Mike Oldfield Essentials

Mike Oldfield was still a teenager when he began work on Tubular Bells, the prog epic that had him playing more than a dozen instruments. His initial run of albums was no less ambitious, each carrying one piece across two or even four sides of vinyl. Though Oldfield inspired the new age movement, his albums always featured plenty of ripping lead guitar. During the '80s he worked with different singers on shorter pop songs (one of which was covered by Hall & Oates), and in recent years he's done everything from techno to classical, plus a few Bells sequels.