Upside Down: The Creation Records Story

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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.

This article appears in March 18 • 2011.

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