Mike Oldfield

Michael Gordon "Mike" Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock with such genres as folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature. He is best known for his 1973 hit album Tubular Bells, which launched Virgin Records, and for his 1983 hit single "Moonlight Shadow".[1] He is also well known for his hit rendition of the Christmas piece "In Dulci Jubilo"....(Read more at Wikipedia)

Links to Peel
Mike Oldfield made his recording début in late 1968/early 1969 as half of the folk duo, The Sallyangie, whose LP Children Of The Sun (coincidentally, the title of a song by Peel favourites The Misunderstood) was issued by Transatlantic Records, the label of Pentangle and other notable folk-based acts of the era. The album was not a commercial success and the duo soon split up, but did do one session for Night Ride in December 1968. After the split, Mike Oldfield became bass guitarist with Kevin Ayers' band The Whole World, who became Peel favourites during 1970-71, recording two Top Gear sessions and two live concerts; Oldfield is known to have played on the second Top Gear session.

But his best-known association with Peel is the frequently-repeated tale that Peel was so taken with Oldfield's first solo album for Virgin Records, Tubular Bells, that he abandoned his planned playlist and played the complete LP. Aural evidence and the playlist of 24 May 1973 show that this is untrue; although Peel's comments on the album are highly favourable, he only plays side one (between tracks by Annette Funicello and Linda Jones and says he will play side two of the LP on a future programme. Peel also played Oldfield's follow-up works Hergest Ridge and the folk-influenced Ommadawm (29 October 1975), which featured Bridget St John among the personnel. It is not known whether he played these extended works in full, but he did choose the single "In Dulci Jubilo" as one of his fifteen favourite singles of 1975 (19 December 1975).

Improbably, Peel (on "percussion") and Oldfield appear together on Robert Wyatt's live 1974 BBC concert recording, Las Vegas Fandango, not issued until 1994. This can be explained by the fact that Oldfield was also a session player on many recordings by other Virgin Records artists (on the 2008 CD reissue, Robert Wyatt & Friends, Peel is credited with "vocals").

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Sessions

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Other Shows Played
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 * DD Month YYYY: Song (single/album) Label