| Guitars | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 24 May 1999 | |||
| Recorded | Roughwood Studio, Buckinghamshire | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock, new age | |||
| Length | 42:40 | |||
| Label | WEA | |||
| Producer | Mike Oldfield | |||
| Mike Oldfield chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [1] |
Guitars is the 19th record album written and performed by British musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1999. The concept of the album was to only perform it using guitar-like instruments.
Oldfield plays all the music on the album, using only guitars of various types. The most remarkable usage is that of his Roland MIDI-equipped guitars, [2] which he uses to trigger drum samples and produce string-like sounds. "Four Winds" is a four-part work, whose sections are musical portraits of the four compass points (North, South, East and West).
The Live Then & Now 1999 tour was in promotion of this album and Tubular Bells III . [3]
The liner notes has a photo of Oldfield surrounded by some of his guitars, which he used on the album. From the classical (Spanish acoustic) guitar at the top (and slightly to the right) going clockwise, the guitars are as follows:
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Spain (PROMUSICAE) [4] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Michael Gordon Oldfield is a British 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, percussion, and vocals. He has adopted a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock, world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient, and new age music.
Bradford Phillip Delson is an American musician, best known as the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the rock band Linkin Park.
David Vickerman Bedford was an English composer and musician. He wrote and played both popular and classical music. He was the brother of the conductor Steuart Bedford, the grandson of the composer, painter and author Herbert Bedford and the composer Liza Lehmann, and the son of Leslie Bedford, an inventor, and Lesley Duff, a soprano opera singer.
Tubular Bells is the debut studio album by the English musician Mike Oldfield, released on 25 May 1973 as the first album on Virgin Records. It comprises two mostly instrumental tracks. Oldfield, who was 19 years old when it was recorded, played almost all the instruments.
Tubular Bells II is the fifteenth studio album by English guitarist and songwriter Mike Oldfield. It was released on 31 August 1992 by Warner Music UK and is the successor to his debut album Tubular Bells (1973). After his contract with Virgin Records ended at the end of 1991, Oldfield signed with Warner and started work on a sequel to Tubular Bells. The album charted at number 1 in the UK as did its precursor. It is Oldfield's third number-one album.
Tubular Bells 2003 is the 22nd studio album by English musician Mike Oldfield, released on 27 May 2003 by Warner Music Spain. It is a digital re-recording of his 1973 album Tubular Bells, released almost 30 years earlier. To date, this is the most recent album in the Tubular Bells series.
Lars Mikael Åkerfeldt is a Swedish musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of progressive metal band Opeth, and the former vocalist of death metal supergroup Bloodbath. He was also guitarist for the "one-off" band Steel, and is part of the collaboration Storm Corrosion with Steven Wilson.
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.
Daryl Mark Stuermer is an American musician, songwriter, and producer best known for playing the guitar and bass for Genesis during live shows, and lead guitar for Phil Collins during most solo tours and albums. He has also released nine solo albums, and tours with his Daryl Stuermer Band.
Platinum is the fifth studio album by English multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released on 23 November 1979 on Virgin Records. It was Oldfield's first album to include shorter songs and music written by others. A modified version of the album was released in the United States and Canada and titled Airborn.
"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 a number of 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.
Tubular Bells III is the eighteenth studio album by English guitarist, songwriter, and producer Mike Oldfield. It was released on 31 August 1998 by Warner Music UK and is the third installment in his Tubular Bells album series, following Tubular Bells (1973) and Tubular Bells II (1992). After relocating from England to the Spanish island of Ibiza, Oldfield started work on the album and gained inspiration to incorporate electronic music from the island's local bars and clubs.
Tr3s Lunas is the 21st studio album by English musician and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released in June 2002 by Warner Music Spain. After his previous album The Millennium Bell (1999), Oldfield started work on his first release for MusicVR, a musical virtual reality project with simulator video game elements and music. The idea developed to have the Tres Lunas MusicVR feature included as part of an album package, for which Oldfield wrote and recorded new music and signed with Warner Music Spain. Tr3s Lunas saw Oldfield explore electronic and chill-out music.
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.
"Innocent" is a single by British musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1989. It is from the album Earth Moving and features vocals from Anita Hegerland.
"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.
Tubular Bells for Two is a music-theatre production created and performed by Australian multi-instrumentalists Aidan Roberts and Daniel Holdsworth. In the show the two musicians re-create Mike Oldfield's 1973 album Tubular Bells live with over twenty instruments. They won The Sydney Fringe award for 'Best Musical Moment' in 2010, and have since featured at major arts festivals around Australia and the Pacific, including Sydney Festival and NZ International Arts Festival. The production made its European début at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it won two awards, going on to tour Europe in 2013 for the 40th anniversary of the original Oldfield album. The production has gone on to regularly tour the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
