Artist: MIKE OLDFIELD
Album: HEAVEN’S OPEN REMASTERED (CD)

Year: 1991/ 2000
Media type: CD

Heaven's Open is the 14th record album performed by Michael Oldfield, released in 1991. It was his last album on Virgin.

By this time, Mike Oldfield was very happy to get out of Virgin, and not so happy to know Virgin boss Richard Branson. Several songs on this album bear hints about that. Also more abstract songs such as "Heaven's Open" can be seen as dealing with the theme of dependency relation or achieving freedom.[citation needed] In fact, parts of the lyrics of all the songs can be seen as a rude goodbye to Virgin and Richard Branson. The final goodbye to Virgin appears at the very end of "Music from the Balcony", where we can hear quiet laughter and Oldfield's voice saying "Fuck off!".

This is the only album where Mike Oldfield does the main vocals himself, and was pleased to find to discover that he was not as bad a singer as he thought he was. It has been claimed that this was because of monetary reasons.[who?] Oldfield took singing lessons before recording the album.[citation needed] Probably because of his bad feelings towards Virgin, his name is spelled out in full - Michael Oldfield - on this album. The producer of the album, Tom Newman's name was also spelt out in a similar manner, as Thom Newman.

After leaving Virgin, Oldfield released the anticipated Tubular Bells II in 1992 with Warner Brothers.

The album's cover is a reworked version of a photo originally taken for Tubular Bells, when the working title was Breakfast in Bed; instead of yolk coming out of the egg, blood was pictured. The working title for Heaven's Open was Man in the Rain. The song "Heaven's Open" came largely from an early version of "Man in the Rain". The "Man in the Rain" title was later used by Oldfield for a song on Tubular Bells III.

All tracks written by Mike Oldfield.

TRACKLIST:

1."Make Make" – 4:18
2."No Dream" – 6:02
3."Mr. Shame" – 4:22
4."Gimme Back" – 4:12
5."Heaven's Open" – 4:31
6."Music from the Balcony" – 19:44

LINE-UP:

Mike Oldfield – vocals, guitars, keyboards
Simon Phillips – drums
Dave Levy – bass
Mickey Simmonds – Hammond, piano
Andy Longhurst – additional keyboards
Courtney Pine – saxophones, bass clarinet

The "Sassy Choir": Vicki St. James, Sylvia Mason-James, Dolly James, Debi Doss, Shirlie Roden, Valeria Etienne
Additional vocal harmonies: Anita Hegerland, Nikki "B" Bentley, Tom Newman