Guitars, released in 1999, was an experimental album in which all the instruments heard were played on guitars. This was made possible by MIDI pickups, in which the vibration of a real guitar string was transformed into computer commands that were sent to the synthesizer or sampler to reproduce any other instrument previously selected. Thanks to this, Oldfield was able to include percussion, wind instruments, synthesizers, and absolutely anything he could think of, all played on guitars. Guitars wasn't particularly well-received by the Reading musician's fans. For its production, Oldfield primarily used two electric guitars, the Danelectro, and an electric sitar.

Shortly after the album's release, he embarked on a tour that took him across Europe. It was called the Live Then & Now Tour, and it featured songs from the albums Guitars and Tubular Bells III, as well as earlier pieces, such as some tracks from The Songs of Distant Earth, and his hit singles "Shadow on the Wall" and "Moonlight Shadow", sung by Pepsi Demacque. The Galician group Luar na Lubre opened for him on the tour. Their singer and cellist, Rosa Cedrón, already knew Oldfield, having sung for him on the track "The Inner Child" from Tubular Bells III. Furthermore, the group's composer, Bieito Romero, wrote the original song that Oldfield used as the basis for "The Song of the Sun", which appears on his 1996 album Voyager.