Look up III in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

III (iii) may refer to:

• III Records, a Japanese record label
• Hank Williams III or III (born 1972), American country singer
• Information International, Inc., a computer technology company
• Innovative Interfaces, Inc., a library-software company
• Insurance Information Institute, a US industry organization
• Intelligence and Information Institute, a fictional USA government organization in the comic version of Transformers
• Interactive Investor International
• Interstate Identification Index, an index of criminal records maintained by the FBI
• III, the Inti Creates sound team
• III, Group 3 element in the periodic table
• III (Level 3), the highest rating used in Hong Kong film distribution and classification
• Fairey III, a family of British reconnaissance aircraft

See also[link]

• 3 (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Emeli Sandé
Background information
Birth name	Adele Emeli Sandé
Born	(1988-03-10) 10 March 1988 (age 24)[1][2]
Genres	Soul, R&B, pop
Occupations	Singer, musician, songwriter
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Virgin (2010–present)
Website	www.emelisande.com

Adele Emeli Sandé  /sænˈdeɪ/ san-DAY, (born 10 March 1988)^[1] known by her stage name Emeli Sandé, is a Scottish soul and R&B recording artist and songwriter. Sandé first became known to the public eye after she featured on rapper Chipmunk's third single, "Diamond Rings", which gained herself and Chipmunk a first top 10 single on the UK Singles Chart. In 2010, she appeared on Roll Deep star, Wiley's "Never Be Your Woman", which became another top ten hit. Simon Cowell called her "his favourite songwriter at the minute". She has written for a number of artists, including Cher Lloyd, Parade, Susan Boyle, Preeya Kalidas, Leona Lewis, Alesha Dixon, Cheryl Cole, and Tinie Tempah.

In 2010, she signed a publishing deal with EMI Music Publishing. She later announced that Virgin Records had given her a record deal. Sandé released her first solo single "Heaven" in August 2011, which was an instant hit around the globe. Sandé has two number-one singles across the United Kingdom and Ireland with "Read All About It" with Professor Green and "Next to Me". She released Our Version of Events, in February 2012, upon the release the album peaked number one in the UK.^[3]

Early life[link]

Emeli Sandé was born to a Zambian father and English mother. She was raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire.^[4][5] She studied Medicine at the University of Glasgow, but stopped in her fourth year.^[4] She said that education was one of the most important things to her, stating that if her music career failed, she has education to fall back on. Sandé said that her manager, Adrian Sykes, waited patiently since she was 16, saying "Adrian really respects that I want to get an education behind me. He also knows my parents are keen that I finish university."^[6] Sandé has a tattoo of artist Frida Kahlo.^[7] At the age of 11, when Sandé was still in primary school, she wrote her first song for a school talent show.^[7] She spoke "That was the first time I thought I might be a songwriter. I always knew I wanted to be a musician, and I always knew I wanted to write. Because the people I was listening to all wrote. I never thought it was an option to sing anyone else's songs.^[7] The first song we wrote in was called "Tomorrow Starts Again", the song had proper structure, which even had a Middle eight.^[7] At the age of 15, Choice FM invited her to London, United Kingdom to take part in a competition they were holding, the "Rapology". Richard Blackwood also had her down to MTV's Camden studios to sing gospel.^[7] Sandé went to the same secondary school at which her father was a teacher. She said "I hated to be ill and to miss a day because I was so hungry to learn. I was very shy, nerdy and extremely well-behaved. Inevitably, throughout secondary school, it was part and parcel of my identity that I was Mr Sandé’s daughter. No way could I muck about or get into trouble, because it would've got back to him within minutes. And Dad was strict, let me tell you."^[8]

Career[link]

2008–10: Career beginnings[link]

Sandé's sister made a video of her playing the piano and singing to one of her favourite songs, "Nasty Little Lady".^[7] They sent the clip to Trevor Nelson's BBC Urban music competition. Sandé won the show and was offered a record deal, but the management that she met via the competition decided against the deal.^[7] Her parents sent 1Xtra a CD of her songs. Ras Kwame played on his "Homegrown Sessions", and four artists that year were asked to do a show in Soho. She met with Watford-born music producer/writer Shahid Khan aka Naughty Boy,^[9] who has previously worked with Ms Dynamite and Bashy,^[7] and they began writing tracks for artists such as Alesha Dixon, Chipmunk, Professor Green, Devlin, Preeya Kalidas, Cheryl Cole, and Tinie Tempah. Sandé soon signed a record deal with Virgin Records and EMI Records.^[10] In an interview, she said "I was doing a show in London for 1Xtra and I met this guy called Naughty Boy. We got in the studio and we clicked work wise. We just started writing, not necessarily for me, we just thought ‘let's write a pop tune’ and experiment. And we wrote the Chipmunk track and I thought nothing of it. Naughty Boy sent it off to Chipmunk who really liked it and wrote his stuff around it."^[10] She signed a record deal with Virgin Records in 2010. She later signed another deal with EMI Records in early 2011.^[11] Sandé made her singing career debut in 2009 after appearing on the track she wrote for Chipmunk's first debut single, "Diamond Rings". The single charted at No. 6 on the UK Singles Charts, making it Chipmunk and Sandé's first ever Top 10 Hit.^[12] She later appeared on another single singing guest vocals, after collaborating with Wiley on his comeback single "Never Be Your Woman", the single charted at number-eight on the UK Singles Charts becoming Sandé's second consecutive Top 10 Single.^[9] Sandé announced she changed her name from Adele Sandé to her middle name Emeli Sandé due to Adele's growing success. She spoke; "I changed it as soon as Adele came out. I just thought, 'You've kind of taken the [name] now', so I went with my middle name. She was just getting bigger and bigger, so I thought I just really need it."^[13]

[edit] 2011–present: Our Version of Events, international success and songwriting

While making her debut album, Sandé began to work with Tinie Tempah. She co-wrote "Let Go", on which she provided guest vocals. She also started working with Devlin after recording a song titled "Dreamer". Sandé later revealed she would be working on Alesha Dixon's upcoming album, The Entertainer. She co-wrote the hit single "Radio" along with Shahid Khan.^[14] and co-wrote tracks on Cheryl Cole's albums as well as Professor Green's album, which Sandé gave guest vocals on.^[15] Sandé revealed her first solo single would be released in early 2011.^[16] There was some speculation surrounding what track she would release, after many newspapers stated that it would be "Daddy". The first official single from her upcoming debut album was "Heaven" and was released on 14 August 2011.^[17] The song has received positive reviews from blogs such as This Must Be Pop^[18] and Robot Pigeon.^[19]

Sandé at XOYO

She revealed that she is Simon Cowell's favourite song-writer at the moment; due to her writing songs for Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle.^[13] Sandé stated in an interview; she said that she would love to meet Boyle after writing songs for her saying, "I haven’t met her yet. I just sent her the song. I’d love to meet her because I think she is a bit of a rock star." One song that Sandé had cowritten for Boyle will appear on her new album, titled "This Will Be The Year". Leona had heard a couple of songs so we had a week in the studio with her. Leona and I got along really well. Then we had another week together. It was very natural. She recorded a song called Trouble and another called Mountains, so I look forward to hearing them on her album."^[13] It was revealed after Professor Green announced his album tracking list for his album, At Your Inconvenience, that Sandé would feature on the first single from the album, "Read All About It". The single was released in October 2011,^{[dated info]} a week before the album was released.^[20] The pair also performed the song live on The X Factor results show.^[21] She confirmed that "Daddy" would be the second official single released from Our Version of Events. Sandé achieved her first number-one single on the UK Singles Chart after "Read All About" entered at number-one. On 26 November, Sandé performed at the LG ARENA in Birmingham for BRMB 2011. On 15 December 2011, she was named as the Brit Awards Critics' Choice for 2012.^[4][22][23] Sandé`s debut album includes songs written by her and has been reviewed as having "richly melodic, classically powerful, retro-futurist soul-pop songs."^[7] She draws on influences for her music from Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell and Lauryn Hill.^[7] Sandé said that all her songs are about World peace and political issues.^[7]

Sandé said that the key to a good song when songwriting is using "honesty" and "raw emotion" as the best way to write. She said that if she attempts to write something which is "too smart" the creative process will not work for her. "Kill the Boy" was one of the first ideas that came to Sandé's head. She said if she has to work on a song longer than a day, she will not go back to it, as she said it won't work. She went onto say if it was to work, it the idea for the song would be almost instant.^[7] It was announced that she was up for another BRIT Award in 2012, for British Breakthrough Act.^[24] Sandé is currently writing material for the original lineup of Sugababes. On 24 January 2012, Sandé performed a one off gig for Q Magzine at XOYO, London. She was supported by British soul singer Michael Kiwanuka. She recorded a version of David Guetta's "Titanium" and the pair performed the song at NRJ Music Awards in France.^[25][26] Sandé has penned a track for Naughty Boy's upcoming LP entitled "Hollywood" which features soul singer Gabrielle. It is about fame coming and going and will be released in November.^[27]

Personal life[link]

In January 2012, Sandé confirmed that she is engaged to her unidentified, long-term boyfriend.^[28] Her boyfriend has requested not to be identified and Sandé has said he is not in the music industry but that he is a scientist.^[29]

Discography[link]

Albums

• Our Version of Events (2012)

Touring[link]

Headlining

• Our Version of Events tour (2011-2012)

Supporting

• Mylo Xyloto Tour (2011-2012)

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Emeli Sandé

External links[link]

• Official website
• Aberdeen Famous Faces

Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield, December 2006, at the Night of the Proms
Background information
Birth name	Michael Gordon Oldfield
Born	(1953-05-15) 15 May 1953 (age 59) Reading, Berkshire, England
Genres	Progressive rock, pop, Celtic fusion, world, new age, Neoclassical, Ambient, classical, experimental, minimalist
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer, game designer
Instruments	Guitar, keyboards, Percussion, vocals, bass, glockenspiel, mandolin, banjo, tubular bells, Chapman stick
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Virgin (1972–1991) Warner Bros. (1992–2003) Mercury (2005–present)
Associated acts	Maggie Reilly, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, David Bedford, Anita Hegerland, Pekka Pohjola
Website	www.mikeoldfieldofficial.com

Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, 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 hit 1973 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".

Biography[link]

Oldfield's parents are Raymond Oldfield, a general practitioner, and his wife Maureen Liston, a nurse.^[2] His sister Sally and brother Terry are successful musicians in their own right and have appeared on several of his albums. Mike Oldfield was born in the Battle Hospital, Reading, Berkshire, and he attended St Joseph's Convent School, Highlands Junior School in Tilehurst, St Edward's Preparatory School,^[3] and Presentation College in Reading. When he was 13 he moved with his parents to Harold Wood in northeast London, where he attended Hornchurch Grammar School. He only stayed there long enough to take one GCE examination, in English, as he had already begun his music career.^[3]

Early career[link]

Oldfield's career began fairly early, playing acoustic guitar in local folk clubs. At this time, he already had two fifteen-minute instrumental pieces in which he would "go through all sorts of moods", precursors to his landmark 1970s' compositions. In his early teens, Oldfield was involved in a 'beat group' playing Shadows-style music (he has often cited Hank Marvin as a major influence, and would later cover The Shadows' song "Wonderful Land"). In 1967 he and his sister Sally formed the folk duo The Sallyangie and were signed to Transatlantic Records after exposure in the local folk scene. An album, Children of the Sun, was issued in 1968. After Sallyangie disbanded, he formed another duo with his brother Terry, called Barefoot, which took him back to rock music.^[4]

In 1970 he joined The Whole World – backing group to vocalist Kevin Ayers, formerly of the Soft Machine – playing bass guitar and occasionally lead guitar. The band also included keyboardist and composer David Bedford, who quickly befriended Oldfield, and encouraged him in his composition of an early version of Tubular Bells. Bedford would later arrange and conduct an orchestral version of that album. Oldfield is featured on two Ayers albums, Whatevershebringswesing and Shooting at the Moon.

Having recorded a number of demo pieces of music, which would later turn into Tubular Bells, Oldfield attempted to persuade record labels to take the project on with no success. In September 1971 Oldfield went to the Manor Studio, owned by the young Richard Branson and run by engineers Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth, to record as bass guitarist in the Arthur Louis Band. Branson already had a number of business ventures and was about to start his own record label, Virgin Records. After Newman and Heyworth heard Oldfield's demo they took it to Branson and Simon Draper. They eventually gave Oldfield one week to record at the Manor, during which Oldfield completed "Part One" of Tubular Bells. "Part Two" was then completed over a number of months.^[5]

Virgin years (1973–1991)[link]

Tubular Bells became Oldfield's most famous work. The instrumental composition was recorded in 1972 and launched on 25 May 1973 as the inaugural album of Richard Branson's Virgin Records label. The album was groundbreaking, as Oldfield played more than twenty different instruments in the multi-layered recording made in Branson's Manor Studio, and its style moved through many diverse musical genres. Its 2,630,000 UK sales put it at No.34 on the list of the best selling albums in the UK. In the US, it received attention with the opening theme appearing in the soundtrack to The Exorcist. The title track subsequently became a Top 10 hit single in the US as well and is today considered to be a forerunner of the New Age movement.^[6] In 1974, Oldfield played guitar on the critically acclaimed album Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt. In the autumn of 1974, the follow-up LP, Hergest Ridge, was No.1 in the UK for three weeks before being dethroned by Tubular Bells. Although Hergest Ridge 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. In 1979, Oldfield's music was used as the musical score for The Space Movie, a Virgin movie that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.^[7]

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, and 1978's Incantations which introduced more diverse choral performances from Sally Oldfield, Maddy Prior, and the Queen's College Girls Choir. In 1975 Oldfield recorded a version of the Christmas piece "In Dulci Jubilo" which charted at number four in the UK. Oldfield's 1976 rendition of "Portsmouth" remains his highest charting single on the UK Singles Chart, reaching number three.^[8]

In 1976 Oldfield and his sister Sally joined his friend and band member Pekka Pohjola to play on his album Mathematician's Air Display, which was released in 1977. The album was recorded and edited at Oldfield's Througham Slad Manor in Gloucestershire by Oldfield and Paul Lindsay.^[9]

Around the time of Incantations, Oldfield underwent a controversial self-assertiveness therapy course known as Exegesis.^[10] Possibly as a result, the formerly reclusive musician staged a major European tour to promote the album, chronicled in his live album Exposed, much of which was recorded at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham.

In 1975, Oldfield received a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Composition in "Tubular Bells – Theme from The Exorcist". In 1979, he recorded a version of the signature tune of the popular British Children's Television programme, Blue Peter, which was used by the show for 10 years.^[11]

The early 1980s saw Oldfield make a transition to mainstream pop music, beginning with the inclusion of shorter instrumental tracks and contemporary cover versions on Platinum and QE2 (the latter named after the ocean liner). Soon afterwards he turned to songwriting, with a string of collaborations featuring various lead vocalists alongside his characteristic searing guitar solos. The best known of these is "Moonlight Shadow", his 1983 hit with Maggie Reilly. The most successful Oldfield composition on the US pop charts during this period was actually a cover version — Hall & Oates's remake of Oldfield's "Family Man" for their 1982 album H₂O. Released as the album's third single, it hit the Top 10 during the spring of 1983 and was a hugely popular MTV music video.

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 the U.S. version) and Glasgow vocalist Southside Jimmy (in other versions),^[12] were the major hits. In the U.S., the Virgin America airline promoted the song "Magic Touch" to a large extent, making it a success, reaching the top 10 on the Billboard album rock charts. During the 1980s, Oldfield's then-wife, Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland, contributed vocals to many songs including "Pictures in the Dark".

Earth Moving was released in July 1989, and was a moderate success. The album was the first to exclusively feature rock/pop songs, several of which were released: "Innocent" and "Holy" in Europe, and "Hostage" in the USA for album rock stations. This was, however, a time of much friction with his record label. Virgin Records reportedly insisted that any future instrumental album should be billed as Tubular Bells 2. Oldfield's rebellious response was Amarok, an hour-long work featuring rapidly changing themes (supposedly devised to make cutting a single from the album impossible), unpredictable bursts of noise, and a very cleverly hidden Morse code insult directed at Richard Branson. Although regarded by many fans as his greatest work, it was not a commercial success. His parting shot from the Virgin label was Heaven's Open, which continued the veiled attacks on Branson but was notable for being the first time Oldfield had contributed all the lead vocals himself. It was the only album he released under the name 'Michael Oldfield'.

Warner years (1992–2003)[link]

The very first thing Oldfield did when arriving at his new label, Warner Bros., was to write and release Tubular Bells II, the sequel to his first record on Virgin, as his final insult to his former label. It was premiered at a live concert at Edinburgh Castle. He then continued to embrace new musical styles, with The Songs of Distant Earth (based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel of the same name) exhibiting a softer "New Age" sound. In 1994 he also had an asteroid named after him, 5656 Oldfield.^[13][14]

In 1995 Oldfield further continued to embrace new musical styles by producing a Celtic-themed album, Voyager. In 1992 Oldfield met Luar na Lubre, a Galician Celtic-folk band (from A Coruña, Spain). The band's popularity grew after Oldfield covered their song "O son do ar" ("The sound of the air") on his Voyager album.

In 1998 he produced the third Tubular Bells album (also premiered at a concert, this time in Horse Guards Parade, London), drawing from the dance music scene at his then new home on the island of Ibiza. This album was still inspired by themes from Tubular Bells, but differed in lacking a clear two-part layout.

During 1999 Oldfield released two albums. The first, Guitars, used guitars as 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 is Tr3s 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 2003 he released Tubular Bells 2003, a re-recording of the original Tubular Bells, on CD, and DVD-Audio. This was done to "fix" many "imperfections" in the original due to the recording technologies of the early 1970s and limitations in time that he could spend in the recording studio. It celebrated the 30th anniversary of Tubular Bells, Oldfield's 50th birthday and his marriage to Fanny in the same year. At around the same time Virgin released an SACD version containing both the original stereo album and the 1975 quadraphonic mix by Phil Newell. In the 2003 version, the original voice of the 'Master of Ceremonies' (Viv Stanshall) was replaced by the voice of John Cleese, Stanshall having died in the interim.

Mercury years (since 2004)[link]

Mike Oldfield playing a PRS Custom 24 guitar at the Night of the Proms in December 2006.

On 12 April 2004 Oldfield launched his next virtual reality project, Maestro, which contains music from the Tubular Bells 2003 album and also some new chillout melodies. The games have since been made available free of charge on Tubular.net. A double album, Light + Shade, was released on Mercury Records in 2005, with whom Mike had recently signed a three-album deal. The two discs contain music of contrasting moods, one relaxed (Light) and the other more edgy and moody (Shade). Oldfield headlined the German Night of the Proms tour, consisting of 18 concerts in December 2006.^[15]

His autobiography Changeling was published in May 2007 by Virgin Books.^[16] In March 2008 Oldfield released his first classical album, Music of the Spheres; Karl Jenkins assisted with the orchestration.^[17] In the first week of release the album topped the UK Classical chart and reached number 9 on the main UK Album Chart. A single, "Spheres", featuring 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 Oldfield contributed an exclusive song ("Song for Survival") to a charity album called Songs for Survival, in support of the Survival International.^[18] Oldfield's daughter, Molly, played a large part in the project.^[19]

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,^[20] and then they were transferred to Mercury Records.^[21] Mercury issued a press release on 15 April 2009, noting that Oldfield's Virgin albums would be re-released, starting 8 June 2009. These releases include special features from the archives.^[22] On 6 June 2009, an International Bell Ringing day took place, to promote the reissue of his first album, Tubular Bells.^[22] The next two albums were reissued in June 2010 along with the launch of a new official web site.^[23] Incantations was reissued in July 2011.^[24]

In March 2010 Music Week reported that publishing company Stage Three Music (now a part of BMG) had acquired a 50% stake in the songs of Oldfield's entire recorded output in a seven-figure deal.^[25][26][27]

In 2010 lyricist Don Black said in an interview with Music Week that he had been working with Oldfield.^[28] According to German producer Torsten Stenzel, he was in a studio with Oldfield collaborating on a chill-out track for a forthcoming album by Stenzel's York project. In 2012 Oldfield was featured on Terry Oldfield's Journey into Space album.

Personal life[link]

Oldfield and his siblings were raised Roman Catholic, the faith of their Irish mother.^[29] In the late 1970s, Oldfield briefly married Diana D'Aubigny (the sister of the Exegesis group leader), but this lasted just a few weeks.

Mike Oldfield has seven children. In the early 1980s, he had three children with Sally Cooper (Molly, Dougal and Luke). In the late 1980s, he had two children (Greta and Noah) with Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland. In the 2000s, he married Fanny Vandekerckhove (born 1977), whom he met during his time in Ibiza; they have two sons together (Jake and Eugene).^[30]

Oldfield is a motorcycle fan and has five bikes. These include a BMW R1200GS, a Suzuki GSX-R750, a Suzuki GSX-R1000, and a Yamaha R1. He also says that some of his inspiration for composing comes from riding them.^[31] Throughout his life Oldfield has also had a passion for aircraft and building model aircraft.^[2] Since 1980 he has also been a licensed pilot^[32] and has flown fixed wing aircraft, the first of which was a Beechcraft Sierra and helicopters including the Agusta Bell 47G which featured on the sleeve of his cover version of the ABBA song "Arrival" as a parody of their album artwork. He is also interested in cars and has owned a Ferrari and a Bentley which was a gift from Richard Branson as an incentive for him to give his first live performance of Tubular Bells.^[33] He has endorsed the Mercedes-Benz S-Class in the Mercedes UK magazine. Oldfield also considers himself to be a Trekkie (fan of the popular science fiction television series Star Trek).^[34] He also noted in an interview in 2008 that he had two boats.^[34]

In November 2006, musician Noel Gallagher won a Spanish court case against Oldfield. Gallagher had bought an Ibiza villa for £2.5 million from Oldfield in 1999, but quickly discovered that part of the cliff-top property was falling into the sea. According to The Sun, the resulting court case awarded Gallagher a six-figure sum in compensation. Suspicion abounds in the music industry that the law-suit was initiated because of embarrassment that Gallagher brought on himself by not having a proper survey done on the property before buying it. This included making an immediate and noisy complaint about someone's yacht tied up at the villa's jetty before it was pointed out that the yacht came with the villa and was, in fact, his.^[35]

In 2007 Oldfield caused a minor stir in the British press by criticizing Britain for being too controlling and protective, specifically concentrating on the smoking ban which England and Wales had introduced that year. Oldfield then moved from his Gloucestershire home to Palma de Mallorca, Spain.^[36][37] He has lived outside the UK in the past, including living in Los Angeles and Ibiza in the 1990s, and Switzerland in the mid-1980s, for tax reasons. He also currently has a home in Monaco. In 2009 he decided to move to the Bahamas, and put his home in Mallorca up for sale; the asking price was around €3.5 million, but has since been lowered, and as of April 2012 is still listed as available for sale by a major international real estate agency.^[38][39]

Instruments[link]

Oldfield is a multi-instrumentalist; however he considers himself to be predominantly a guitarist.^[40]

Guitars[link]

Over the years Oldfield has used a various selection of guitars, some of the most noted being:

• A 1963 (also quoted as 1961 and 1962) salmon pink (fiesta red) Fender Stratocaster serial no.L08044 – used by Oldfield from 1984 (Discovery album) until 2006 (Night of the Proms, rehearsals in Antwerp) – Sold for £30,000 at Chandler Guitars.
• A 1989 amber PRS Artist Custom 24 – used by Oldfield from the late 1980s to the present day.
• A 1966 blonde Fender Telecaster serial no. 180728 – the only electric guitar used on Tubular Bells and also previously owned by Marc Bolan.^[41] Oldfield has since sold the guitar and donated the money to the SANE charity. This guitar had been put up for auction a number of times by Bonhams in 2007, 2008 and 2009 with estimates of £25,000 – 35,000, £10,000 – 15,000 and £8,000 – 12,000 respectively.^[42][43][44]
• Various Gibson Les Paul and SGs – used by Oldfield extensively in the 1970s and 80s.

Oldfield used a modified Roland GP8 effects processor in conjunction with his PRS Artist to get many of his heavily overdriven guitar sounds from the Earth Moving album onwards.^[41] 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,^[41] and most recently a Line 6 Variax.

Oldfield has an unusual playing style, using both fingers and fingernails and several ways of creating vibrato: a "very fast side-to-side vibrato" or "violinist's vibrato".^[45] Oldfield has also stated that his playing style originates from his musical roots playing folk music and the bass guitar.^[3]

Recording[link]

Oldfield has self-recorded and produced many of his albums, and played the majority of the instruments that feature on them, largely at his home studios. In the 1990s and 2000s he has been mainly using DAWs such as Apple Logic, Avid Pro Tools and Steinberg Nuendo as recording suites.^[46] For composing classical music Oldfield has been quoted as using the software notation program, Sibelius,^[16] combined with Apple Macintoshes.^[47] He also used the FL Studio DAW on his 2005 double album Light + Shade.^[48] Among the mixing consoles Oldfield has owned are an AMS Neve Capricorn 33238, a Harrison Series X,^[49] and a Euphonix System 5-MC.^[50]

Keyboards[link]

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.^[41] Some examples of keyboard and synthesized instruments which Oldfield has made use of includes Sequential Circuits Prophets (notably on Platinum), Roland JV-1080/JV-2080 units (in the 1990s), a Korg M1 (as seen in the "Innocent" video), a Clavia Nord Lead, and Steinway pianos among an almost endless list of others. In recent years Oldfield has also made use of software synthesis, such as Native Instruments products, notably on his Light + Shade album.^[51]

Discography[link]

Oldfield has had more than 30 charting albums and 25 charting singles on the British charts, and many more around the world.

Main albums[link]

Quotation[link]

NME – April 1979^[52]

See also[link]

• Sally Oldfield
• Terry Oldfield
• Kevin Ayers
• Maggie Reilly
• Rick Fenn
• Maddy Prior
• Anita Hegerland
• New Age music
• Electronic music
• Virgin Records

Bibliography[link]

• Moraghan, Sean. A Man and his Music (Biography). BookSurge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4196-4926-4. 
• Evans, Peter (1994). Music from the Darkness – Mike Oldfield, 1953–1993. http://www.mikeoldfield.org/info/features/index.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 
• Branson, Richard (1998). Losing My Virginity. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-0648-6. 
• Oldfield, Mike (2007). Changeling. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-1-85227-381-1. 

References[link]