The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize
Most of that talent was painstakingly pursued not by some massive A and R department but by CEO Alan McGee. When McGee founded Creation in 1983 there were two distinct approaches to releasing and promoting music in the UK–through independent labels like Factory, Mute, and 4AD, and through corporate channels like EMI and WEA. No one would have mistaken the production of an indie record for one funded with major-label money. But by the time Creation went under in late 1999 the line had blurred. Independent labels that penetrated the mainstream market found themselves thinking the same as the corporate heavy-hitters, making records with commercial appeal as well as an indie rock sensibility. David Cavanagh’s new book, The Creation Records Story, tells the label’s story within the larger framework of the British music scene, as the term indie faded from a business methodology into a guitar-driven style of music.
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Born into a working-class family of five in Glasgow, McGee wasn’t the most likely record mogul. His parents didn’t think much of his early obsession with punk rock and, as McGee admits, considered him a bit of a “waster.” Once his band the Laughing Apple failed to make a go of it, his father instructed him to take an apprenticeship with a local electrician, and McGee was rescued only by his reputation at the headquarters of Rough Trade Records, where he would go to check up on his band’s EP. Simon Edwards, who worked in distribution, quickly recognized McGee as a man who could “make things happen.” His ambition and fiery attitude set him apart. “When he spoke, he spoke really fast,” remembers John Robb of the Membranes, “and he used to spit out of his mouth because he was so excited. But one of the things he said was that he was going to become a millionaire out of the music business.”
Cavanagh is equally successful in his profile of McGee, an elusive, complicated character whose greatest asset was also his principal failing. As Creation’s records won acclaim in the press and were accepted by the mainstream, the pressure mounted and McGee’s monomania became more extreme. Traveling back and forth to America, plagued by bickering in and among the bands on the roster, McGee started to show signs of fatigue. He indulged in a wide array of drugs, “taking cocaine and slimming pills for energy and drinking Night Nurse to ward off insomnia.” The situation came to a head in early 1994, when McGee suffered a panic attack on a flight to Los Angeles. Barely conscious, he hallucinated for eight hours. Once on the ground, he was diagnosed with nervous exhaustion but downed a bottle of Jack Daniels and a handful of diet pills later that evening. Only after a visit to Cedars-Sinai, where he was prescribed Valium, did he fully comprehend the scope of his problem. His diagnosis was revised from nervous exhaustion to a nervous breakdown, and he was sidelined from day-to-day business affairs for nearly a year.
