I like Mike Oldfield, but you have to weigh up the legacy of his music against the fact that without him Richard Branson would probably be an obscure ex-Hippie and not the annoying utter twat that he is. Without the phenomenal success of Tubular Bells there would have been no Virgin Music, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Galactic or any of the other million and one ventures he has inflicted on the world (the vast majority of which lost money) while tax dodging on his own island. Asking for money for the government for Virgin Airlines in the pandemic, having paid no tax for years and sitting on a fortune.
It is hard to say much nice about the USA these days, but they have a better attitude to taxing their citizens. They get taxed on their income wherever they are in the world. Britain allows citizens to be non-domiciled and pay minimal tax (King of these hypocrites is Viscount Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail who advocates all kind of crap for the UK but barely pays tax here).
I heartily dislike Alan Sugar, but he at least has the decency to be UK resident and pay tax (unlike his US counterpart the mound of orange seeping vile pus that is Donald Trump). If you are not domiciled in the UK should you be allowed to vote? Or own media companies that have a huge influence on opinion and government direction? You do not have to deal with those outcomes. The Daily Mail campaigned furiously for Brexit, yet its owner does not have to deal with the ramifications.
I was aware of Mike Oldfield due to Tubular Bells (the music used in The Exorcist) but it was a trip to Royston in 1982 when Graham played me Five Miles Out that I really got into his music. The track was the lead single from the album with the same title, yet took as long to record as the rest of the album put together, even though it is less than 10% of the running time. It is the true story of the Oldfield being on small plane that flew into a storm. Musically it is extremely complex and repays repeated listening.
Oldfield’s earlier music was long instrumentals – most famously Tubular Bells, but also Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn.
From 1980’s QE2 the albums became split between longer form pieces (usually one side of a vinyl album) and a selection of shorter songs. Singles success was sparse, though Family Man from Five Miles Out as a hit for Hall & Oates, though the Oldfield version is much better. QE2 is a strange album, with covers of tracks by Abba and the Shadows (as well as his own tracks) but done in Oldfield’s multi-instrumental quasi-Celtic style. I am probably over fond of it as it was a background to so many good times with guys from Royston. Of the longer form pieces Oldfield thinks Crisis is the best and I am not going to argue with him – it is a stunning piece of music (the playlist below is the longest in running time of any).
Moonlight Shadow was the most successful single from this era (it is about John Lennon’s death). Other singles were sadly not hits, despite the musical quality being very high.
He returned to Tubular Bells in the 90s with Tubular Bells 2, recording a new version. In many ways it is better than the original. I am not sure that we needed further versions like Tubular Bells 3 or The Millennium Bell.
The experience of discovering Five Miles Out with Graham, as well as John Bonney, Alan Curtis and Paul Ashby, people who really appreciated music and how well music can be put together rather than just as background noise, was just one wonderful thing about that group of friends.
Five Miles Out
Playlist:
- Tubular Bells
- Hergest Ridge
- In Dulci Jubilo
- Taurus I
- Wonderful Land
- Taurus II
- Five Miles Out
- Orabidoo
- Crises
- Moonlight Shadow
- Foreign Affair
- Taurus III
- To France
- Poison Arrows
- Tricks of the Light
- Tubular Bells 2
Five Miles Out 