![]() He tried to learn musical notation but was a "very, very slow" learner, saying: "If I have to, I can write things down. He learned technique by copying parts from songs, by folk guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, that he played on a portable record player. Oldfield took up the guitar aged ten, first learning on a 6-string acoustic instrument which his father had given to him. When he was thirteen, the family moved to Harold Wood, then in Essex, and Oldfield attended Hornchurch Grammar School where, having already displayed musical talent, he earned one GCE qualification in English. ![]() ![]() Edward's Preparatory School (still located in Tilehurst Road) and Presentation College (Bath Road), all in Reading. Oldfield attended Highlands Junior School, St. She had mental health problems and would spend much of the rest of her life in mental institutions, dying in early 1975, shortly after Oldfield had started writing Ommadawn. His mother was prescribed barbiturates, to which she became addicted. When Oldfield was seven, his mother gave birth to a younger brother, David, who had Down syndrome and died in infancy. He has two elder siblings, sister Sally and brother Terence. His mother, originally from Charleville, County Cork, Ireland, emigrated to England to enter the nursing profession. Oldfield was born on in Reading, Berkshire, to Raymond Henry Oldfield (1923–2016), an English general practitioner, and Maureen ( née Liston), an Irish nurse. Oldfield's label announced his retirement in 2023. His final album, Return to Ommadawn was released in 2017. Oldfield's discography includes 26 studio albums, nine of which have reached the UK top-ten. In 2012, he performed at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games held in London. 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. ![]() His most successful album of this period was Crises (1983), which features the worldwide hit single " Moonlight Shadow" with vocalist Maggie Reilly. 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). Oldfield followed it with Hergest Ridge (1974), Ommadawn (1975), and Incantations (1978), all of which feature longform and mostly instrumental pieces. 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. 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. From 1967 to 1970, he and his sister Sally Oldfield were a folk duo The Sallyangie, after which he performed with Kevin Ayers. Oldfield took up the guitar at age ten and left school in his teens to embark on a music career. He has adopted a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock, world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient, and new age music. Though primarily a guitarist, Oldfield plays a range of instruments, which includes keyboards and percussion, as well as vocals. Michael Gordon Oldfield (born ) is an English musician, songwriter, and producer best known for his debut studio album Tubular Bells (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success.
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