Notes
During the time this album was made, Mike was living in Switzerland in order to avoid the taxes of the UK, which Mike felt were unfairly high. Mike set up a studio in a house on a mountainside above Lake Geneva, in the Swiss Alps, in which he wrote and recorded Discovery.
Although Barry Palmer and Maggie Reilly share vocal duties on 'Tricks of the Light', the pair never actually met until after the album was finished - they visited the studio on separate weeks.
During his time in Switzerland, Barry Palmer lost his voice, which of course meant he had trouble singing. Though he wanted to come back a little later, after regaining his voice, Mike felt this would cause problems, so Barry recorded his parts as best as he could. Though he gave a good performance, the signs of his voice being in less than perfect shape can be heard if you listen really closely to the song 'Discovery' which was recorded when Barry's voice was at its worst.
Simon Phillips co-engineered the album with Mike. This was his first time at doing this, and he later credited Mike as being the one who had taught him how to engineer. Simon was inspired, from working with Mike, to start a solo career of his own, writing and recording his own music.
The opening theme from 'To France' returns in 'Talk about your Life', while a small part of the melody of 'Tricks of the Light' continues into 'Discovery'. These help to give a feel of connectedness to the album, which is helped along by the way 'To France' blends in to 'Poison Arrows' and the general way that the album is compiled.
Personnel
| ▸ | Barry Palmer (musician) | | An Englishman, who was singer in the German group Triumvirat during the late 1970s and early 80s. Mike came across Barry via his manager Dirk Hohmeyer, who was also manager for Triumvirat. Dirk played Mike one of Triumvirat's albums, who was so impressed with Barry's singing that he decided to get in touch. Mike initially wanted Barry to sing on the Crises tour, but he was recording a solo album at the time and didn't want to join the tour. Mike tried again after the tour had finished, at which point Barry agreed to come and sing for Mike on the single 'Crime of Passion'. Mike was sufficiently pleased with the performance that he called Barry back to sing on Discovery.
| | ▸ | Simon Phillips (producer, musician) | | A drummer who started off playing in his father's dixieland band at the age of 12, before going on to work with rock legends like Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend and Gary Moore, as well as being the current drummer for Toto. He met Mike in New York at Tony Roma's Ribs, while on tour with Al DiMeola. Also appears in: Crises, Islands, Heaven's Open
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| | ▸ | Maggie Reilly (musician) | | Scottish singer, who rose to fame with Glasgow pop group "Joe Cool" in the early 1970s. The band then merged with another, "Up" and became funk-rock band "Cado Belle". She met Mike in 1980 via Cado Belle keyboard player Stuart MacKillop, who had been working for Abba after leaving Cado Belle. She joined Mike on his 1980 tour, then went on to record songs with him on five albums (including Crises).
In the years afterwards, Maggie went on to record with rock musicians such as Jack Bruce, George Harrison, Dave Gilmour and Nick Mason. Also appears in: QE2, Five Miles Out, Crises, Earth Moving
| | ▸ | Dan Kramer (cover artwork) | |
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Instruments
| Drum machines and electronic percussion |
| Oberheim DMX |
Digital drum machine.
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Can be seen on top of the OBXa in Mike's 'synth corner' shown on the sleeve of some LPs of the album.
Also used in Crises, The Killing Fields
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| Electric guitars |
| 1959 Fender Stratocaster, sunburst |
This was the first of the Strats that Mike bought. The scratchplate of this guitar was modified, probably in the 1990s, to make space for a Roland GK-2 synth pickup.
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Also used in Crises, Tubular Bells II, Guitars
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| 1963 Fender Stratocaster, fiesta red |
s/n L08044. Mike once said in an interview (The Raft) that this was his favourite guitar and that he'd never sell it. However, he finally decided to part company with it in December 2007 and sold it through Chandler guitars, fetching £30,000.
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Also used in Amarok, Tubular Bells II, The Songs of Distant Earth, Voyager, Tubular Bells III, Guitars, Tubular Bells 2003, Light + Shade
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| 1963 Gibson Les Paul/SG Junior |
This Les Paul/SG was heavily modified by Richard Barrie and Chandler Guitars to include a pickup and circuitry for a Roland guitar synthesiser system. This was used to create some of the unique distorted guitar/synth blend sounds which featured on his 80s recordings - among them Tricks of the Light and Shine, the video for which features this guitar. Sold through Chandler to an English fan.
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According to the 1984 Guitarist magazine interview, this was used for "quite a lot of the lead breaks". Mike had fitted the synth pickup to it by this stage, and he used it to bring a layered synth and distorted guitar sound to his solos. |
| 1957 Gibson Les Paul TV model |
s/n 7 2031. This guitar was modified with a 2 octave fretboard. It was bought by a Scottish fan.
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Strung up with 8 gauge strings, so Mike could reach a high G if necessary.
Also used in Ommadawn, Incantations, Five Miles Out, Amarok
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| Roland G-808 |
Guitar controller for Roland guitar synthesis system.
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Also used in Crises
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| Steel-string acoustic guitars |
| 1973 Martin D-28-12 |
Serial number 335787. Sold to a German fan through Chandler Guitars in December 2007.
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Also used in Ommadawn, Amarok, Tubular Bells III
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| 1984 Ovation 1687-2 Adamas – Reverse Red Burst |
Electroacoustic guitar with carbon fibre top.
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In 1984, Mike told Guitarist magazine that this guitar was used for many of the acoustic rhythm parts, often recorded in a small room or corridor. He also used it for the solo on To France.
Also used in Crises, Tubular Bells 2003
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| Bass guitars |
| 1983 Roland G-88 Bass Guitar Controller, Serial # A814722 |
Bass guitar designed for controlling the GR-33B bass synthesiser. It can also be used as a conventional bass, which Mike seems to have done.
Sold on Guitar Auctions with a Roland GR-33B bass guitar synthesizer pedal unit, Serial # 050634 (missing multi-pin cable).
Purchased by the vendor in October 1994 haveing been offered the bass by Jeremy Parker, Mike's then personal assistant. The vendor was offered the guitar as he was a known fan of Mike Oldfield.
The instrument can be seen in the videos for 'Shadow On The Wall', 'Pictures In The Dark' and 'Islands'.
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Also used in Crises, Islands
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| Amps |
| Fender Twin Reverb |
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Also used in Ommadawn, Incantations, Exposed, Tubular Bells 2003, Return To Ommadawn
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| Mesa/Boogie |
To get his distorted guitar sound from this amp, Mike overloaded the input by running the guitar through a preamp first. The sound then went into the mixer, where the input was overloaded, then through the Vocal Stresser and a parametric EQ, then a gate and a limiter. (Guitarist, 1984) |
Used for distorted guitars.
Also used in Exposed, Five Miles Out, Tubular Bells 2003
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| Pianos |
| Fender Rhodes electric piano |
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| Synthesisers |
| Fairlight CMI Series II |
Mike had two of these - the second was for live work. |
Also used in Crises, The Killing Fields
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| Oberheim OB-Xa |
Sold together with DSX sequencer and 'Tubular Bells' flightcase to "Malcolm" for £540 in Spring 2000 at vemia.co.uk. OB-Xa later resold on ebay, March 2007. |
Can be seen perched on top of the Fairlight keyboard in Mike's 'synth corner' shown on the sleeve of some LPs of the album.
Also used in Crises, The Killing Fields
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| Roland GR-100 |
Guitar synthesis module controlled by Gibson SG with the Roland STK-1 GK kit. |
Also used in Crises
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| Roland VP-330 |
Analogue vocoder keyboard, often also used for its string sound. |
Can clearly be seen in Mike's 'synth corner' shown on the sleeve of some LPs of the album.
Also used in Crises, Amarok
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| Roland GR-33B |
Bass guitar synthesizer module controlled by a Roland G 88 bass guitar fitted with a synth pickup. |
Also used in Islands
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| 1983 Roland G-88 Bass Guitar Controller, Serial # A814722 |
Bass guitar designed for controlling the GR-33B bass synthesiser. It can also be used as a conventional bass, which Mike seems to have done.
Sold on Guitar Auctions with a Roland GR-33B bass guitar synthesizer pedal unit, Serial # 050634 (missing multi-pin cable).
Purchased by the vendor in October 1994 haveing been offered the bass by Jeremy Parker, Mike's then personal assistant. The vendor was offered the guitar as he was a known fan of Mike Oldfield.
The instrument can be seen in the videos for 'Shadow On The Wall', 'Pictures In The Dark' and 'Islands'.
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Also used in Crises, Islands
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| Roland G-808 |
Guitar controller for Roland guitar synthesis system.
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Also used in Crises
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| Sequential Circuits Prophet V |
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Also used in Platinum, QE2, Five Miles Out, Crises
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| Samplers |
| Fairlight CMI Series II |
Mike had two of these - the second was for live work. |
Also used in Crises, The Killing Fields
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| Loudspeakers |
| Eastlake studio monitors |
After the problems with the Quad electrostatic speakers on the Exposed tour, Mike had a PA system built from Eastlake studio monitors. He would then use a pair, driven by one of the touring amp racks, in his temporary studios, as they were very similar to the Westlake monitors he was used to. |
Also used in QE2
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| Studio effects and outboard |
| ADR Vocal Stresser F769X-R |
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Used on Mike's distorted lead guitar parts.
Also used in Five Miles Out
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| Tape recorders |
| Studer A-800 |
2" 24 track multitrack tape recorder.
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The remote unit for this machine can be seen in the 'Studio Switzerland' picture on the sleeve of some LP editions of the album.
Also used in Islands, Earth Moving
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| Mixing desks |
| Midas live sound desk |
32 channel desk, probably a Pro5 (according to Richard Barrie). It was used as the front of house desk for Mike's live shows, but was also pressed into service for creating monitor mixes in some of Mike's temporary studio setups. |
This was, according to Richard Barrie, used for providing a monitor mix.
Also used in QE2
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| Rebis Mixer |
According to Mike in Changeling, this was the first mixer built by Rebis, custom ordered by him for his Througham studio. It was designed as a quadraphonic desk, with quad panpots. After Mike had stopped using it in the studio, he had it put into flight cases and used it on his tours, as well as in many of his temporary studios. |
According to Richard Barrie, this was used as the front end for tracking.
Also used in Incantations, QE2
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| Sequencers |
| Oberheim DSX |
Sequencer. Used as an interface between Mike's analogue synths and the Fairlight CMI. |
Can just be made out next to the DMX in Mike's 'synth corner' shown on the sleeve of some LPs of the album.
Also used in Crises
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