In 1971, Mike Oldfield was a struggling teenage musician living in a flat in Tottenham. He had composed a long, complex instrumental piece in his head—provisionally titled "Opus One"—and recorded it as a demo using a borrowed tape recorder. Mass Rejections:
In 1973, a nineteen-year-old multi-instrumentalist named Mike Oldfield released an instrumental progressive rock album that defied music industry logic. was the very first album issued by Richard Branson’s upstart label, Virgin Records . It features a single, continuous composition split across two sides of vinyl. The record went on to sell over 15 million copies globally , spent years on the UK charts, and provided the financial foundation for the entire Virgin empire. The Genesis of a Masterpiece mike oldfield tubular