We wouldn't have had Tubular Bells without drugs

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We wouldn't have had Tubular Bells without drugs

Postby Contact » Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:52 am

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/m ... ells-drugs
Paul Lester
theguardian.com, Thursday 20 March 2014 13.47 GMT

The godfather of ambient chillout on hiding from Dizzee Rascal, being a middle-aged raver in Ibiza and his proudest moment – getting a Blue Peter badge

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Mike Oldfield, musician 'I'm the godfather of scary movie music' … Mike Oldfield

Hi, Mike! How's it going?
Good. I've just become a granddad for the first time.

Congrats! What's it like to also be the godfather of new age ambient chillout?
I don't mind what the category is, as long as it's nice.

When did you first see The Exorcist?
About 10 years after it first came out. Every Halloween it still pops up. I even hear it on CNN [hums chilling refrain from Tubular Bells]. I'm the godfather of scary movie music.

Was it ironic considering your years exorcising demons with therapy sessions that your music should soundtrack a movie about exorcising a demon?
Well, the human mind – consciousness – is a very complicated thing. We don't begin to understand it. So if you're a creative person, everything that happens to you must come out in what you do. Obviously, yeah, it had an influence. It was never meant to be music for a movie, though. If anything it was related to music that I used to listen to under the blankets, on pirate radio, the beginnings of ambient, people like Terry Riley and Tonto's Expanding Headband.

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Mike Oldfield in 1975 Oldfield in 1975. Photograph: Terry O'Neill/Getty Images

Who did you feel most kinship with out of that early-70s scene?
I listened to Ravel, Roedelius, Bartók, Stravinsky … or it might be Stevie Wonder or Led Zeppelin. It didn't matter. It was just music – vibrations in the air. My last album was entirely classical, and this one is entirely live-band rock music. You can't say I'm any one kind of artist.

Did you ever call up record companies who rejected Tubular Bells and go, "Ner ner ne ner ner"?
[Laughs uproariously, then composes himself] Um, I must say, I did once spend half an hour Googling the A&R men who booted me out the door, thinking I was a complete nutcase. I couldn't find any of them. I imagine that, once Tubular Bells got to No 1, they probably got the sack.

Was it the prog equivalent of Decca turning down the Beatles?
I suppose it's an unenviable job – choosing signings for record labels. They [the labels that turned him down] obviously wanted to play it safe and sign acts that were like ones that were already selling. But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster. Look at Harry Potter.

Is it 14 or 17 million sales for Tubular Bells?
It says 17 on the Virgin website. I did get a proper breakdown about 20 years ago and it was up to 12m even then. For the UK alone I've got a seven-times platinum disc award. That's 2.1m, and that was 15 years ago.

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Mike Oldfield and Richard Branson in 1973 Mike Oldfield and Richard Branson in 1973.

How long was it before Richard Branson responded to your suggestion, via morse code, to "Fuck Off, RB"?
Oh, he still hasn't. He's never mentioned it. He was over here [in Nassau] a few weeks ago – I'd done an arrangement of Tubular Bells for piano, for schools, and he jetted in for it. We don't talk about the old days, although when he was over we did drink a bottle of champagne and he insisted I play him loads of his favourite old tracks of mine, all the silly ones like Don Alfonso. He likes all the ditties.



Do you get free Virgin flights?
I do!

First class?
Yep. Only for me. If I fly with anyone else, I can't sit there on my own so I have to pay for their first class seat as well. Unfortunately, Virgin don't fly to the Bahamas so I don't get to use it much. I'm hoping he will change his mind.

You fly yourself, don't you?
I used to. I had a licence for single and twin-engine aircraft and helicopters. I've got a little twinkling of an idea, to get one of these brand new ultra-light mini-copters. One-seater. Be nice to go doodling around the islands here.

You recorded a version of the Blue Peter theme … did you get a badge?
Yes! I've still got it, proudly, in a box somewhere. Forget the Exorcist, winning a Grammy or having a No 1 – Blue Peter came to see me!

Is it true you composed music for Charles and Diana's royal wedding?
It wasn't the actual wedding. It was the day before – outside St Paul's Cathedral. I composed a little ditty that you can probably find somewhere on the internet.



I'm not sure if they ever heard it. Although I did get the freedom of the city of London, which was rather nice, from the lord mayor.

What did that involve?
It means I can drive my sheep across London Bridge any time I want and if I'm ever sentenced to death, I can be hanged with a silken rope.

You were at the Olympics opening ceremony … what did you say to Dizzee Rascal on the coach?
Mainly I was hiding from him because he had the most godawful flu. I was terrified I was going to catch it so that on the night of the opening ceremony I was going to have a temperature of 104 and be sneezing and coughing in front of a quarter of the world's population. He came and sat right behind me on the coach. So I moved to the back and covered myself with a blanket. He had no idea who I was. But then after a couple of the rehearsals, somebody must have told him, and by the time we got to the actual event on the opening night his flu had cleared up, and he was giving me high-fives and asking me, "How's it going, man?"

So the ambient-grime crossover opus cannot be far off?
Maybe that'll be my next project.

How much do you remember of your LSD trips?
Gawd, quite a lot. They were very, very scary. I think it's better to go the new age route, where you raise consciousness through chanting and meditation, rather than take drugs. Having said that, we wouldn't have all those beautiful tracks like Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, and we probably wouldn't have Tubular Bells – a lot of things, really – without drugs.

When was your last trip?
Back in the 60s, I think. It's a life-changing thing. You're never the same afterwards. I was in such a state of confusion, insecurity and paranoia that I had to go through the Exegesis rebirthing experience to get all that out of my system. It was like going on a military boot camp for four days. It was excruciating.

You said in 2009, "I don't have any friends, just lawyers." Still true?
Heh-heh. I also said, "The day I don't have any lawyers, I'll be a happy man."

You had 15 sets of lawyers then. How many do you have now?
About half of that. What can I say? If you're a celebrity, it comes with legal problems. So you have to have lawyers. Still, I've got a huge family, and that makes up for it.

You've lived in Switzerland, Monaco, Mallorca and, in the 90s, Ibiza. Did you cane it in the latter?
Yes! Because of my bad experiences in the 60s and 70s, I missed out on my teenage-hood. So I decided to have it in Ibiza, in my 40s.

What did it involve?
I'm not going into that in a family newspaper. What teenagers get up to is private – they don't tell their parents. But I got it out of my system.

Did you go raving?
Oh yeah – my favourite was Pacha. I got very into the craft of the DJ and headed straight for the DJ's booth. I'd spend the evening in there and they'd let me fiddle and spin a few discs.

Did you ever overhear people, pointing at you, saying, "Isn't that bloke in the DJ booth Mike Oldfield?"
What? You can't talk in Pacha!

OK – did you ever lip-read them gasping, "Isn't that Mike Oldfield E'd off his nut dancing to happy house and hardcore techno?"
No. I might have been recognised in mainland Spain, but for some reason in Ibiza nobody really pays any attention to you. There's something in the water there, though, that makes you go a bit loopy. It was wild. Great for a period, but you want to get out eventually.

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Mike Oldfield In the Bahamas Photograph: Mick Hutson/Redferns

You don't club it where you live in Nassau?
No. I'm happy going out on my little boat and sitting on my own, with my thoughts and my memories, alone with nature. I'm a bit of a wilderness person.

You don't suffer from paradise syndrome, where you're wracked with guilt and anxiety because everything is so perfect?
No, I don't feel guilty. I went through a bit of – after the 60s and 70s, it looked as though my career was over, my record company lost interest; they were much more interested in their punk rockers, and I had to reinvent myself.

Did you meet any of the punks?
Yeah, I did. I was invited by the Skids to go and work with them and they turned out to be jolly nice chaps. Same as Iron Maiden. Actually very pleasant.

You'd get on well with Johnny Rotten – he's a nature freak as well.
Yeah, he's a great British eccentric, and they're priceless. He's in the same category as Patrick Moore.

Are you more light than shade?
Quite a few years ago I was taught how to meditate, and when you do you move out of this reality into a realm of nothingness. So I wouldn't say I'm light or shade. I'm both, and neither. I'm an empty space. But that doesn't mean I'm an airhead.

What's the strangest use of your music that you know of?
I've had letters from people in prison. They're very sick. I heard it played on an intensive care ward in a hospital in Ibiza. I try not to judge. Any use of my music is great. The only thing I've rejected is its use in horribly violent horror films.

What about the Exorcist?
That was a very good movie – it was about exorcising a demon, and if my music can help do that, that's a great thing. People do go crazy sometimes and consult exorcists.

Do you ascribe your longevity to luck?
I do feel lucky. Almost as though I had a guardian angel, for want of a better word. What's astonishing is that, 40 years on, I'm still here. As we speak, I'm on national radio, I've got a wonderful relationship with my record company, and I'm talking to a national newspaper. I'm so incredibly grateful, I can hardly believe it.

Mike Oldfield's new CD.
Man On The Rocks
Buy it from amazon.co.uk
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Re: We wouldn't have had Tubular Bells without drugs

Postby progrox » Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:16 pm

Nice interview. Thanks Contact.
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