Greetings dear rock music lovers welcome to another day today we are not going to talk about a band but about a multi-instrumentalist musician as well as being one of the best composers the world of music has ever known today we are talking about a very young boy and how he amazed the entire world practically single-handedly using not only a lot of instruments but also tubular bells we are talking about Mike Oldfield and his first album tubular Bells

So we begin

We start the time machine and go back to the year 1973, the year in which albums such as sell in england by the pound the Genesis Brain salad surgery the Emerson Lake and Palmer oraron in aspic by King crimson appeared. In addition to the majestic The Dark side of the moon by Pink Floyd and many more releases that saw the light during these magical 12 months, in the month of May of that same year an album with an enigmatic cover appeared in stores, an album created by a certain Mike Oldfield and called tubular Bells by the Virgin record label, recorded at the Manor studios in Oxford shire and produced by Tom Newman Simon Hayward And Mike Oldfield was the first LP by this musician

To fully understand this work, it is recommended that we get to know a
little about its author Mike Oldfield, whose name in Spanish is Miguel Campoviejo, a young and shy boy born in Reading, England in the year 1953, whose full name is Michael Gordon Oldfield, his father King Oldfield played with his guitar. Every Christmas Eve a traditional song Irish song called Denny Boy was the only song he knew how to play, maybe this, together with the fact that he had seen a child guitar virtuoso called Berd Wion on television, sparked his interest in this instrument

At the early age of 10 he was already able to compose pieces with his acoustic guitar, an instrument that he used to escape from a somewhat difficult family situation, he spent the day, especially on vacation, playing his guitar, it was his little world, and after making several small forays into music with his brothers Cel and Terry Oldfield, he joined a band called the H War, where he began as a bassist with David Bedford and Kevin Eers, a former member of Soft Machine, a band from the famous Canterbury scene with H World, he recorded the album Shooting at the Moon at Evil Road Studios in 1970.

The Composition

• The album is essentially one long piece of music divided into two parts (Side One and Side Two in the vinyl format). It features a blend of progressive rock, classical influences, and folk music, showcasing Oldfield’s multi-instrumental skills. He played almost all the instruments on the album, layering them using a then-novel overdubbing technique.

The Impact

• Commercial Success: Despite being unconventional, Tubular Bells was a massive commercial success, reaching No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart and staying there for weeks. It sold millions of copies worldwide.

• Cultural Influence: The album's use in The Exorcist brought it to a whole new audience and gave it an air of mystery and drama.

• Virgin Records' Success: The album's success provided Virgin Records with the financial boost needed to expand into the global powerhouse it became.

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