It's great when you buy a CD randomly just because it's from the 80's, and it quickly becomes one with a track you play the most consistently since then.
My introduction to Mike Oldfield began when my sister introduced me to the 1983 song, Moonlight Shadow, from his 1983 album. While I picked up this album relatively early in my early days of what would become my current CD collection, I decided on a whim a little while ago to grab two more from Oldfield from a local used CD shop for just a few bucks each. While I have not listened to both of those albums as of this writing, the one I'm going to talk about today really piqued my interest to dig deeper into the artist.
Oldfield began his career in 1968 with his sister, when they formed a folk duo, The Sallyangie. Together, they toured through Paris and England, where they were noticed by Transatlantic Records, who they recorded a single album for, entitled, Children of the Sun. However, the group would disband shortly thereafter, leaving him in a poor state mentally.
Despite trying out for Family in 1969, which he was rejected, he remained undeterred. Though he would get by with the aid of his father, and by performing with his brother Terry in Barefoot. By 1970, he auditioned for the group, The Whole World, and landed the gig as their bassist. Though he recorded three albums with the group, he openly admits he got bored, and sabotaged his own performance, leading to him being fired.
In 1971, Oldfield had assembled a demo of Opus One, and worked as a session musician for the Arthur Louis Band at The Manor Studio, owned by Richard Branson. Branson was interested in opening Virgin Records, and was given a copy of Oldfield's demo by at the time engineers, Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth. The owner gave Oldfield one week of studio time where he completed part one of what would become Tubular Bells. It wouldn't be until 1973 when the artist would get the opportunity to finish the back half, and it was released as the first recording on the new label with a six album deal.
Tubular Bells quickly became a hit in the UK, and success followed in the US when part of the tracking was used as the opening to the film, The Exorcist. Oldfield was credits as playing over twenty different instruments himself on the recording, making him one of the best multi-instrument musicians to date.
Upon its release in 1974, his follow up album, Heritage Ridge, spent three weeks at number one before being dethroned not by another artist, but Oldfield himself with Tubular Bells. Oldfield followed this up with his third and fourth albums, Ommadawn (1975), and Incarnations (1978). Upon the release of the latter, he embarked on a 21 day tour throughout 1979, all of which was extensively documented, and showcased on the 1979 live album, Exposed. This remains his only official live album to date.
Also in 1979, he would release his fifth album, Platinum, which marked a change from his standard long composition format of music to a more pop friendly sound. However, for as successful as he had been, things were only going to get bigger and better. Enter Maggie Reilly.
Maggie was the girlfriend of Oldfield's engineer, Chrys Lindop, who when asked to join him on tour took the chance and did so. This lead to collaborations on the albums, QE2 (1980), Five Miles Out (1982), Crises (1983), and Discovery (1984).
We stop here, and backtrack to 1982, where we fire up today's Retro Spin, Five Miles Out.
I honestly didn't know what to expect when I flipped the album on, and immediately made note of the twenty-four minute forty-three second long opening track, Taurus II. At first, I thought, "Isn't 1982 a bit late to release a rock opera?" But, I went with it, and boy am I glad I did. The (mostly) all instrumental track is epic, and one that's worth every minute of its time.
Following this up was the track, Family Man, a song I remembered from Hall and Oates, but up until then had no clue it was originally written and performed by Mike Oldfield and Maggie Reilly. Admittedly, because I'm more accustomed to the H&O version, I prefer that remake to the original. Still, it's not a bad rendition.
While track three and four really didn't resonate with me, the fifth and final song, which is also the title track for the album, punched hard. So hard that I've listened to it a dozen or more times since buying the CD. It's masterfully crafted with a mix of styles and sound effects that capture the ear, at least mine. What's interesting is that for all the reasons I love it, my co-worker said he hated it.
Five Miles Out, the album, and song, were well worth the five bucks I paid for it, and it's invigorated me to want to delve deeper into the artist. Specifically, his period with Maggie Reilly. Oddly enough, it appears I have three of the four noted above, which will make it easy to do so. Reilly also returned briefly to perform one track on the 1989 album, Earth Moving. I may have to check that one out as well.
Oldfield released his final album, Return To Ommadawn, in 2017, and retired in 2018. As for Reilley, after initially taking a break in 1984, she released a solo album in 1985, married her long time boyfriend, Chrys, gave birth to their son. She appears to have opted for a quieter family life, and the couple remain together to this day.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS March 8, 1980 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS March 8, 1986 |
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