This week in 1974: Mike Oldfields Tubular Bells went to #1 for the first time on the UK albums chart, 15 months after being released; it went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide; it was the first LP released by Richard Bransons Virgin Records & an early cornerstone of the companys success; Mike played most of the instruments on the album (highly labour intensive & uncommon at the time), recording them one at a time and layering the recordings to create the finished work; the opening theme, popularized when it was chosen for the 1973 film The Exorcist, gained the record considerable publicity & is how many first heard the work; billionnaire Richard Bransons empire started with a small record shop that he co-owned in London called Virgin Records & Tapes; the shops success led them to form a label, Virgin Records, in 1972, that specialized in progressive rock & german Krautrock - but it was largely the success of Tubular Bells that financed everything from there; in the later-70s, the label did well getting in early on the punk/new wave scene…
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 03:06:01 +0000
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