Whilst writing a recent post about "Platinum" - I began to wonder when Mike Oldfield's back catalogue was first released on compact disc in the UK. Unfortunately I couldn't find an answer on the internet - so decided to see if I could find out myself.
As I began this work I started to make lots of notes and tried to edit them into some sort of post for this blog. Unfortunately the text read like a stream of consciousness and it was boring for me to read, let alone anyone else.
Instead of a long post about my Mike Oldfield research I have decided to simply present the results. If you can fill in the blanks then do let me know. I've tried to work from contemporary sources and cross reference where I can.
Sources:
Dark Star https://www.mikeoldfield.org/ Fan site that led me up a few cul-de-sacs but also helped get some of the chronology right
Official Charts https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/ Authoritative but not too much depth of information. Helped corroborate probable release dates
Music Week archive at Worldradiohistory.com An absolute mine of information - shame all records for 1983 are missing. My go to resource.
Discogs Like any community led site, the data is subject to the vagaries of those that contribute, but is generally very useful for images
"Mike Oldfield Every Album, every song" (2020) Ryan Yard Highly recommend book written by someone who knows the subject matter intimately and understands music theory. Also manages to not be patronising.
