"Five Miles Out" | ||||
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Single by Mike Oldfield | ||||
from the album Five Miles Out | ||||
B-side | "Live Punkadiddle" | |||
Released | March 1982 [1] | |||
Recorded | Buckinghamshire, 1981–1982 | |||
Genre | Progressive rock, electronic rock | |||
Length | 4:18 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Songwriter(s) | Mike Oldfield | |||
Producer(s) | Mike Oldfield Tom Newman | |||
Mike Oldfield singles chronology | ||||
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"Five Miles Out" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1982 by Virgin Records. It is from the album Five Miles Out and predominantly features vocals by Maggie Reilly, but also includes vocals by Oldfield himself. [2]
The B-side, a live version of "Punkadiddle", was recorded during Oldfield's European tour 1980.
The song (and the music video) has an unusually complex structure for its length, and is mainly inspired by a near tragic airplane flight Oldfield was a passenger on, in which an inexperienced pilot flew a small craft directly into a violent storm. Having acquired a pilot licence afterwards, Oldfield here, among other things, makes an extensive use of air travel vocabulary to portray exchanges between a pilot in distress being caught in a storm, and a traffic controller. This is sung through a vocoder, representing radio communication, while Reilly's vocals are bare and lyrical, offering comfort and support. The song also quotes motifs from Tubular Bells , Taurus II (from the same album), and possibly others.
Music video for the song is more or less a literal, though simplified, representation of its lyrics. The video features Oldfield in several shots, though Maggie Reilly does not appear. It is available on the Elements – The Best of Mike Oldfield video.
Notably, Mike has said it was one of the first videos of his own he has noticed on TV, and that it might have helped spark his interest in experimenting with radio-friendly music, as he would with great success all through the 1980s.
The picture sleeve states that "Live Punkadiddle" was "recorded live at Essen in 1981 by the Mike Oldfield Group". This version was later released on CD2 of the Deluxe Edition of QE2 , which featured tracks selected from Oldfield's European Adventure Tour.
Charts (1982) | Peak position |
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Australia (Kent Music Report) [4] | 61 |
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) [5] | 44 |
UK Singles (OCC) [6] | 43 |
West Germany (Official German Charts) [7] | 42 |
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English musician, songwriter, and producer best known for his debut studio album Tubular Bells (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a guitarist, Oldfield plays a range of instruments, which includes keyboards and percussion, as well as vocals. He has adopted a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock, world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient, and new age music.
REO Speedwagon, or simply REO, is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1980s. Its best-selling album, Hi Infidelity (1980), contained four US Top 40 hits and sold more than ten million copies.
Maggie Reilly is a Scottish singer best known for her collaborations with the composer and instrumentalist Mike Oldfield. Most notably, she performed lead vocals on the Oldfield songs "Family Man", "Moonlight Shadow", "To France", and "Foreign Affair", all of which were international hits in the early 1980s.
Crises is the eighth studio album by English musician and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released on 27 May 1983 on Virgin Records. Oldfield started recording the album towards the end of his 1982 tour supporting his previous record, Five Miles Out. It marked a continuation of Oldfield's experimentation with more accessible music which began in the late 1970s; side one contains the 20-minute "Crises" and side two contains a collection of shorter songs which feature vocalists Maggie Reilly, Jon Anderson, and Roger Chapman. Oldfield produced Crises with drummer Simon Phillips, who also plays on the album.
QE2 is the sixth studio album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1980 on Virgin Records. The album was named after the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2.
Five Miles Out is the seventh studio album by English recording artist Mike Oldfield, released on 19 March 1982 by Virgin Records in the UK. After touring in support of his previous album, QE2 (1980), ended in mid-1981, Oldfield started on a follow-up with members of his touring band performing the music. The album features the 24-minute track "Taurus II" on side one and four shorter songs on side two. The songs "Family Man" and "Orabidoo" are credited to Oldfield and members of his touring band which included vocalist Maggie Reilly, drummer Morris Pert, and guitarist Rick Fenn.
"Moonlight Shadow" is a song written and performed by English multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, released as a single in May 1983 by Virgin Records, and included on his eighth album, Crises, of the same year. The vocals were performed by Scottish vocalist Maggie Reilly, who had collaborated with Mike Oldfield since 1980. It is Oldfield's most successful single, reaching number one on numerous charts around Europe.
Discovery is the ninth studio album by English multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released on 25 June 1984 on Virgin Records. It comprises a number of pop songs, most notably the single "To France", as well as the instrumental "The Lake".
Islands is the 11th album by Mike Oldfield, released on 28 September 1987 by Virgin in the UK. Guest singers on the album are Bonnie Tyler, Kevin Ayers, Anita Hegerland, Max Bacon, and Jim Price. A different track list and cover was used for the American edition.
Elements – The Best of Mike Oldfield is a compilation album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1993 by Virgin Records.
The Jacksons Live! is a live album by The Jacksons. It was released on November 11, 1981 by Epic Records. The album was recorded during the band's North American concert tour in fall 1981, known as the Triumph Tour. The live double album was culled from recordings made on the tour's stops in Buffalo, Providence, Atlanta, and New York City. The live album would go on to sell over two million copies worldwide.
Earth Moving is the 12th record album by British musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1989. Unlike Oldfield's albums released prior to Earth Moving, the album contains no instrumental tracks.
"Learning to Fly" is a song by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, written by David Gilmour, Anthony Moore, Bob Ezrin, and Jon Carin. It was the first single from the band's thirteenth studio album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. It reached number 70 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart in September, 1987, remaining three consecutive weeks at the top position in the autumn of the same year. Meanwhile, the song failed to chart on the official U.K. top 40 singles charts. On the other hand, in Spain, the song peaked at number 1 on the Los 40 Principales chart.
"Arrival" is a 1976 composition by Swedish pop group ABBA featured on their album of the same name. It is an instrumental piece, mainly the brainchild of member Benny Andersson and had the working titles of "Fiol", "Ode to Dalecarlia" and "Arrival in Dalecarlia".
"Islands" is a song by English musician Mike Oldfield, featuring Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler on vocals. It features on Oldfield's 1987 album of the same name. It was written by Oldfield, who co-produced the track with Tom Newman and Alan Shacklock. The track was released as a single in September 1987 by Virgin Records.
"Tricks of the Light" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield released in 1984 and is from the Virgin Records album Discovery. Maggie Reilly and Barry Palmer perform vocals for this song.
"To France" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1984. It is from the album Discovery and features Maggie Reilly on vocals.
"Shadow on the Wall" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1983 by Virgin Records. English rock singer Roger Chapman performs vocals on the song and it is taken from Oldfield's Crises album. The song was a hit single especially in Germanic countries.
"Family Man" is a pop rock song written by Mike Oldfield, Tim Cross, Rick Fenn, Mike Frye, Morris Pert, and Maggie Reilly. It became a hit song in 1982 for Mike Oldfield with Maggie Reilly as the vocalist. Hall & Oates achieved success a year later with their cover version. In 2009, Maggie Reilly recorded another version of the song for her solo studio album Looking Back Moving Forward.
"Foreign Affair" is a song written by Maggie Reilly and Mike Oldfield, which first appeared on Oldfield's 1983 album Crises on Virgin Records.