971, Oldfield started work on Tubular Bells which caught

1472-857: A recording deal to record it professionally came to nothing. In September 1971, Oldfield, now a session musician and bassist for the Arthur Louis Band , attended recording sessions at The Manor Studio at Shipton-on-Cherwell , Oxfordshire , owned by businessman Richard Branson and run by engineers Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth. Branson already had several business ventures and was about to launch Virgin Records with Simon Draper. Newman and Heyworth heard some of Oldfield's demos and took them to Branson and Draper, who eventually gave Oldfield one week of recording time at The Manor, after which Oldfield had completed what became "Part One" of his composition, Tubular Bells . He recorded "Part Two" from February to April 1973. Branson agreed to release Tubular Bells as

1564-628: A relationship with Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland that lasted until 1991. The pair met backstage at one of Oldfield's gigs while touring Germany in 1984. They lived in Switzerland, France and England. They have two children. In the late 1990s, Oldfield posted in a lonely hearts column in a local Ibiza newspaper. 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. In 2001, Oldfield began counselling and psychotherapy. Between 2002 and 2013, Oldfield

1656-541: A reserve guitarist in a stage production of Hair at the Shaftesbury Theatre , where he played and gigged with Alex Harvey . After ten performances Oldfield grew bored of the job and was fired after he decided to play his part for "Let the Sunshine In" in 7/8 time . By mid-1971, Oldfield had assembled a demo tape containing sections of a longform instrumental piece initially titled "Opus One". Attempts to secure

1748-402: A restructuring that would see Capitol operate under the same umbrella with Interscope Geffen A&M , Jubelirer left her post and was replaced by former Geffen head Tom March, who reports to ICLG chair John Janick . As a result both CMG and IGA combined their operations into a new Universal Music label unit, Interscope Capitol Labels Group. Source: Through flagship label Capitol, CMG handles

1840-595: A segment about the National Health Service . This track appears on the officially released soundtrack album Isles of Wonder . Later in 2012, the compilation album Two Sides: The Very Best of Mike Oldfield was released and reached No. 6 in the UK. In October 2013, the BBC broadcast Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story , a documentary on Oldfield's life and career. Oldfield's rock-themed album of songs, titled Man on

1932-471: A sequel album to Tubular Bells was in early development, which he aimed to record on analogue equipment. Later in 2015, Oldfield revealed that he had started on a sequel to Ommadawn . The album, named Return to Ommadawn , was finished in 2016 and released in January 2017. It went to No. 4 in the UK. Oldfield again hinted at a fourth Tubular Bells album when he posted photos of his new equipment, including

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2024-483: A top-10 hit single in the US after the opening was used in the film The Exorcist in 1973. It is today considered to be a forerunner of the new-age music movement . In 1974, Oldfield played the guitar on the critically acclaimed album Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt . In late 1974, his follow-up LP, Hergest Ridge , was No. 1 in the UK for three weeks before being dethroned by Tubular Bells . Although Hergest Ridge

2116-573: A two-album deal. However, the latter was given to Parlophone as a result of that label's sale to Warner Music. In 2010, Virgin Records was spun off from Capitol Music Group to form Virgin Music Group ; as of 2013, however, the Virgin Music Group was dissolved, resulting in Virgin Records returning to its placement under CMG. In November 2012, it was announced that Steve Barnett would become

2208-644: A worldwide success over time, with the success of platinum performers Paula Abdul , Janet Jackson , Devo , Tangerine Dream , Genesis , Phil Collins , OMD , the Human League , Culture Club , Simple Minds , the Spice Girls , Lenny Kravitz , the Sex Pistols , and Mike Oldfield among others, meaning that by the time it was sold, it was regarded as a major label, alongside other large international independents such as A&M and Island Records . Virgin Records

2300-468: Is Tres Lunas launched in 2002, a virtual game where the player can interact with a world full of new music. This project appeared as a double CD, one with the music and the other with the game . In 2002 and 2003, Oldfield re-recorded Tubular Bells using modern equipment to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the original. He had wanted to do it years before but his contract with Virgin kept him from doing so. This new version featured John Cleese as

2392-462: The Earth Moving album onwards. Oldfield has also been using guitar synthesizers since the mid-1980s, using a 1980s Roland GR-300 /G-808 type system, then a 1990s Roland GK2 equipped red PRS Custom 24 (sold in 2006) with a Roland VG8, and most recently a Line 6 Variax . Oldfield has an unusual playing style, using fingers and long right-hand fingernails and different ways of creating vibrato:

2484-611: The Capitol Music Group imprint, now also owned by UMG, since 2012. The US operations had also taken on the name Virgin Records. A minor number of artists remained on Virgin Records America's roster, which was mostly occupied with European artists such as Bastille , Barbara Pravi , Circa Waves , Corinne Bailey Rae , Ella Eyre , Grizfolk , Walking on Cars , Seinabo Sey , and Prides ; American artists include Knox Hamilton, L'Tric, Loren Gray , and Rise Against . Virgin Classics

2576-682: The Night of the Proms tour, consisting of 21 concerts across Europe. Also in 2007, Oldfield released his autobiography, Changeling . In March 2008, Oldfield released his first classical album, Music of the Spheres ; Karl Jenkins assisted with the orchestration. In the first week of release the album topped the UK Classical chart and reached No. 9 on the main UK Album Chart. A single " Spheres ", featuring

2668-468: The Queen's College Girls Choir. When it was released on 1 December 1978, the album went to No. 14 in the UK and reached platinum certification for 300,000 copies sold. In 1979, Oldfield supported Incantations with a European tour that spanned 21 dates between March and May 1979. The tour was documented with the live album and concert film, Exposed . Initially marketed as a limited pressing of 100,000 copies,

2760-474: The Tubular Bells 4 project and that this "may well be the last piece ever to be recorded by Oldfield". Oldfield's 1970s recordings were characterised by a very broad variety of instrumentation predominantly played by himself, plus assorted guitar sound treatments to suggest other instrumental timbres (such as the "bagpipe", "mandolin", "Glorfindel" and varispeed guitars on the original Tubular Bells ). During

2852-461: The "Gemini" or "Twins" logo) was designed by English artist and illustrator Roger Dean : a young naked woman in mirror image with a large long-tailed lizard and the word "Virgin" in Dean's familiar script. A variation on the logo was used for the spin-off Caroline Records label. The first release on the label was the progressive rock album Tubular Bells by multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield , who

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2944-514: The 1980s Oldfield became expert in the use of digital synthesizers and sequencers (notably the Fairlight CMI ) which began to dominate the sound of his recordings: from the late 1990s onwards, he became a keen user of software synthesizers . He has, however, regularly returned to projects emphasising detailed, manually played and part-acoustic instrumentation (such as 1990's Amarok , 1996's Voyager and 1999's Guitars ). While generally preferring

3036-781: The 1980s was Culture Club. In 1978, Virgin set up US operations first in New York on Perry Street, with distribution from Atlantic Records . Virgin Records soon moved operations to New Jersey along with a short-lived subdivision called Virgin International , handled by independent New Jersey–based distributor Jem Records . Virgin International was used mainly for progressive rock artists and reissues of earlier Virgin / Atlantic albums such as Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Fish Rising by Steve Hillage, which Columbia chose not to reissue. Virgin International also issued albums by some of Virgin's reggae artists, including Gregory Isaacs . At

3128-685: The Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols in the window. Afterwards they signed other new wave groups: Public Image Ltd , Boxer , Culture Club , Fingerprintz , Gillan , Holly and the Italians , The Human League (whose " Don't You Want Me " was the label's first chart-topping single, in 1981), Magazine , Skids , the Motors , Penetration , the Ruts , Shooting Star , Simple Minds , and XTC . After modified versions of

3220-466: The Dark , and XTC . Mike Oldfield 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. Though primarily a guitarist, Oldfield played a range of instruments, which included keyboards and percussion, as well as vocals. He had adopted

3312-701: The EMI Group. In 1997, Virgin absorbed the remainder of EMI USA , which earlier consolidated EMI America Records and Manhattan Records , with Capitol Records acquiring EMI's other American operations, and in 1998, opened a country music division called Virgin Records Nashville, of which record producer Scott Hendricks was president. The label's signees comprised Julie Reeves , Jerry Kilgore , Roy D. Mercer , Tom Mabe , Chris Cagle , Clay Davidson , and River Road . In 2001, Virgin Nashville closed and its roster

3404-516: The Master of Ceremonies, as Viv Stanshall , who spoke on the original, died in the interim. Tubular Bells 2003 was released in May 2003. 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. The games have since been made available free of charge on Tubular.net. In 2005, Oldfield signed

3496-467: The Melody Makers , Redhead Kingpin & The F.B.I. , Neneh Cherry , Steve Winwood , Hindsight and, after her MCA contract ran out in 1991, Belinda Carlisle. Virgin Records America's releases were distributed through WEA again by Atlantic Records until 1992. The label was then acquired by EMI-Capitol Special Markets . In 1996, Virgin Records offered Janet Jackson one of the best and highest deals at

3588-454: The Moon (1970) and Whatevershebringswesing (1971), and played mandolin on Edgar Broughton Band (1971). 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. While doing so Oldfield took up work as

3680-676: The Muffins and Nash the Slash signed to Dindisc in the UK as well; both artists had releases in Canada and the UK on Dindisc. In 1983, an independent Virgin Records Canada Inc. company was created, three years before a similar move occurred in the US. From this time onward, Virgin Canada used unique label designs not seen in other countries: a red label with five horizontal bars across the top and an extra-large "scrawl" logo from 1983 to 1985, followed by

3772-565: The Rocks , was released on 3 March 2014 by Virgin EMI . The album was produced by Steve Lipson . The album marked a return of Oldfield to a Virgin branded label, through the merger of Mercury Records UK and Virgin Records after Universal Music's purchase of EMI. The track "Nuclear" was used for the E3 trailer of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain . In 2015, Oldfield told Steve Wright on his BBC radio show that

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3864-476: The Sun (1969). After they split in the following year Oldfield had a nervous breakdown . 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. 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

3956-552: The UK top ten. His final album, Return to Ommadawn , was released in 2017. Oldfield's label announced his retirement in 2023. Michael Gordon Oldfield was born in Reading, Berkshire , on 15 May 1953, to Raymond Henry Oldfield (1923–2016), an English general practitioner , and Maureen ( née Liston), an Irish nurse from Charleville, County Cork , who emigrated to England to pursue career in nursing. Oldfield has two elder siblings, sister Sally and brother Terence . When Oldfield

4048-476: The US version) and Glasgow vocalist Jim Price (Southside Jimmy) in the rest of the world, were the major hits. In the US "Magic Touch" reached the top 10 on the Billboard album rock charts in 1988. During the 1980s, Oldfield's then-partner, Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland , contributed vocals to many songs including " Pictures in the Dark ". Released in July 1989, Earth Moving features seven vocalists across

4140-462: The Virgin Classics artist roster and catalogue in its Erato Records division, and the "Virgin Classics" name, along with "EMI Classics," disappeared. Branson and Powell had initially run a small record shop called Virgin Records and Tapes on Notting Hill Gate , London, specializing in krautrock imports, and offering bean bags and free vegetarian food for the benefit of customers listening to

4232-695: The Virgin Records label exclusively until gradually other parts of the Virgin Group adopted it, including Virgin Atlantic , Virgin Mobile and Virgin Money . Virgin Records was sold by Branson to Thorn EMI in June 1992 for a reported US$ 1 billion (around £560 million) (equivalent to $ 2,171,211,762 in 2023), with a special non-competition clause that would prevent Branson from founding another recording company during

4324-509: The air") on his Voyager album. 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 . This album was inspired by themes from Tubular Bells , but differed in lacking a clear two-part structure. During 1999, Oldfield released two albums. The first, Guitars , used guitars as

4416-609: The album with Trevor Horn as producer. Released in August 1992, the album went to No. 1 in the UK. Its live premiere followed on 4 September at Edinburgh Castle which was released on home video as Tubular Bells II Live . Oldfield supported the album with his Tubular Bells II 20th Anniversary Tour in 1992 and 1993, his first concert tour since 1984. By April 1993, the album had sold over three million copies worldwide. Oldfield continued to embrace new musical styles, with The Songs of Distant Earth (based on Arthur C. Clarke 's novel of

4508-475: The album's nine tracks. It is Oldfield's first to consist solely of rock and pop songs, several of which were released as singles: " Innocent " and " Holy " in Europe and "Hostage" in the US. For his next instrumental album, Virgin insisted that Oldfield use the title Tubular Bells 2 . Oldfield's rebellious response was Amarok , an hour-long work featuring rapidly changing themes, unpredictable bursts of noise and

4600-598: The attention of Richard Branson , who agreed to release it 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), all of which feature longform and 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

4692-557: The back catalogs and has assumed the copyrights of master recordings from the following labels and sub-labels acquired or distributed by UMG's predecessor EMI throughout its existence: Virgin Records America Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group . They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson , Simon Draper, Nik Powell , and musician Tom Newman . They grew to be

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4784-410: The chairman and CEO of the company. With EMI's absorption (sans Parlophone) into Universal Music Group complete, Capitol Music Group is now part of UMG's five label units in the UK. The Beatles have been confirmed to appear on Capitol UK. In April 2013, Robbie McIntosh was named head of Capitol's international operations. In November 2016, the company's chairman and CEO Steve Barnett announced that

4876-459: The company has three endeavors planned out that include music, film and literary projects that pay tribute to eight decades' worth of artists signed to the label. In November 2020, Jeff Vaughn was named new Chairman/CEO, replacing Steve Barnett. In December 2021, Michelle Jubelirer was promoted to chair and CEO of Capitol Music Group. She reported to Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge . In early 2024, after Grainge announced

4968-410: The compilation album The Mike Oldfield Collection 1974–1983 , that went to No. 11 in the UK chart. In 2008, Oldfield contributed a new track, "Song for Survival", to the charity album Songs for Survival in support of Survival International . Oldfield's daughter Molly played a large part in the project. In 2010, lyricist Don Black said that he had been working with Oldfield. In 2012, Oldfield

5060-460: The day after the ceremony and said he had made a mistake. From 1979 to 1986, Oldfield was in a relationship with Sally Cooper, whom he met through Virgin. They had three children. In 2015, his son Dougal died after collapsing while working at a film production company in London. By the time of birth of their third child, in 1986, the relationship had broken down and they amicably split. Oldfield entered

5152-530: The deal in May 2013. Virgin Music was renamed BMG VM Music, while Famous Music became BMG FM Music. Before its demise, Virgin Music's songwriters included Iggy Pop , Texas , Ozzy Osbourne , Cannibal Corpse , Nirvana , Winger , Wax , Tears for Fears , The Prodigy , Goo Goo Dolls , Tool , The Crystal Method , Terence Trent D'Arby , Lenny Kravitz , Ben Harper , Warrant , Mark Ronson , Devo , Culture Club , Take That , Bullet for My Valentine , Robbie Williams , Wayne Hector , Orchestral Manoeuvres in

5244-481: The death of his mother, Maureen. In 1975, Oldfield recorded a version of the Christmas piece " In Dulci Jubilo " which charted at No. 4 in the UK. In 1975, Oldfield received a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Composition in "Tubular Bells – Theme from The Exorcist ". In 1976, Oldfield and his sister joined his friend and band member Pekka Pohjola to play on his album Mathematician's Air Display , which

5336-432: The first record on the Virgin label and secured Oldfield a six-album deal with an additional four albums as optional. Tubular Bells was released on 25 May 1973. Oldfield played more than twenty different instruments in the multi-layered recording , and its style moved through diverse musical genres. Its 2,760,000 UK sales puts it at No. 42 on the list of the best-selling albums in the country. The title track became

5428-506: The first single " To France " and subsequent Discovery Tour 1984. Oldfield later turned to film and video, writing the score for Roland Joffé 's acclaimed film The Killing Fields and producing substantial video footage for his album Islands . Islands continued what Oldfield had been doing on the past couple of albums, with an instrumental piece on one side and rock/pop singles on the other. Of these, " Islands ", sung by Bonnie Tyler and " Magic Touch ", with vocals by Max Bacon (in

5520-509: The five years following the agreement (see the final paragraph in EU Merger Decision IV/M202 of 27 April 1992). It now faces competition from Branson's new label: V2 Records . Branson sold Virgin Records to fund Virgin Atlantic which at that time was coming under intense anti-competitive pressure from British Airways . In 1993, BA settled a libel action brought by Branson over BA's " dirty tricks " campaign, giving him £500,000 and

5612-515: The group disbanded in early 1970. In February 1970, Oldfield auditioned to become the bassist in the Whole World, a new backing band that former Soft Machine vocalist Kevin Ayers was putting together. He landed the position despite the bass being a new instrument for him, but he also played occasional lead guitar and later looked back on this time as providing valuable training on the bass. Oldfield went on to play on Ayers's albums Shooting at

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5704-505: The label PM in a new-wave outpost, a move that plunged the record company into the mainstream of the punk rock era. Under the guidance of Tessa Watts , Virgin's Head of Publicity (and later, also Director of Production), the Pistols rocketed the label to success. Shortly afterwards, the Nottingham record shop was raided by police for having a window display of the Sex Pistols' album Never Mind

5796-475: The label was Kevin Coyne 's "Marlene" (b/w "Everybody Says"), taken from his album Marjory Razorblade and released in August 1973. Coyne was the second artist signed to the label after Oldfield. Although Virgin was initially one of the key labels of English and European progressive rock, the 1977 signing of the Sex Pistols (who had already been signed and then dropped by both EMI and A&M ) reinvented

5888-633: The label's president, with Virgin Records now operating as an imprint of latter label. In February 2021, the Universal Music Group announced that it will rebrand the Caroline Music Group as Virgin Music Label & Artist Services, the name change was "inspired and influenced by the spirit and ethos of the iconic Virgin Records label". In September 2022, UMG consolidated Virgin Music Label & Artist Services, Ingrooves Music Group , and

5980-554: The music on offer. The first real store was above a shoe shop at the Tottenham Court Road end of Oxford Street . After making the shop into a success, they turned their business into a fully fledged record label. The name Virgin , according to Branson (in his autobiography), arose from Tessa Watts , a colleague of his, when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin – as they were all new to business – like "virgins". The original Virgin logo (known to fans as

6072-448: The opening of St. Andrew's International School of The Bahamas, where two of Oldfield's children were pupils. This was the occasion of the debut of Tubular Bells for Schools , a piano solo adaptation of Oldfield's work. 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. Oldfield signed with Rob Dickins of WEA Warner and recorded

6164-445: The pattern of one long composition with shorter songs. The first single from the album, " Moonlight Shadow ", with Maggie Reilly on vocals, became Oldfield's most successful single, reaching No. 4 in the UK and No. 1 in nine other countries. The subsequent Crises Tour in 1983 concluded with a concert at Wembley Arena to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Tubular Bells . The next album, Discovery , continues with this trend, being

6256-433: The recently acquired mtheory Artist Partnerships as part of the newly launched division Virgin Music Group . UMG also appointed mtheory founders JT Myers and Nat Pastor as Co-CEOs of the new division. The Virgin label was distributed in the US by Atlantic from 1973 to 1975. During this period, 14 albums were issued. All had been previously issued in the UK on Virgin, although one album, Marjory Razorblade by Kevin Coyne,

6348-592: The same early 14 albums issued in the US by Virgin/Atlantic. In 1975, distribution transferred to Columbia (as it had in the US), but the following year distribution was transferred again to Polydor Records (which changed its name to PolyGram by 1980), and issued a different and larger selection of records from what was being issued in the US. Canadian editions of the Dindisc label were issued as Dindisc/Virgin. Virgin's Canadian division arranged to have Canadian artists Martha &

6440-496: The same name ) exhibiting a softer new-age sound. In 1994, he also had an asteroid , 5656 Oldfield , named after him. In 1995, Oldfield continued to embrace new musical styles by producing the Celtic -themed album Voyager . In 1992, Oldfield met Luar na Lubre , a Galician Celtic-folk band (from A Coruña , Spain), with the singer Rosa Cedrón . The band's popularity grew after Oldfield covered their song "O son do ar" ("The sound of

6532-618: The same time, Virgin releases distributed by Columbia continued, distribution returning to Atlantic (later WEA) in 1980, at which time Virgin International ceased operations. In 1986, Virgin Records opened up another American division, Virgin Records America . Its first release was the debut album by Cutting Crew which included the hit single " (I Just) Died in Your Arms ". Other Virgin America signings included Camper Van Beethoven , Bob Mould , Warren Zevon , Paula Abdul , T'pau , Ziggy Marley and

6624-578: The software notation program Sibelius running on Apple Macintoshes . He also used the FL Studio DAW on his 2005 double album Light + Shade . Among the mixing consoles Oldfield has owned are an AMS Neve Capricorn 33238, a Harrison Series X, and a Euphonix System 5-MC. In 1978, Oldfield married Diana Fuller, a relative of the Exegesis group leader. The marriage lasted for three months. Oldfield recalled that he phoned label boss Richard Branson

6716-497: The sound of guest vocalists, Oldfield has frequently sung both lead and backup parts for his songs and compositions. He has also contributed experimental vocal effects such as fake choirs and the notorious "Piltdown Man" impression on Tubular Bells . Over the years, Oldfield has used a range of guitars. 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

6808-568: The source for all the sounds on the album, including percussion. The second, The Millennium Bell , consisted of pastiches of a number of styles of music that represented various historical periods over the past millennium. The work was performed live in Berlin for the city's millennium celebrations in 1999–2000. He added to his repertoire the MusicVR project, combining his music with a virtual reality -based computer game. His first work on this project

6900-417: The strength of sales for the album were strong enough for Virgin to abandon the idea shortly after, transferring it to regular production. 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. He wrote a chord chart for the song and presented it to the group, who completed it in

6992-681: The studio. Released in April 1979, the song went to No. 22 in the UK and Oldfield performed the song on the national television show Top of the Pops . Oldfield's music was used for the score of The Space Movie (1980), a Virgin Films production that celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. In 1979, he recorded a version of the signature tune for the BBC children's television programme Blue Peter , which

7084-423: The time estimating an $ 80 million deal. The agreement also required Virgin to allocate about $ 25 million in video production, marketing and promotion costs – a much larger sum than most deals. Virgin Records America was founded by the executive team of Jordan Harris, Jeff Ayeroff and Phil Quartararo . Another American company called Caroline Records co-existed during this time. Caroline records rarely mentioned

7176-526: The twins label came the red, white and blue design introduced in 1975, which coincided with the height of punk and new wave. The current Virgin logo (known informally as "the scrawl") was created in 1978, commissioned by Simon Draper, then managing director of Virgin Records Limited. Brian Cooke of Cooke Key Associates commissioned a graphic designer to produce a stylised signature. The logo was first used on Mike Oldfield's Incantations album in 1978 and by

7268-497: 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. In 2012, he performed at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games held in London. Oldfield's discography includes 26 studio albums, nine of which have reached

7360-406: Was at this point when he decided to pursue music on a full-time, professional basis. After leaving school Oldfield accepted an invitation from his sister Sally to form a folk duo the Sallyangie , taking its name from her name and Oldfield's favourite Jansch tune, "Angie". They toured England and Paris and signed a deal with Transatlantic Records , for which they recorded one album, Children of

7452-494: Was discovered by Tom Newman and brought to Simon Draper – who eventually persuaded Richard and Nik to present it as their first release in 1973, produced by Tom Newman, for which the fledgling label garnered unprecedented acclaim. This was soon followed by some notable krautrock releases, including electronic breakthrough album Phaedra by Tangerine Dream (which went Top 20), and The Faust Tapes and Faust IV by Faust . The Faust Tapes album retailed for 49p (the price of

7544-467: 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 2013, Oldfield and York released a remix album entitled Tubular Beats . Oldfield performed live at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London. His set included renditions of Tubular Bells , " Far Above the Clouds " and " In Dulci Jubilo " during

7636-774: Was folded into Capitol Records' Nashville division. Capitol Records and Virgin Records America merged in 2007 to form Capitol Music Group after a massive restructuring of EMI Group Ltd. Stepping down as chief executive of Capitol Records was Andy Slater, with Jason Flom, former executive of Virgin, taking the reins as chairman and CEO of the newly created company. Universal Music Group (UMG) purchased EMI in 2012, thus acquiring Virgin. UMG absorbed Virgin's UK operations to create Virgin EMI Records in March 2013. On 16 June 2020, Universal rebranded Virgin EMI Records as EMI Records and named Rebecca Allen (former president of UMG's Decca label) as

7728-638: 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 . He wrote a new track, "Royal Wedding Anthem", for the occasion. His next album, Five Miles Out , followed in March 1982, with the 24-minute track "Taurus II" occupying the whole of side one. The Five Miles Out World Tour 1982 saw Oldfield perform from April to December of that year. Crises saw Oldfield continue

7820-496: Was founded in 1988 as part of Virgin Records. Along with EMI Classics , it too was acquired by UMG in 2012 as part of the takeover of the EMI Group. But the terms of the European Commission 's approval of the takeover required divestment of the two classical labels. Accordingly, both were sold in February the following year to Warner Music Group , and this transaction was approved by the European Union that May. Warner placed

7912-570: Was released in 1977. The album was recorded and edited at Oldfield's Througham Slad Manor in Gloucestershire by Oldfield and Paul Lindsay. Oldfield's 1976 rendition of " Portsmouth " remains his best-performing single on the UK Singles Chart , reaching No. 3. Oldfield recorded the double album Incantations between December 1977 and September 1978. This introduced more diverse choral performances from Sally Oldfield , Maddy Prior and

8004-418: Was released over a year after Tubular Bells , it reached No. 1 first. Tubular Bells spent 11 weeks (10 of them consecutive) at No. 2 before its one week at the top. Like Tubular Bells , Hergest Ridge is a two-movement instrumental piece, this time evoking scenes from Oldfield's Herefordshire country retreat. It was followed in 1975 by the pioneering world music piece Ommadawn released after

8096-556: Was seven, his mother gave birth to a younger brother, David, who had Down syndrome and died in infancy. His mother was prescribed barbiturates , to which she became addicted, and developed mental health problems. She spent much of the rest of her life in mental institutions and died in early 1975, shortly after Oldfield had started writing Ommadawn . Oldfield attended Highlands Junior School , followed by St. Edward's Preparatory School and Presentation College , all in Reading. When he

8188-561: Was sold to Thorn EMI in 1992. EMI would later be acquired by Universal Music Group (UMG) in 2012 with UMG creating the Virgin EMI Records division. The Virgin Records name continues to be used by UMG in certain markets such as Germany and Japan. Virgin Records America, Inc. was the company's North American operations founded in 1986. They are no longer active and were headquartered in Hollywood , California , and operated under

8280-488: 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. Oldfield took up the guitar aged ten, first learning on a 6-string acoustic which his father had given to him. He learned technique by copying parts from songs, by folk guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn , that he played on

8372-439: Was truncated from a 20-song double album to an 11-song single album. Beginning with Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn album in 1975, American distribution switched to CBS Records/ Columbia Records . CBS/Columbia was unwilling to release all Virgin artists, and so many were licensed to other labels: Some of these records had a small Virgin logo added to the regular company design on the label. One of Virgin's and Epic's biggest acts of

8464-555: Was used by the show for 10 years. 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. Oldfield performed across Europe between April and December 1980 with the In Concert 1980 tour. In 1980, Oldfield released QE2 , named after the ocean liner , which features a variety of guest musicians including Phil Collins on drums. This

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