Kevin Shields Suspects Liam Gallagher Was Protected By Officials

My Bloody Valentine frontman Kevin Shields suspects Liam Gallagher was 'protected' by the British Establishment during his cocaine-fuelled wildman years in the 1990s.

Shields, who reformed the cult Irish band in 2007 following a 10-year split, hit headlines in October (13) when he urged bosses at the U.K.'s secret service MI5 to open classified files from two decades ago.

He believes there was a secret government agenda to "push" the Britpop movement, with Oasis frontman Gallagher and his brother Noel as its figureheads, and now he has suggested singer Liam was deliberately left alone at the height of his fame on the insistence of the powers-that-be.

Referring to reports suggesting Shields believes Britpop was a "conspiracy", he tells Uncut magazine, "I didn't say that. I said I'd love to see the MI5 files, but I wasn't imagining the files said, 'We must invent Sleeper'. It was more I'd imagine them going, 'Leave Liam Gallagher alone'."

Source: hollywood.com

Check out the current collection from Pretty Green's AW13 collection here.

Alan McGee 'I'm Seriously Thinking About Restarting Creation'

Music mogul Alan McGee has said he may restart his famous Creation record label in future.

McGee, 51, famously set up Creation Records in 1983, going on to sign the likes of Oasis, My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream.

Creation then became one of the most successful independent labels in UK history. However, the label dissolved in 1999 and McGee quit the music industry in 2008 after another of his labels, Poptones, also wound down.

But speaking to music blog Louder Than War, McGee said: "Music needs a kick in the balls and I have got the music buzz back again.

During the last few years McGee has made a feature film, 'Kubricks', has plans to write a book and has been selling off all of his music memorabilia.

But he said managing Primal Scream this summer has reinvigorated his passion for music.

"It's made me realise I do still love [music]," he said.

"But to be honest I am now seriously thinking about restarting Creation, or maybe [calling] it something else if I can find the right people at a label to work with."

McGee had previously said in May that he wanted to return to the music industry in order to "cause chaos".

However, in 2008 McGee said to BBC 6 Music: "I think [record labels] are pointless things, like dinosaurs or trams or something."

Source: www.gigwise.com

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds embark on a UK tour in September and will tour the US and Canada alongside Snow Patrol and Jake Bugg later this year.

More details on the above dates and more can be found by clicking here.

'Upside Down: The Creation Records Story' Reviews

Review From the ScotsMan
Upside Down: The Creation Records Story (15) ***
Directed by: Danny O'Connor

THERE'S a running joke in this amusing documentary about Creation Records that one of the reasons the label became so distinctive was because nobody could really understand what its Glasgwegian founder Alan McGee was saying half the time; the music he put out therefore had to do most of the talking. It's not really true, of course. Though his bands – and he launched the careers of The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and, most famously, Oasis – certainly made plenty of noise, McGee was never a shadowy background figure. His passion for music and his determination to put out only the bands that he liked (even when the bands that he liked included The Telescopes) was matched by a determination to lead the same kind of debauched rock'n'roll lifestyle as his acts.

The film celebrates all this in gleeful fashion, running through Creation's punky Scottish origins to its bloated, Tony Blair-endorsed, champagne soaked end-point. Lots of rare archival footage and new interviews with the likes of Noel Gallagher and the now clean-and-sober McGee ensure that it's entertainingly riotous, though as a film, its print-the-legend approach could have used a few dissenting voices to balance out the rampant mythmaking.

Review From Radio Times
3 Starts out of 5

This overpopulated but evocative chronicle of the rise and fall of Creation Records — which, between 1983 and 1999, gave the world The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream and, more lucratively, Britpop superstars Oasis — is guilty of the same self-mythologising as the independent label itself. Founded in London by visionary Glaswegian Alan McGee in the fertile aftermath of punk, Creation was as much about revolutionary spirit as selling records, its reputation forged on signing cool bands that couldn't necessarily play and a relentless wooing of the music press. A garrulous and entertaining McGee dominates the documentary, as effusive as any recovering addict (his drug-linked breakdown is candidly covered), but contributions from key players, including Oasis kingpin Noel Gallagher, add colour and wry humour. Blending grainy archive with black and white testimony, and drawing on a squealing, pumping soundtrack, first-time director Danny O'Connor captures the hedonistic mood of a particular time — although anyone who wasn't there might find it a bit impenetrable.

The movie is released on the 9th of May, to order the DVD, Blu-Ray or Sound track click here.

Alan McGee Talks Creation, Oasis And More

The story of Creation really is one of the greatest ever told - Creation Records that is.

Maverick boss Alan McGee, who signed Oasis and Primal Scream, started the label with a £1,000 loan in 1983 and sold it to Sony for £30million in 1999.

The self-dubbed President Of Pop ran his business fuelled by a cocktail of drugs until a major health scare panicked him into going clean.

He admitted: "I was on one continuous bender from 1987 until 1994. Until Oasis came along the Creation staff were more rock and roll than the bands we signed. Then Oasis came along and things got even crazier.

"I was permanently off my head on cocaine, ecstasy, acid and speed. We'd be awake for three days.

"We went one further than having dealers hanging around. We just employed them instead.

"But they were different times. If you behaved now like we used to people would phone the police."

Alan's label is up there with Factory Records from Manchester and America's Motown and Sub Pop as the great music independents of the past century.

He gave us (What's The Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis and Screamadelica from Primal Scream and dominated Nineties music in the Britpop era.

Alan's love of music was forged in his hometown of Glasgow, where he grew up with Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie.

They went to see The Clash in 1977 and vowed to make something of themselves through music.

A new documentary, Upside Down: The Creation Records Story, captures the spirit of the label on film for the first time. It is now being shown in cinemas and will be released on DVD next Monday.

Alan, 50, said: "No one has ever managed to successfully convey what it was like in the eye of the storm. This film really captures it."

Creation are mainly associated with Oasis, the band McGee signed on a handshake with Noel Gallagher in 1993 after catching them at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow.

But it had all begun in the Eighties when McGee moved to London to start club night The Living Room.

He ploughed any cash not spent on drinking into the fledgling Creation Records and enjoyed his first hits with The Jesus And Mary Chain, The House Of Love, My Bloody Valentine and Ride.

A major turning point came in the late Eighties, when McGee heard acid house and persuaded Gillespie to take notice. Primal Scream were inspired to make their album Screamadelica.

Alan moved Creation into new premises in Hackney, east London, which became their operations centre for their most hedonistic years.

Alan recalled: "I went to the Hacienda club in Manchester one night and dance music suddenly made sense. Shaun Ryder was off his head leading 600 wild-eyed ravers on the dance floor."

The next few years were the busiest, with McGee signing bands and releasing records weekly.

He said: "During our creative peak in about 1991 I was motoring in all senses. I was banging records out but I was out of my mind too."

The year saw a run of Creation albums that are regarded as classics, including Screamadelica and Loveless by My Bloody Valentine.

But with Alan's industrial consumption of narcotics his attention to the business side of things was not as good as his ear for music.

He said: "Things got so out of hand I went to America and signed a deal for Shane MacGowan worth £300k. It wasn't until I got back home someone pointed out he wasn't even one of our acts."

It seemed the Creation rollercoaster was coming off the rails when Alan saw a new band called Oasis. It would change his life.

Alan said: "I was up in Glasgow seeing my dad and I wasn't sure I'd even go to the gig. I got there early by mistake. Oasis were on first, before most people arrived. There was this amazing young version of Paul Weller sat there in a light blue Adidas tracksuit. I assumed he was the drug dealer and that Bonehead, the guitarist, was the singer.

"It was only when they went on stage I realised it was the lead singer Liam Gallagher. I knew I had to sign them.

"Noel and I talked after the show and just said 'done' and he turned out to be a man of his word.

"I was lucky to be there. We didn't send out scouts. Most of my signings were because I happened to see new bands. That couldn't happen any more. If a new band as much as farts it's all over the internet."

During the early Oasis years Alan joined in the partying, which became wilder than ever.

He said: "We would jump on a private jet on a whim and fly to Brazil or LA for a party."

It all came crashing down on a visit to Los Angeles in 1994. Alan was staying at the Mondrian hotel when he felt so ill he called the reception desk for help. Soon he was being taken to hospital in a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen mask. He checked into a clinic and disappeared from the music scene for nine months.

Alan returned to watch the rest of the Britpop era from a clean perspective. He said: "The joy of running a record label had left me but there was a new feeling of having the biggest group in the world. It was a great two or three years."

The scene reached its biggest in 1996, when Oasis played back-to-back gigs in the grounds of stately Knebworth House, in Hertfordshire. By the end of the decade Alan had sold his remaining Creation shares to Sony for £30million - having already let 49 per cent go in 1992 for £3.5million to avoid bankruptcy.

Later he ran another label, Poptones, club night Death Disco and managed The Charlatans and The Libertines.

In 2008 he bowed out of the industry and moved to rural Wales with wife Kate Holmes and daughter Charlotte.

He says he hates everything about the modern music industry.

He explains: "I'd have to be doing sponsorship deals with coffee companies just to put a gig on. It's all about brands now and dealing with accountants."

Source: www.thesun.co.uk

Upside Down: The Story Of Creation Records - Review

Despite the absence of several notable characters, this documentary gives an interesting glimpse into the history of Creation Records

There's one great stroke of genius to Upside Down, Danny O'Connor's chronicle of the birth, glory years and demise of mouthy mogul Alan McGee's iconic record label. It's the lack of a voiceover: O'Connor eschews traditional narration in favour of nuggets of rock'n'roll wisdom, spoken by ageing Irish DJ, music guru and McGee's Death Disco co-conspirator BP Fallon ("purple-browed beep" in T Rex's Telegram Sam). Fallon is shot in monochrome and beamed onto a grainy 50s TV set – a move that ensures the film stays in tune with the vibe of the bands Creation championed: amongst others Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, The Pastels, The Jazz Butcher, Felt, Ride, Super Furry Animals, and most lucratively, Oasis.

The main players tell the story themselves in interviews spliced with archive footage from throughout Creation's 20-odd year history. There are some noticeable absentees - Lawrence from Felt, producer Andrew Weatherall, the Jesus and Mary Chain's William Reid and Liam Gallagher – and almost no points of contention between any of the talking heads.

At the end of the US premiere at SXSW, O'Connor explained the difficulties involved in getting all parties involved to appear – Jim Reid agrees, William Reid declines as a result, and so on. Lawrence (surely the biggest loss) was apparently very ill for much of the shoot. It's clear O'Connor takes his subject matter pretty seriously, and, as a result, this is a much straighter take on a label than that offered on Factory, Creation's contemporaries, by Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People.

For those already familiar with the story, there's little new to learn, but there are enough fresh interviews, plus plenty of airtime given to some of the lesser-known players (unsung hero Dick Green especially), to keep Upside Down interesting.

Obviously, the Creation back catalogue provides the soundtrack, including the Jesus and Mary Chain single from which O'Connor takes his title. It was the band's debut, the label's 12th release, and the one which really launched it; whose messy, exhilarating sound somehow sums up what Creation was all about. Upside Down indeed.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

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