Name	Mike Oldfield
Landscape	yes
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Michael Gordon Oldfield
Birth date	May 15, 1953
Birth place	Reading, Berkshire, England
Instrument	Guitar, keyboards, Percussion, vocals, bass, drums, piano, organ, glockenspiel, mandolin, banjo
Genre	Ambient, Celtic fusion, classical, Synthpop, experimental, minimalist, Honky-Tonk, Neoclassical, new age, Neofolk, pop, progressive rock, rock and roll, world
Occupation	Musician, Songwriter, Producer, Game designer
Years active	1967–present
Label	Virgin (1972–1991)Warner Bros. (1992–2003)Mercury (2005–present)
Associated acts	Maggie Reilly, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, David Bedford, Anita Hegerland, Pekka Pohjola
Url	www.mikeoldfieldofficial.com

Michael Gordon "Mike" Oldfield (born 15 May 1953, Reading, Berkshire) 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". He is also well known for his hit rendition of the Christmas piece, "In Dulci Jubilo".

Biography

Oldfield's parents are Raymond Oldfield, a general practitioner, and his wife Maureen Liston, a nurse. 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, 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.

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 demo version of Tubular Bells, Oldfield attempted to persuade record labels to take the project on. In 1972 he met the young Richard Branson who was setting up his own record label, Virgin Records, and after playing the demo to engineers Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth, he began recording the 1973 version of the album.

Virgin years (1973–1991)

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 studios, 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. 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.

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.

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.

Around the time of Incantations, Oldfield underwent a controversial self-assertiveness therapy course known as Exegesis. 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, the first-ever concert there.

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.

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), 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)

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.

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)

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.

His autobiography Changeling was published in May 2007 by Virgin Books. In March 2008 Oldfield released his first classical album, Music of the Spheres; Karl Jenkins assisted with the orchestration. 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. Oldfield's daughter, Molly, played a large part in the project.

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, and then they were transferred to Mercury Records. 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. On 6 June 2009, an International Bell Ringing day took place, to promote the reissue of his first album, Tubular Bells. Incantations is due to be reissued in July 2011.

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. In 2010 lyricist Don Black said in an interview with Music Week that he had been working with Oldfield.

Personal life

Oldfield and his siblings were raised Roman Catholic, the faith of their Irish mother. 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). During 2010 Fanny has been writing about listening to her husband's music which is available to read on Oldfield's official website.

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. Throughout his life Oldfield has also had a passion for aircraft and building model aircraft. 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. 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). He also noted in an interview in 2008 that he had two boats.

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. 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 March 2011 is still on the market.

Instruments

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

Guitars

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 – went up for auction at Bonhams in June 2007, with the money going to the SANE charity.

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. Oldfield has also stated that his playing style originates from his musical roots playing folk music and the bass guitar. For composing classical music Oldfield has been quoted as using the software notation program, Sibelius, He also used the FL Studio DAW on his 2005 double album Light + Shade. Among the mixing consoles Oldfield has owned are an AMS Neve Capricorn 33238, a Harrison Series X, and a Euphonix System 5-MC.

Keyboards

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.

Discography

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

Main albums

{| style="width:100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" |- valign="top" |style="width:50%"|

Tubular Bells (1973)

Hergest Ridge (1974)

The Orchestral Tubular Bells (1975)

Ommadawn (1975)

Incantations (1978)

Exposed (1979)

Platinum (1979)

QE2 (1980)

Five Miles Out (1982)

Crises (1983)

Discovery (1984)

The Killing Fields (1984)

Islands (1987)

|style="width:50%"|

Earth Moving (1989)

Amarok (1990)

Heaven's Open (1991)

Tubular Bells II (1992)

The Songs of Distant Earth (1994)

Voyager (1996)

Tubular Bells III (1998)

Guitars (1999)

The Millennium Bell (1999)

Tr3s Lunas (2002)

Tubular Bells 2003 (2003)

Light + Shade (2005)

Music of the Spheres (2008)

|}

Quotation

NME - April 1979

See also

Sally Oldfield

Terry Oldfield

Kevin Ayers

Maggie Reilly

Rick Fenn

Maddy Prior

Anita Hegerland

New Age music

Electronic music

Virgin Records

Bibliography

References

External links

; Official sites MikeOldfieldOfficial.com – The official Mike Oldfield website

* Mike Oldfield official Universal store

MikeOldfield.org – The official Mike Oldfield information service

; Fan-based sites

Tubular.net – The largest and most well-established Mike Oldfield website, for news and information.

; Other sites

Category:1953 births Category:Living people Category:English songwriters Category:English guitarists Category:English multi-instrumentalists Category:English buskers Category:English New Age musicians Category:English composers Category:British people of Irish descent Category:People from Reading, Berkshire Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Virgin Records artists Category:Mercury Records artists Category:English Roman Catholics Category:Warner Bros. Records artists Category:FL Studio users

Mike Tompkins (born November 29, 1976) is a U.S. politician who was the Natural Law Party vice presidential candidate during the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections.

Education and career

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Tompkins is a direct descendant of two U.S. presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams. He graduated from Harvard University in 1970(is this a mistake? born in 1976 and graduated in 1970 ??) and completed his post-graduate studies at Maharishi European Research University (MERU) in Seelisberg, Switzerland in 1984, where he received a doctorate in the Science of Creative Intelligence. He became an associate director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that defines itself as a "progressive policy think tank."

Political campaigns

In 1992, Tompkins joined John Hagelin as the first national candidates for the Natural Law Party. Hagelin, a quantum physicist, was the director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy and director of the physics department at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. Hagelin and Tompkins received ballot placement in 32 states and their campaign qualifed for federal matching funds.

In 1996, Hagelin and Tompkins ran again as the presidential and vice presidential candidates on the Natural Law Party. During a campaign stop at the University of Houston, Tompkins defended the party’s place in the U.S. political landscape by stating, "The Natural Law Party was founded as an alternative to the Republicans and Democrats, and an answer to the great many issues and great many solutions that were not being brought to the public. We are building this party as a permanent part of the American political landscape. We want to win and influence debate…(America has) the least democratic society. We have made a political system that excludes new voices, new people and new ideas."

Hagelin and Tomkins received 39,000 votes, or 0.04% of the total voter input, in 1992. In 1996, they were on the ballot in 44 states and received 110,000 votes, or 0.1% of the total voter input. In 2000, Hagelin ran for president again on the Natural Law Party, but Tompkins was replaced as the vice presidential candidate by Internet entrepreneur Nat Goldhaber.

References

Category:American people of English descent Category:Harvard University alumni Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:Transcendental Meditation practitioners Category:United States vice-presidential candidates, 1992 Category:United States vice-presidential candidates, 1996 Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Natural Law Party (United States) politicians

Name	Mike Posner
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Michael Robert Posner
Birth date	February 12, 1988
Birth place	Southfield, Michigan
Origin	Durham, North Carolina, United States
Genre	Dance, pop, hip hop, R&B;
Occupation	Singer, songwriter
Years active	2009–present
Label	J
Associated acts	Big Sean
Url

Michael Robert "Mike" Posner (born February 12, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. Posner released his debut album, 31 Minutes to Takeoff, on August 10, 2010. The album includes the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 single "Cooler Than Me", his second single, "Please Don't Go", as well as his third single, "Bow Chicka Wow Wow" featuring Lil Wayne.

Early life and education

Posner was born and raised in Southfield, Michigan. His father, a Wayne County Prosecutor, is Jewish and his mother is Catholic. Posner attended and graduated from Groves High School and went on to attend duke university. There, Posner was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity and graduated in 2010 with a degree in sociology and a certificate in markets and management, with an overall GPA of 3.59.

Career

Working with Don Cannon and DJ Benzi, Posner released his second mixtape, A Matter of Time (the first mixtape being Reflections of a Lost Teen), from his dorm room at Ohio University in March 2009. In July 2009, Posner signed a deal with Big Sean's Finally Famous / J Records (RCA/Sony). He chose to return to Duke after signing his record deal, and toured on the weekends while at the same time recording for his debut album. Posner's third mixtape One Foot Out the Door, hosted by Clinton Sparks, was released on October 27, 2009. The mixtape was accompanied by a web series also entitled One Foot Out the Door which aired bi-weekly from September 30, 2009 until December 2009. During this time, he hired his manager, Daniel Weisman of Elitaste Inc., who also manages Wale.

31 Minutes to Takeoff, his debut album was released on August 10, 2010. The first single from the album, "Cooler Than Me", produced by Gigamesh, climbed the Billboard Hot 100 to reach No. 6 before going on to attain global success. He performed at Bonnaroo and the 2010 Warped Tour in the summer. A second single, "Please Don't Go", was issued on July 20, 2010.

Posner performed on national television for the first time on the talk show Last Call with Carson Daly on Tuesday, 27 October 2009. He also performed his song "Cooler Than Me" on America's Got Talent on July 28, 2010. He performed on Live with Regis and Kelly on August 3, and on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on August 4. He performed "Cooler Than Me" on The Wendy Williams Show on August 5, 2010, and on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on August 9, 2010. Mike Posner has collaborated with artists like Lil Wayne, Bruno Mars, Wale, Big Sean, Bun B, We The Kings, Saigon, One Be Lo, Eric Holljes, and 3OH!3. On February 1, 2011 Posner released a radio mix of "Bow Chicka Wow Wow" which included a new verse from Lil Wayne. He performed his song Bow Chicka Wow Wow live on The Ellen Show on April 19, 2011.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

Recording Institute of Detroit Home Page

Category:1988 births Category:2010s singers Category:American dance musicians Category:American hip hop musicians Category:American male singers Category:American people of Jewish descent Category:Duke University alumni Category:English-language singers Category:Hip hop singers Category:J Records artists Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Detroit, Michigan Category:People from Southfield, Michigan