04 | The Tribune | Weekend
Friday, February 17, 2017
interview He has sold more than 20 million records worldwide and won numerous awards. His move to the Bahamas was supposed to signal his retirement, but the composer of the famous “Exorcist” theme tells Cara Hunt how the beautiful island surroundings have reignited his creative passion, how Rose Island almost cost him his Olympics call and about the mysteries of Nassau traffic.
Photos/Bahamas Visual Services/Craig Lenihan and Tim Aylen
Mike Oldfield
M
ike Oldfield is a worldfamous musician and composer who has won multiple awards, provided the main theme for the horror classic “The Exorcist” and performed at the London Olympics. But all that is a world away from the relaxed life the English recording artist now enjoys at his Eastern Road home. Although the 63-year-old originally
moved to Nassau about a decade ago to retire, the musical genius has found the beauty and tranquillity of island living has helped his creative juices to continue to flow. Today, he keeps himself busy in his home recording studio. That is, of course, when he is not indulging in his passion for sailing, playing with the two huge Potcake dogs he recently adopted from the Bahamas Humane Society or fighting traffic to drop off his two
sons, Jake and Eugene, at St Andrew’s School. “Working here in this environment has helped. It’s just the colours and it’s paradise; it makes working easier. A lot of Bahamians may not realise just how grey it is in Europe in the winter. It is, in winter, paradise here,” he told Tribune Weekend. “I was living in England and was really depressed. One whole summer I was only able to sit in the garden for
half an hour. So I went first of all to Spain and then to the south of France.” While there, he got his day skipper boat licence and met an agent who showed him a brochure for the Grand Bahama Yacht Club. “It was rainy and cold again, so we decided to see what it was like and we landed in Freeport. I saw the Yacht Club and thought, ‘This is it. This is what I have been looking for,’ and I