Mike Oldfield, ‘Tubular Bells’.
Definitely one of the all time great debut albums and debut achievements.
When Oldfield made a rough demo of bits of what became side 1, he knocked on every door in the record industry and nobody wanted to know. He couldn’t get arrested, let along get a deal. The album was eventually only made because engineer Tom Newman, working at the then newly established at The Manor, the sound studio set up by the fledgling Virgin chain, thought the project had potential. So basically he and Oldfield knocked it together between them, whenever no-one else was using the studio. In other words, it was made without any money, without any official support or backing, and without any executive suits or marketing men supporting it.
Now let’s look at a few salient features.
No lyrics (except a few howls).
It was the first album to consist just of two 20 minute extended instrumental compositions (one per side - you see, children, this was in the days of ‘vinyl’) featuring an array of rock, folk and classical styles.
It was the first album to really exploit the full potential of the one-man-band overdubbing technique, whereby Oldfield, playing many different guitars (and, more significantly, using many different guitar styles and techniques) and a few other instruments besides, and with literally 1000s of overdubs, managed to create a full, rich, deep pseudo-orchestral texture of sound. Some sections must have called for truly complex advanced planning in order to work. This was all in the days before digital processing and editing, before computerised or automated sound desks, and with 99% opf the work done by Oldfield himself and engineer Tom Newman.
And the result?
It went to Number 1 in a gazillion different countries, and in many places stayed there a l-o-n-g time. This despite the fact that Oldfield, who loathed the media, did almost nothing to promote it, and the marketing/promotion budget was effectively zero.
It was the first release on the Virgin record label, V0001, and its massive commercial success enabled the Virgin chain of record shops to survive and flourish. In fact the album became the cash cow that meant R Branson Esq could become what he is today. (Good thing or bad thing - discuss.)
It also meant that for a while Oldfield had more money than God and could do whatever the hell he liked. Which in his case was to piss off to a remote Scottish sanctuary called Hergest Ridge to get away from all the attention (which he hated), fly model gliders and come up with his second LP.
The album didn’t exactly start the ‘prog rock’ movement, but it certainly added a lot of fuel to the fire and opened the doors to lots of other ‘instrumental rock’ excursions. Not necessarily a good thing, according to your tastes, but still a major influence in its way.
All in all, a pretty big hit for your first time out. Oh, did I mention that at the time he put that first demo together, Mike Oldfield was 17 years old?