In 1990 Mike Oldfield was not a happy bunny – at least when it came to his deteriorating relationship with Virgin. He felt he’d done things their way on 1989’s Earth Moving, a songs-and-synths project, and wanted to follow his own muse again. So he made what he considered an “angry protest album” to irritate them.
An hour long, with no track breaks as such, and instrumental with bursts of an African choir and spoken voice, it now sounds more like an inspired act of creativity than a raging blow-out. The label wanted to call it Tubular Bells 2. He refused, later saying, “If anything, it’s Ommadawn 2.”
