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With the motto "back to roots", Amarok was released in 1990, an album conceived as "Ommadawn 2", again, like the original, featuring Paddy Maloney on Uillean pipes and Tom Newman as co-producer - veterans of Mike's early days, you might say.

The title of the album, again a nonsense word, has its roots from the Gaelic words for "morning" and "happy" and when spelt out in syllables, has been described by Mike to say "( I ) am a rock", meaning that he doesn't want to change anything by following trends, not doing again what others have already done.

Apart from the light-hearted part featuring Janet Brown as Maggie Thatcher, the album is a complete return to an instrumental album, the piece on CD being a continuous sixty minute opus. With this album, the "Master of 1000 overdubs" regained his reputation as the World's top multi-instrumentalist by playing in the region of 60 instruments including more obscure 'instruments' from the sphere of everyday life, such as shoes, hoover, spoon, fingernails and a toy dog!

Unfortunately, sales were very poor, with the music media and critics undecided between top and flop! The hard core of Oldfield fans did, however, sing out unanimously: "This album is incredible!"


Heaven's Open, the last album required to complete his Virgin contract, found its way into record stores in 1991. Conflict between Virgin boss Richard Branson and Mike had grown in recent years (although Richard reputedly let Mike win at squash for the sake of restoring peace!). From a certain point it became apparent that Mike was no longer happy with his 1973 contract, which for various reasons and through court cases had become a contract to supply thirteen studio albums.

Mike's anger with Virgin was apparent on the track "Make make", where Mike criticised Virgin's ruthless greed for commercial success at cost to originality and musicianship.


The conflict was further evident in "Music from the Balcony", where harmonious passages were abruptly hijacked by discordant ones, showing how Mike was constantly reminded and thinking of his displeasure with Virgin (similarly, on "Amarok", 48 minutes into the piece, a message to a certain RB is signalled in morse code, quite literally telling him where to go!)

Believing he couldn't sing, Mike rarely presented himself to the microphone, but took over 6 months singing lessons in 1990 with Helena Shenel (who has also taught George Michael, Peter Gabriel and Paul Young), refining a voice which really does prove itself worthy of praise on "Heaven's Open".

An announcement was made at about that time that a successor to "Tubular Bells" would follow in 1992, recorded and produced with 'old faces' from the time of the original , including Tom Newman as co-producer. This successor, "Tubular Bells II" was recorded during a six month stay in Los Angeles, where Mike set up home, then was mixed back at home ready for release on WEA Records, with whom he signed his new contract.

Mike changed his manager at the same time, from Richard Branson to Clive Banks, manager to Simple Minds and ex Managing Director of Island Records. The album was premiered at Edinburgh castle on 4th September, 1992. The combination of the marvellous backdrop, the excitement at seeing Mike live for the first time in eight years, the brilliance of "Tubular Bells II" and the rousing finale featuring a huge fireworks display make this concert the most memorable of Mike's career. It was recorded for television and broadcast within 2 hours of the concert, and has since been broadcast many times around the World, enjoying regular repeat performances.

"Tubular Bells II" was a great commercial success for Mike and WEA, and has now sold well over 2 million copies around the World. The single "Sentinel", the video for which cleverly mixed animation and film rode high in the singles chart as well.

The Twentieth Anniversary European Tour, culminating in 4 superb live shows at London's Albert Hall were only criticised for their length, but the quality of "Tubular Bells II" and the encores (particularly an excellent live rendition of "Orabidoo") as well as the spectacular light show left the fans with a fabulous memory.

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