Mike Oldfield Book Project
Hello ! I decided to write a book about Mike Oldfield. It will be not a biography. It will be about Mike Oldfield vinyl items: singles, maxis and lps. From Children of The Sun (his first vinyl appearance) until The Songs of Distant Earth (his last album released on vinyl).
I want to write a fantastic book to be proud of it. With a lot of information and the most important, quality photos and scans of vinyl items: covers, backcovers, labels, sheets, etc. Also important, I will write the book in three languages: spanish, english and german. I have not an exact idea at this moment about how big the final book will be. Probably about 400 pages and 500 photos, but I don't really know.
How many copies will I professional print when the book is finished ? My first idea is to make about 100 copies. We will see because cost of printing a big book with hundreds of coloured photos on it will be not cheap, so it will depend on the interest and demand.
I will use a not very detailed Mike Oldfield biography (text and Mike Oldfield rare photos) to help me to introduce the vinyl information and photos that I want to show. I will include testpressings section, acetates section, flexis section, ... Also Mike Oldfield collaborations with other musicians (Kevin Ayers, David Bedford, ...).
I need some help for this project. I will use scans and photos of my own items when they are in mint condition. But with bad condition items, I will need to find a better copy to use the photo and/or scan. Also rare items that I don't have, I will try to receive a photo of any owner. If you think you have a rare vinyl item in your collection, please tell me and we will decide if it must appear in this book.
In this section, you can see the evolution of this project, from its beginning to its end (probably I will need some years to finish it). With my fifteen years collecting Oldfield vinyl items and the help of all big collectors and fans, hope to write an interesting book for everybody.
Here you can keep informed with news about this book: evolution, chapters done, ...
June 2008: Eight chapters totally finished: Children of the Sun, Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, The Orchestral Tubular Bells, Ommadawn, Boxed, Incantations and Exposed. More than 130 pages at the moment and it is about 40% of the total project !!
Year 2007: The process is very slow, but working on it. Vinyl part of most of the chapters is done (singles, maxis and lps), but not the biography part which is very slow to do. Also need to translate everything to English and German and this is also slow because I need to find the final text we like, etc. But working...
Novembre, December 2006: Vinyl part of all chapters is very advanced (singles and maxis). Still a lot of job with vinyl LPs and biography part of a lot of chapters. Two years after I started this book, I can say that about 40%-50% of the job is done. Still a lot of job to do, but working on it...
September, October 2006: The five first chapters are almost done. And some other started...
August 2006: We worked a lot this month. All chapters are started. Some more advanced, some still in the beginning. For the very first time I know how big the final book will be. More than 400 pages !!
May, June, July 2006: Working in five chapters at the same time, from Hergest Ridge to Incantations. Slow advances, but working on them.
February, March, April 2006: Not interesting advances these months.
January 2006: Working in three chapters at the same time: Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge and The Orchestral Tubular Bells. Here you can see one page from Hergest Ridge chapter (please notice this page can change in the final book).
December 2005: This project started one year ago. And still a lot of job to do. I'm sure I will finish it one day, but probably I will need some years !!
November 2005: Still working in the first chapters. Thanks to everybody who is sending me information and beautiful photos for the book.
October 2005: Working in the extra and final chapter: UK Human Rights, russian flexis, polish postcards, testpressings, acetates, .... Here you can see a couple of pages (they can change in the final book).
August, September 2005: Not big advances because not a lot of free time these weeks, sorry.
July 2005: Tubular Bells chapter is quite advanced, but still a lot to do becuase probably one of the hardest chapters in this project. Also working in the third chapter, Hergest Ridge.
June 2005: Still working in the second chapter, Tubular Bells. I'm asking for some scans and photos to other big collectors to include a lot of rarities and interesting material. But it is really a slow process.
May 2005: The process construction is working very slow at the moment. Because my job, too much hours every day, I can't find a lot of time to work in the book. Still working in Tubular Bells chapter, the biography section is already finished. Singles section also finished and still a lot to do in the lp section of this chapter.
April 2005: Still working in Tubular Bells chapter. A lot of things to explain, complex chapter and some difficulties. The chapter is about 50% finished and I like how it looks very much, but still a lot of job to do. Also started the next chapter, Hergest Ridge. Here you can see first page of the Tubular Bells chapter (it can change a bit in the final book).
March 2005: We are working in the second chapter, Tubular Bells. It is a complex and difficult chapter. Before presenting Tubular Bells vinyl lps and singles, we are also writting complete information about Oldfield collaborations at that time: Kevin Ayers, David Bedford, Lol Coxhil, ...
February 2005: First chapter is finished (6 pages, a short initial chapter). I'm really happy with it, it looks great ! Do you want to see it ? Download it clicking on DOWNLOAD FIRST CHAPTER. This first chapter is already made in three languages: spanish, english and german, so you can read it in the language you prefer. Checking it you can imagine how the final book will be. Now I'm working in the next chapter. Enjoy the first one !!
| IMPORTANT: I think I will print only about 100 numbered copies of my book. After downloading and checking the first chapter do you think you will be interested in a copy ? If yes, please email me and I will reserve one copy for you, like a pre-order. Think that I will need about 1 or 2 years to finish it, so there is no hurry, but if you are really interested, better if you reserve one of them now. |
January 2005: Some bad news about designing and printing my book for a professional guy in Barcelona because the price to print 100 copies is really very very expensive. But no problem, I installed Quark XPress 6.0 and Acrobat Write 6.0 in my Personal Computer, bought a Quark book to study it and I'm ready to write it on my own. I'm editing now the first Chapter (Children of the Sun) with Quark and when I finish it I will put it here in my website, so you can imagine how the final book will be.
December 2004: I decided to write a Mike Oldfield book. I'm thinking about how I will do it, what I want to include, help I will need, etc. Luckily a lot of Mike Oldfield collectors and fans confirmed me that they will help me as much as possible with information, scans and photos. I'm very happy because a lot of them are encouraging me to make a good job. After a lot of changes, the book has a defined summary to work on it. First chapter (from 1953 to SallyAngie period) is 90% done. Also started the second chapter, from SallyAngie to Tubular Bells. Next week I will know an estimated cost of printing about 100 copies of this book. I'm a bit scared of it, because price will be not cheap and it can be a problem, but I'm decided to do it.
Send me an email to: argiers@hotmail.com
