" In High Places " is a song by musician Mike Oldfield , included in the 1983 album Crises and released as a single in 1987 (see 1987 in music ), along with (on the B-side) "Poison Arrows" (from Discovery ) and "Jungle Gardenia" (non-album track).
71-482: Crises is the eighth studio album by English musician and songwriter Mike Oldfield , released on 27 May 1983 on Virgin Records . Oldfield started recording the album towards the end of his 1982 tour supporting his previous record, Five Miles Out . It marked a continuation of Oldfield's experimentation with more accessible music which began in the late 1970s; side one contains the 20-minute "Crises" and side two contains
142-540: 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
213-451: A Neve 8108 with Necam console and Westlake Monitors. Oldfield used a Gibson SG Junior for overdriven guitar sounds and a Fender Stratocaster for clean sounds. Tama drums were Simon Phillips ' brand of choice for drums on the album; Phillips also did some production work. Oldfield makes extensive use of Oberheim and Fairlight keyboards. Asked how he recruited Chapman and Anderson in an interview, Oldfield answered "we just hang out in
284-601: 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),
355-482: A collection of shorter songs which feature vocalists Maggie Reilly , Jon Anderson , and Roger Chapman . Oldfield produced Crises with drummer Simon Phillips , who also plays on the album. Crises reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and became Oldfield's most successful record of the 1980s following the release of the single " Moonlight Shadow ", which went to number one in nine countries and sold in excess of
426-564: 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
497-525: 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
568-436: A follow-up. Crises sees Oldfield explore heavy metal elements which he had been a fan of for some time and enjoyed playing. Oldfield described side one as material that he had wanted to write and perform "for personal satisfaction", while side two is "very commercial, full of singles". He added: "It's a case of keeping everybody happy." The North American version of Crises featured a different running order to capitalize on
639-486: 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
710-637: A million units. Oldfield supported the album with the Crises Tour across Europe in 1983 that featured most of the musicians that played on the album. By the 1980s, Oldfield had shifted musical direction from the longform compositions that he had become known for throughout the previous decade, towards more commercial and straightforward rock and pop songs. By the time he had finished the 1982 world tour in support of his previous album Five Miles Out in December of that same year, Oldfield had already started work on
781-407: 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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#1732851107930852-603: 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
923-857: 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
994-628: 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
1065-541: 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
1136-595: 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
1207-471: 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
1278-483: 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
1349-468: 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
1420-497: 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 a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock , world , folk , classical , electronic , ambient and new age music . Oldfield took up
1491-462: 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:
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#17328511079301562-682: 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
1633-468: 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,
1704-474: 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
1775-514: 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
1846-516: 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
1917-454: 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
1988-565: 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
2059-476: 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
2130-552: 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
2201-523: 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
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2272-509: 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
2343-440: 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
2414-609: 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
2485-475: 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
2556-530: The commercial songs by switching the order of the sides, adding the non-album single " Mistake " as the lead track, and moving "Moonlight Shadow" to the end of its side. This North American version has not been reissued since its initial pressing. The "Moonlight Shadow" single from this album includes the rare track "Rite of Man". The album was recorded from November 1982 to April 1983 at Tilehouse Studios in Denham , Buckinghamshire, using an Ampex ATR 124 tape recorder,
2627-410: 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
2698-460: 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
2769-481: 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
2840-481: 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
2911-506: 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
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2982-563: 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
3053-487: 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 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
3124-527: The man in the corner, and the tower is my music". It spent 19 weeks on Norway's album chart , peaking at No. 1 for two weeks, and is Oldfield's best selling album there. The album also topped the charts in Germany and Sweden. Sales figures based on certification alone. Shipments figures based on certification alone. All music by Mike Oldfield, except "Foreign Affair" by Oldfield and Maggie Reilly . Additional musicians Production Crises
3195-635: The most popular. Dance act Groove Coverage took their cover of "Moonlight Shadow" to number 3 in the German charts. A 2009 cover version of " Foreign Affair " by Belgian dance band Sylver spent 8 weeks in the top 10 of the Belgian single charts , peaking at #3. American rapper Kanye West samples Oldfield's song "In High Places". West incorporated the song's chorus into his song " Dark Fantasy " from his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy . Mike Oldfield Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953)
3266-448: 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
3337-445: 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
3408-554: The same bar". The title track of the album is a twenty-minute-long piece, featuring a small amount of vocals, sung by Oldfield. The beginning and end of the track are driven by a synthesised lead passage, stylistically similar to the opening theme to Oldfield's Tubular Bells . Oldfield rated "Crises" as one of the best tracks he had done since "Tubular Bells". " Moonlight Shadow " features Oldfield's touring vocalist Maggie Reilly , who had also sung on his previous albums. Oldfield had singer Hazel O'Connor sing on an early version of
3479-496: 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
3550-578: 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
3621-399: The song in small sections and using multiple drop-ins which took some time to finalise and piece together. " In High Places " was written by Oldfield with lyrics by himself and Yes vocalist Jon Anderson , who sings on the track. The pair had worked on several occasions prior to recording Crises , and Oldfield had enjoyed Anderson's vocal style and how easy it was working with him. Anderson
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#17328511079303692-483: The song with Chapman's voice in mind. The album's cover art was by Terry Ilott and was originally created as an illustration for an edition of J. G. Ballard 's The Drowned World . Oldfield makes reference to the artwork with the line, "the watcher and the tower, waiting hour, by hour" (printed in the back cover of the LP, and sung by Mike Oldfield on the title track). In the interview mentioned before, Oldfield stated that "I'm
3763-497: 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
3834-568: 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
3905-417: 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
3976-681: 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
4047-541: The then-largest hot-air balloon ever made, the song was released as a single in 1987, four years after the Crises LP. " Foreign Affair " features Reilly on vocals, who co-wrote the lyrics with Oldfield. "Taurus 3", a short fast-paced guitar piece unlike the previous two long multi-themed "Taurus" tracks featured on QE2 and Five Miles Out respectively. " Shadow on the Wall " features vocals by Roger Chapman . Oldfield wrote
4118-404: The track, which was then titled "Moment of Passion", but it failed to produce sufficient results. He then booked Reilly for a studio session, for which he prepared by drinking wine and writing a set of lyrics using a rhyming dictionary. Reilly sang the lyrics in a rock style at first, which prompted Oldfield to suggest a softer tone and "in the manner of a lullaby". The idea worked, despite recording
4189-434: The tracks of discs one through three, the LP contains the tracks of the single CD. This reissue reached #30 in Germany's Media Control Charts in September 2013. Live Highlights from Wembley Arena 22 July 1983 Crises Tour Live at Wembley Arena 22 July 1983 Crises Tour 2013 Remaster / 5.1 Surround Sound A number of songs from Crises have been covered by numerous acts, with "Moonlight Shadow" being
4260-497: 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
4331-406: 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
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#17328511079304402-467: 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
4473-686: 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
4544-512: Was living in Barbados at the time of writing, so Oldfield phoned him from England and sung the song's tune to him, after which Anderson went away and wrote lyrics to it. The two later met and finished the song in Oldfield's studio. The track features Pierre Moerlen , who had toured with Oldfield and played on his albums, on vibraphone. On the occasion of Virgin Records founder Richard Branson's launch of
4615-561: Was married to Fanny Vandekerckhove, whom he met while living in Ibiza. They have two sons. In High Places (song) On the occasion of Virgin Records founder Richard Branson 's launch of the then-largest hot-air balloon ever made, the song was released as a single in 1987 in the UK and Spain , four years after the Crises LP. It features Jon Anderson (lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes ) on vocals and as co-writer. "In High Places"
4686-532: Was re-issued by Mercury Records on 2 September 2013, along with Five Miles Out . It is available as a single CD, a 2CD Deluxe Edition (album disc and live highlights CD), a vinyl LP and a 5 disc (3 CD and 2 DVD) boxed set. The boxed set also includes a 32-page hardback book. There was also a 500 copy limited edition vinyl available on transparent green vinyl. The re-issue is also available as digital download in 16 and 24 bit 44.1 kHz FLAC /ALAC and 320 kbit/s MP3 in two versions. The super-deluxe edition contains
4757-570: 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
4828-418: 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
4899-556: 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
4970-488: 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
5041-555: 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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