A limited RSD 2023 release of “Opus One,” the original 1971 demo recorded by Mike Oldfield for what became “Tubular Bells.”
Cut at Abbey Road by Miles Showell, with a new cover designed by Phil Smee and overseen by Mike Oldfield
Conceptualised in downtime while working as the bass player in Kevin Ayers And The Whole World, the teenage Mike Oldfield recorded his music in a small flat in Tottenham and a bedroom in his parents’ home in Harold Wood, Essex. Working with a tape recorder borrowed from Ayers, Oldfield created tape loops and worked with such advanced studio items as a screwdriver and a piece of card to get the multi-tracking he desired.
This was the tape that was rejected by many record companies, and ultimately approved by Simon Draper and Richard Branson at Virgin Records.
Unreleased until 2009, “Opus One” was previously made available on the 35th Anniversary boxset of “Tubular Bells.”
Pre-Order the album here: https://burningshed.com/mike-oldfield_opus-one-rsd-2023_vinyl
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