page_title: Creamfields (2004 album)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Creamfields (2004 album) / Background
caption_attribution_description: creamfields
context_page_description: Creamfields is the fifteenth DJ mix album by British electronic producer and disc jockey Paul Oakenfold, released in 2004. The double album was inspired by the annual Creamfields festival which at the time took place at the "Old Liverpool Airfield" organised by the Cream brand where Oakenfold had often performed. The album was released to commemorate Oakenfold's performance at the sixth annual Creamfields festival which took place several weeks after the album's release on 28 August 2004. Oakenfold performance at the festival was headlining the Cream/Goodgreef and Mixmag Arena. Creamfields was also the third in a series of mix albums of the same name commemorating the festival, with previous albums by different DJs being released in 2000 and 2001, with both releases carrying the same name. Oakenfold's Creamfields was considered a relaunch of the series
  Musically, the album was a return to his "epic" progressive trance style that he had popularised on his acclaimed mix albums Goa Mix and Perfecto Fluoro. Like those albums, film dialogue appears, and also features a tribute to Goa Mix via a remixed version of that album's "Point Zero" by Li Kwan.
context_section_description: In August 1998, popular Liverpool club night Cream launched an outdoor annual electronic music festival, Creamfields, to take place each August bank holiday. At the time, Oakenfold was a resident DJ at Cream. The successful inaugural event received an attendance of 25,000 festival goers to Winchester in Hampshire, England. For its second edition in 1999, Creamfields moved to the Old Liverpool Airfield, where it remained until 2006. By 2004, the festival's attendance had largely increased, reaching as much as 200,000 attenders each year. For the third event in 2000, Creamfields released a double DJ mix album on Virgin Records, simply titled Creamfields, which reached number 5 in the UK Compilation Chart. The compilation was a studio mix but commemorated the event. For the fourth event in 2001, Creamfields released another album with the same name mixed by Seb Fontaine and Yousef, who appeared at that year's event, although this release was less successful, reaching number 27 in the UK Compilation Chart, and receiving a mixed to negative review from Dean Carlson of Allmusic. The lesser success of this release halted the series, and no album was released for the fifth event in 2002.
  Oakenfold had performed at the festival many times. When the festival launched in 1998, Oakenfold had finished his first of two years as a resident DJ at Cream, releasing the DJ mix album Resident. Two Years of Oakenfold at Cream. (1999) as his contract finished, although this was not Oakenfold's first release for the club. Initially, Oakenfold had mixed a quarter of their acclaimed release Cream Live (1995), and a third of its follow-up, Cream Live Two (1996), which featured in Q's 1997 list of "The 10 Best DJ Mix Albums...Ever!". At the end of 1997, he mixed half of the club's year-end release Cream Anthems 97, with the other half being mixed by Nick Warren. Besides his role with Cream, Oakenfold had become a popular worldwide DJ, releasing successful DJ mix albums such as Global Underground: Live in Oslo (1997), Global Underground 007: New York (1998), Tranceport (1998) and Perfecto Presents: Another World (2000). These albums were all big sellers, with Another World at the time being the biggest-selling mix album ever in the US. His mix albums also received acclaim, with Tranceport retrospectively being ranked at number 23 in the 2012 Rolling Stone list of "The 30 Greatest EDM Albums Ever". Nonetheless, with his first studio album of original material, Bunkka (2002), many of his fans were polarised with the new poppier direction he had taken, and although continuing to be a big name DJ, he had lost several fans. Oakenfold described Bunkka as an example of him pushing his own boundaries and being influenced by other genres, but whilst the album sold a million copies worldwide, becoming his best-selling album, the mixed fan response lead Oakenfold wanting to return to older styles he had popularised, such as progressive trance and Goa trance.
  By 2004, other Creamfields events were being held in other locations around the world, although the original Creamfields continued to be held at the Old Liverpool Airfield. For the 2004 Creamfields event held at the Old Liverpool Airfield, the sixth such annual Creamfields held in England on 28 August 2004, Oakenfold headlined the Cream/Goodgreef and Mixmag Arena. For the event, Oakenfold and Creamfields decided that Oakenfold could mix a DJ mix album to promote his performance. The album would relaunch the Creamfields DJ mix album series and commemorate the event.
caption: The album was inspired by the Creamfields festival.
exif: {}