Mike Oldfield is best known for his 1973 album Tubular Bells it became a hit after its opening was used as the theme for the film The Exorcist. The instrumental composition was recorded in 1972 and released on 25 May 1973 as the inaugural album of Richard Branson’s label Virgin Records. Oldfield played more than twenty different instruments in the multi-layered recording, and its style moved through many diverse musical genres. Its two and half million plus UK sales put it at number 34 on the list of the best-selling albums in the country. The title track became a top 10 hit single in the US after the opening was used in The Exorcist film. It is today considered to be a forerunner of the new-age music movement.

Oldfield has released more than 20 albums with the most recent being a rock album titled Man on the Rocks, released in 2014.

In this interview released on the tenth anniversary of the release of Tubular Bells in 1983 Oldfield talks about why he thinks the album was so successful and what it was like to play the complex piece live. He also believed then that the album would continued to influence and inspire musicians and composers 20 years on.