SXSW 2011 Film Reviews

Upside Down: The Creation Records Story

24 Beats Per Second
D: Danny O'Connor

Creation Records in the Eighties and Nineties was the place to be. Operating out of a scuzzy office in a dodgy London neighborhood, the label introduced to the world what seems like every great British indie-rock band not from Manchester, including noise-rock innovators the Jesus and Mary Chain, shoegaze legends My Bloody Valentine, Scottish grunge-pop group Teenage Fanclub, acid-house pioneers Primal Scream, and – the icing on the cake – Britpop multimillionaires Oasis. In the words of one witness, it was a "random collection of misfits, drug addicts, and sociopaths," and no one was a bigger misfit, drug addict, or sociopath than label co-founder and CEO Alan McGee, a hard-headed Scotsman who ran Creation with little more than brass and a brogue so thick it was (and is, at least to the American ear) nearly incomprehensible. Danny O'Connor's documentary is a loving tribute to the world McGee made, a world soaked in distortion, fueled by amphetamines, and drowning in dissolution.