Islands (Mike Oldfield album)

Music videos, producers and singers

Islands was also released as a full-length VHS video album. For each track a video was made and released, often mixing state of the art (for the time) computer-generated images with real life images. This was released as part of The Wind Chimes.

The album boasts the largest number of co-producers out of all of Oldfield's work; production was handled by Michael Cretu (later of Enigma fame), Geoffrey Downes, Tom Newman, Simon Phillips, Alan Shacklock and Oldfield himself. Singers on the album are Bonnie Tyler, Kevin Ayers, Anita Hegerland and Jim Price.

Album artwork

The UK front cover artwork was of a tropical island, and hidden in the surrounding sea is a large number of hand shapes. The hand images are based on a still frame from the longform video released at the same time as the album; a couple of scenes in the video, which was mainly filmed in Bali, feature a group of natives performing a ritualistic dance which involves hand-waving movements. The American cover is completely different; it displays two cube shapes. The photography on the back of the US version was by Jerry Uelsmann.

Charts

The album peaked at number 9 on Norway's album chart and at number 29 in the UK Album Chart.

The major single in Europe was the title track, "Islands", which was sung by Bonnie Tyler. In the United States, "Magic Touch" was a top 10 hit on the Billboard Album Rock charts in early 1988.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Mike Oldfield.

Personnel

Singles

Four singles were released from the album, three of which were released in 1987, "Islands" (as Mike & Bonnie), "The Time Has Come" and "Flying Start", and finally "Magic Touch" in 1988.

"Flying Start"

"Flying Start" was released as the third single from Islands on 1 February 1988. It features Kevin Ayers on vocals who had collaborated with Oldfield in his band, the Whole World, even prior to Oldfield's debut album, Tubular Bells. Oldfield used a Danelectro Coral sitar on this song, an instrument that does not feature on many of Oldfield's releases. The music video features various computer generated elements.

Unusually for an Oldfield 12-inch at that time, the extended duration was achieved simply by a short introductory instrumental that bears no musical relation to the rest of the song and is separated from it by a short pause; the song itself is identical to the album and 7-inch versions. Prior to this, Oldfield had usually extended his songs for their 12-inch versions by incorporating an extra verse and/or instrumental section within the main body of the track. The 12-inch version has since appeared on the 2006 compilation album, The Platinum Collection.

A different version of the song produced by Colin Fairley was also released on Kevin Ayers' own album Falling Up in February 1988.

Track listing

1. "Flying Start" – 3:37
2. "The Wind Chimes" (Excerpt from part 2) – 3:58

1. "Flying Start" (Extended version) – 4:50
2. "The Wind Chimes" (Excerpt from part 2) – 3:58