In 2014 Mike Oldfield released Man On The Rocks, which featured a collection of vocal-led songs rather than a series of instrumental pieces. The Struts’ Luke Spiller was entrusted with delivering the vocal tracks; and the result, as he told Prog in 2025, changed his career.
“My initial knowledge of Mike Oldfield would have been limited to Tubular Bells as the soundtrack to The Exorcist – I didn’t put two and two together until much later. But I really started to dive in when I was approached to work with him on 2014’s Man On The Rocks.
You have two sides to him – you have his really deep instrumental side where he becomes like a rock classical composer; and then you have the songs that feature a vocalist.
Being the son of a preacher man, The Exorcist was regarded as something that one does not tiptoe into. Tubular Bells is such a great piece of music, but there’s also something very devilish about it that really pulls you in and makes you want to see how far down this rabbit hole goes. It does everything a great movie soundtrack should do.
Tubular Bells was him at his most hungry. He had everything to lose and he had to really prove himself – and it was him as a one-man band! There was no one else on that whole record. I think there’s a difference when an artist can do everything himself.
Bringing in dozens of additional musicians is all well and good, but there’s something really special about when someone sits down and just boils away at something with pure blood, sweat and tears, and sees it through to the end. It couldn’t have been more unique and authentic.
There are certain times in your life when you go through an experience and you come out of the other side having learned a lot. Doing Man On The Rocks was one of mine. It was totally alien to me to listen to his guide vocals – which, for the most part, were pretty good. I was very surprised.
Then there are Mike’s lyrics; he’s a very interesting and really underestimated lyricist. He’s very, very deep. Working with him and co-producer Stephen Lipson was a really interesting process. I learned a lot of things about my voice and how to use it in different ways, which benefitted my future recordings.
I found a deep appreciation for everything that he’s done.”
