The eagerly anticipated movie telling the life and times of the legendary Creation Records and its visionary founder, Alan McGee is due to receive its World Premiere on Sky Cinema next week with a limited time screening from 8.30pm GMT on Wednesday 24th February 2021 through to 8.30pm GMT on Saturday 27th February as part of the Glasgow Film Festival and more widely from March 20th again on Sky Cinema. The movie is based on and is an adaptation of Mcgee’s autobiography “Riots, Raves and Running a Label” .
Creation Stories is written by Irvine Welsh, directed by Nick Moran and stars Ewen Bremner as Alan Mcgee.
The film tells the story of the now widely known and highly regarded Creation Records. It starts at the very beginning and shows a 16 year old McGee leaving Scotland, heading to London and starting his first club “The Living Room Club”. The film succinctly demonstrates how even at a young age McGee was headstrong and determined to showcase and bring out groundbreaking new music. It goes onto tell the tale of how Mcgee then he co-founded Creation Records in 1983 at just aged 23, and how it was via Creation that he brought us the likes of The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, House of Love, Ride and Primal Scream.
The film also goes onto portray how whole heartedly McGee embraced the Acid House movement and how he first took Creation into the big time with Primal Scream’s “Screamadelica” depicting the many highs and crashing lows that the escalating drug abuse caused.
It also, of course, tells the now famous tale of how McGee came to sign a little unknown band at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow known as Oasis.
Given that McGee only came to see Oasis that night in Glasgow by pure chance when he missed his train back to London, Moran has dramatized the scene by using archived footage of the band which takes the viewer through their meteoric rise to fame and their now iconic gig at Knebworth in 1996.
By way of background, Oasis signed to Creation Records in 1993, and within the year they became hugely successful on an International scale with the release of their album ‘Definitely Maybe’ which entered straight into the charts at number one and went onto become the fastest-selling debut album in the UK, achieving 7 x Platinum Status. This was followed up a year later with their second album ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’. This sold 347,000 copies in the first week alone, achieving 14 x Platinum Status. It also received a whole host of awards including ‘Best British Album’ at the Brit Awards in 1996.
Mcgee himself was also awarded the NME Godlike Genius Award in 1996 and Creation Records received the ‘Independent Label of the Year’ award from Music Week every year between 1995 and 1998 .
The undisputable success that these albums brought led the Labour Party to seek out Mcgee and ask him to become the Head of a Media Campaign in the 1997 General Elections. It was through this appointment that Mcgee was able to use his voice and he was credited for changing UK legislation in order to give musicians 3 years on the New Deal to develop their craft. This is a scene that is shown within the movie and if you’ve ever been to one of Mcgee’s QnA sessions where he talks about the time that he met Jimmy Saville at Number 10…. well, this is one scene I’m most interested to watch!
It has been said that with the signing of Oasis, their international success and the subsequent multi-million selling back to back albums, that this is what truly led McGee and indeed Creation Records as a whole into the fast living hedonistic lifestyle that has been so widely documented and linked to Mcgee over the years, and which ultimately in time led to the demise of the label. There’s tales of deprivation and debauchery on a massive scale with parties lasting for days at a time, with widespread drug and alcohol misuse even in the offices of Creation themselves. McGee admits that his own office was in the basement of the building and that he would phone upstairs and how a whole host of people, most of whom he didn’t even know would all descend and they’d all party; hard!
Mcgee has said of the film that he considers “It’s like ‘Trainspotting does Creation’ if you can get into that concept,” hinting perhaps at some of the dramatization within the script. While McGee concedes that largely the story is based on truth and fact, he also professes that some parts have been dramatized somewhat, but I guess its up to the viewer to decipher fact from fiction!
Director Nick Moran has said of the movie;
“Creation Stories’ is a modern-day fable …..Part cautionary tale, part cavalier romp, mostly hilarious, occasionally sobering and constantly engaging. An irresistible trip down memory lane, or a delightful history lesson about the last great days of rock’n’roll….It is shamelessly entertaining and, I hope, a joy for everyone!”
The film has a host of stars in it including not only Bremner as a McGee, but Thomas Turgoose as his Label Partner Dick Green, Suki Waterhouse, Rupert Everett, Paul Kaye, Ed Byrne Perry Benson and many,many more, but there’s also some more familiar faces to McGee in it, watch out for his own son Daniel playing the role of his father’s drug dealer along with his former Label signee, Carl Barat from The Libertines. There’s also his good real life pal Gerry Knotts playing Bobby Gillespie’s Dad.
Indeed McGee was quoted in the NME last year saying that he thinks Bremner is “brilliant, but not really me”. It’s certainly true of Alan McGee as we know him today, a clean living, non drinking, sober man who walks up to 20 miles every day.
So what’s happening with Alan McGee today? well he owns and runs a music management company “Creation Management” where he manages the likes of Happy Monday’s, Cast, Glasvegas and The View amongst others and he also has a new record label “It’s Creation Baby” where he has a roster of various new artists including The Clockworks, The Illicits, SHAMBOLICS, Cat SFX, Charlie Clark, Christian Pattemore, Sister Psychosis and many more with new signings being made all the time proving that despite turning 60 last year McGee, has still got what it takes, an incredible ear for new music and how this is a story that is only just beginning!
Finally, a quote from the main man himself as to his thoughts on the film
“Its fan dabby dosie” – Alan Mcgee
So there you go, make sure you tune in and watch the official premiere of CREATION STORIES – THE MOVIE on Sky Cinema next week.
Keep up to date with all things Alan Mcgee, Creation Management and Its Creation Baby here.
Creation Management
Its Creation Baby (Record Label)
Words by SALLY NEWMAN
The songbird 