Hergest Ridge (album)

Hergest Ridge
Studio album by
Released30 August 1974[1]
RecordedSpring 1974
StudioThe Manor, Shipton-on-Cherwell
GenreProgressive rock
Length40:14
LabelVirgin
Producer
Mike Oldfield chronology
Tubular Bells
(1973)
Hergest Ridge
(1974)
The Orchestral Tubular Bells
(1975)
Mercury Records 2010 reissue
An aerial photograph of green fields with a white model aircraft flying above. In the centre there is large yellow text with the words "Mike Oldfield" and "Hergest Ridge". The lower portion of the image has a grey overlay with the words "Deluxe Edition" at the lower right.
The revised aerial photograph artwork. The Deluxe Edition is shown.

Hergest Ridge is the second studio album by English musician and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released on 30 August 1974 by Virgin Records. The unexpected commercial and critical success of his debut album, Tubular Bells (1973), affected Oldfield, who decided against touring and avoided the press with his newfound fame. Instead, he retreated to Hergest Ridge on the England–Wales border and wrote the follow-up, which he recorded in 1974 at The Manor in Oxfordshire, with Tom Newman returning as co-producer. Similar to Oldfield's first, the album is a single composition split into two parts covering different moods and musical styles.

The album was No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart for three consecutive weeks before it was displaced by Tubular Bells, marking one of the few times an artist has overtaken themselves on the chart in this manner. In 2010, the album was reissued with new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes, bonus material, and new artwork.[2]

  1. ^ "Record Mirror" (PDF). Worldradiohistory.com. 31 August 1974.
  2. ^ "Classic Rock presents Prog – Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn reviews", Classic Rock, May 2010