by Richard Branson is one of those fixtures of British life who seems to be have been around forever. Part of that is because he started so young – Virgin Records, the record mail order business that became a shop that became a label that became, well, everything else that Branson has done – was set up when he was still in his teens.
The 75-year-old entrepreneur was recently honoured by the Ivors Academy for his immense contribution to British music, and has also been talking to the NME about his long career.
Virgin’s empire was built on the success of two contrasting acts – the introverted prog auteur Mike Oldfield, and the Sex Pistols. Branson remembers the teenage Oldfield staying at the his studio The Manor, at Oxford. “He worked with Tom Newman to make Tubular Bells. He played us the tape, we loved it, but we couldn’t find any record companies to release it. In the end we thought, ‘Screw this, we’ll set up our own record label and put this out’. Virgin Records as a label was born off the back of that.
