Mike Oldfield Vs. The Sunday Mail

Mike Oldfield is going head to head in a feud with The Sunday Mail, after the paper gave away a copy of his seminal album ‘Tubular Bells’ for free. 

The artist was angered when he found out that his label EMI had given permission for the album to be given away in an April edition of the paper without asking him first.

Oldfield said that the freebie devalues his music, telling 6music: "I feel the same as if I had lent something to somebody, and it had come back trashed."

A total of 2.2million copies of the record were given away in the edition of the paper.

In response, Sunday Mail editor Peter Wright claims that the giveaway has actually helped to increase sales of the album in the shops.

He said: "The week before we gave it away, it sold 600 copies, the week after, it sold 900 copies, so sales of the disc have actually gone up since we gave it away, not down."

‘Tubular Bells’ was first released in 1973. The opening segue of the album was famously used in The Exorcist movie.