Irvine Welsh To Write A Movie Telling The Story Of Oasis And Creation Records

Trainspotting writer Irvine Welsh is penning a new biopic based on the life of Creation Records boss Alan McGee.

Creation Records boss Alan McGee is the subject of a new biopic by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh.

The movie will tell the story of his hard beginnings in working class Glasgow, through bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream, to his discovery of a little Manchester band called Oasis .

Alan, 55, told Mirror Celeb: "I've been friends with Irvine and Dean Cavanagh for a long time - but when I was approached about the movie I still though people were joking.

"They are genius writers and really cool mother f***ers. I've read the first draft and it's very gritty like Trainspotting but then again my book is gritty - my life was gritty."

From a hard childhood in Glasgow, McGee rose up to become one of the most recognisable managers in the world.

20 years ago last month his most famous protégés - the brothers Gallagher played one of their finest series of gigs at Maine Road.

Welsh, known for writing the likes of Filth and Porno has adapted a screenplay called Creation Stories, based on McGee’s memoir The Creation Records Story: Riots, Raves and Running a Label.

It will be introduced at the upcoming Cannes film market.

Burning Wheel Productions’ Hollie Richmond, Shelley Hammond and Nathan McGough will produce the film alongside Orian Williams.

McGee is staying tight-lipped on who will be playing him in the movie which spans his childhood through to selling 60 millions records.

And of course there is no word yet on who will be playing Liam and Noel Gallagher - who are of course a huge part of the story.

McGee added: "I'm very excited. From my beginnings to selling millions of records to now having a movie made about me - how can I complain?"

Source: www.irishmirror.ie

What's Going On At 'This Feeling' This Weekend?

Following on from acclaimed taster track 'Airborne', The Van Doos are proud to present 'Speak Up' - the first official single from their debut album.

The quartet, who hail from a market town on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, recently featured live in session on BBC Introducing, offer up a small but perfectly formed bolt of indie-pop with a racing beat. 

‘Speak Up’ is the first single for The Van Doos' debut album ‘Fingertips’, which is scheduled for release in Autumn 2014.

With nods to key influences The Teardrop Explodes and The Jesus and Mary Chain, 'Speak Up' carries a trademark Van Doos feel-good flavour, offset by the neurotic theme: "tell me everything / speak up and I won't keep unbalancing!"

Produced by Tristan Ivemy (Frank Turner, The Heartbreaks), The Van Doos are an unmistakably British guitar band who take their cues from the landscape on their doorstep: wide, wild and life-affirming.

The band headline This Feeling this Friday. Info & free download at www.thisfeeling.co.uk



















Visit www.thisfeeling.co.uk for tickets and infomation on club nights all over the UK.

Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.

Campaign Supernova!

To coincide with the 20th anniversary of the release of Oasis' first singles and debut album in 1994, (heralding the dawn of the Britpop era), we propose to put out a boxset which celebrates the history of their label - the maverick Creation Records. It follows the re-release of our critically acclaimed, award winning documentary film , Upside Down: the Creation Records Story, which featured a cross section of Creation artists from the Jesus and Mary Chain to Primal Scream and everyone in-between including the Super furry Animals, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, the House of Love and of course ,Oasis. It is also telling that 2014 also marks the 30th anniversary of the label's first release proper - 1984's Upside Down by The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Our film of the same name picked up 2011's MOJO Vision award and the NME writers award the same year beating Martin Scorsese's George Harrison biopic into second place. The boxset will feature the film itself and another disc which boasts at least 25 extended interviews with the likes of Noel Gallagher, Bonehead, Bobby Gillespie, Alan McGee, Irvine Welsh, Howard Marks and many many more

We have a crowdfunding campaign in motion through Indiegogo with the aim to raise the capital required to get this amazing boxset made.

Click here to read all about it.

Check out the current collection and offers from Pretty Green here.

Alan McGee On Signing Oasis 20 Years Ago

Excerpt from The Guardian

Alan McGee on Creation, Oasis and cashflow – a classic from the vaults

It's 20 years since Alan McGee stepped into Glasgow King Tuts and signed Oasis. Time to visit 1994 via Rock's Backpages and find out what the Creation Records founder was thinking …

Alan McGee founded Creation Records 10 years ago. Now this former British Rail clerk's labour of love is a floatable proposition, with nearly half of its shares owned by Sony. McGee surprised many when he got into bed with the company, not least because he was supposedly no fan of corporate structures. But that may simply be a sentimental view, judging by the candid assessment he gives over coffee at the Dome, Regent Street.

"In September 1992, I got fed up with selling 200,000 Primal Scream records in England and 18,000 in Germany," says McGee. "I got tired of selling only 3,000 Bandwagonesques there. It's all about distribution. If you're signed to some shit fuckin' indie, no matter what it does for your credibility, it does nothing to promote your group. Sony help us get worldwide distribution. At the moment, we're still getting some crap sales, but the potential is there. I've sold Sony 49%, which makes them feel good, but I'm very loyal to our bands. I've got their best interests at heart.

"The truth is that, without financial backing, it is now very hard to exist in England, but when I've gone in to Sony and said: 'Look, you need to help us with so-and-so,' they've always done it. And they don't talk to me about the music we put out, ever."

In 1984, McGee was looking after a young and irascible Jesus and Mary Chain. Like his proteges, McGee's clothes may be sharper 10 years on, but he hasn't really changed that much, and he remains a patron to like-minded fanatics such as Bobby Gillespie, the Jazz Butcher, Bill "the Man" Drummond and Lawrence from Felt/Denim.

In celebration of Creation's first decade, McGee has gathered together his 10 most personal mementoes. It comes as no surprise that what feature most among his choices are items that spark off memories of liaisons with some of rock's greatest mavericks.

OASIS

"This group, Oasis, are the one recent thing that made me go: 'Fuckin' hell, I still believe in rock'n'roll.' I saw them last year and it was a complete fluke. I was at an 18 Wheeler show in Glasgow at King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut. Third on the bill were a band from Manchester. They were friends of Oasis and they'd told the band they could play fourth on the bill. So Oasis hired a van and drove up from Manchester with their mates and when they arrived the promoter says: 'No. Fuck off.' And they're saying: 'Look, it's cost us £200 to hire the van and equipment and get here. If you don't let us play, we'll smash your club up. There's 10 of us and only two security …'

"So the promoter lets them play. Now, I wouldn't have got to see them normally, because when a band of mine's playing I usually get in five minutes before they come on stage. However, because I'd gone with my sister Susan, who doesn't happen to own a watch, I got there two hours early. I witnessed all the shenanigans, so I wanted to see what they were like.

"The first song was really good. Then the second was incredible. By the time they did this fantastic version of I Am the Walrus, I'd decided I've got to sign this group, now. I said: 'Do you have a record deal? Do you want one? I wanna do it.' Eventually they had 20 record companies offering them deals and at the last minute Mother Records, owned by U2, phoned and said: 'We'll offer double what McGee is offering.'

"The music is a cross between the Kinks, Stone Roses and the Who, and the cover of this tape, which is incredibly rare, only 10 ever made, is important because it's a Union Jack going down the toilet. That sums up our country at the moment. I don't want to herald them too much, but they're already one of my favourite groups. Seeing them is what seeing the Stones must have been like in the early days. Brutal, exciting, arrogant."

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Andy Bell On Beady Eye, Oasis And More

Taken from an interview with Andy Bell from Drowned In Sound, read the full interview here.

DiS: What are you up to at present and how are the new songs shaping up? 

Andy Bell: We're still at the writing stage and then recording a few demos from what we have. We've been making demos for pretty much the whole of this year. It's always good to have far too much music before going into the studio and beginning the actual recording process .

DiS: Are you heavily involved in the writing process with Beady Eye?

Andy Bell: Me, Liam (Gallagher) and Gem (Archer) are all equal partners when we're writing, which means we all get to make sure none of us has a song that sounds too much like "me" - in the collective sense of the word. It's a good way of working because it means none of us have our individual stamp on anything we do. It's all about what's best for Beady Eye.

DiS: You've recently started incorporating Oasis songs into your live set with Beady Eye. Is this something you intend to do on a regular basis for the foreseeable future?

Andy Bell: I'd say it's something we'll definitely do again, yes. The reason we didn't play Oasis material from the outset was because we wanted Beady Eye to create its own identity. So when we started touring around the world we wanted to get everyone that came to our shows used to the idea that we are a new band, and not just a continuation of the old one, even though when you come and see Beady Eye we look pretty much like Oasis on stage. Except Noel's (Gallagher) not there.

DiS: Are you pleased with how everything's turned out for Beady Eye so far?

Andy Bell: Yeah, it's been cool.

DiS: Was there ever a time when you were in Oasis where you approached Liam or Noel with the intention of making a record in a similar vein to what you did with Ride?

Andy Bell: Well, no not really, not in so many words, but I think Noel definitely appreciates all that music. He likes a lot of the bands from that era. I know back in '93/'94 when Oasis first broke he was quoted in the press as saying his band were going to blow away all this shoegazing crap or whatever - not those exact words but that was the implication - yet that was never their ethos themselves. Noel definitely had a lot of time for me. He was a bigger shoegazer than me! He was always staring down at a pedal with Oasis, and he got a really good guitar sound from his pedals. It was right in that category with Nick McCabe or John Squire or myself, in that world of sound where we're all heavy on delays and distortion. In a lot of ways, those first Oasis demos that I heard from Alan McGee reminded me of The Jesus & Mary Chain. Some of the songs off the first album like 'Bring It On Down', they weren't singles but formed an integral part of the live set, to me anyway sounded like the Mary Chain. I mean, I don't even know if they'd heard of The Jesus & Mary Chain at that point. They were just doing their own thing, but to me they had a lot of that element to them.

DiS: How did working with Noel and Liam compare with what you'd been used to in the past? Did it seem strange going from being the main songwriter and focal point with both Ride and Hurricane #1 to being the bass player in what was essentially their band?

Andy Bell: Working with the Gallaghers was brilliant. They're both very different yet in some ways quite similar, and also very appreciative for what I was bringing to their band. I wasn't bringing much other than playing bass on their songs to start with, but they knew and liked what I'd done before.

DiS: Your arrival seemed to coincide with the band releasing possibly their best two records since Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story) Morning Glory in Heathen Chemistry and Don't Believe The Truth.

Andy Bell: I'm a big fan of Don't Believe The Truth. It was definitely the best record Oasis made during the time I was with them.

DiS: Do you ever see Noel and Liam burying their differences, reforming Oasis and working together again?

Andy Bell: I'd love it to happen. I think that life's too short for it not to happen. But, in reality, do I see it happening? At this point, no I don't. The matter rests entirely with the two brothers. It probably should happen at some point but if they can't make it happen, no one should force them to.

DiS: Obviously when Oasis split up, Noel went his own way and the rest of you formed Beady Eye. What made you choose to work with Liam rather than Noel? Was it something that just fell into place?

Andy Bell: It just fell into place like that really. When Mark decided to leave Ride we initially thought about carrying on. But because it had been the original four, and then it would have been three, we just felt it would have been impossible to carry it on. But then who knows what would have happened in a parallel universe? We could have just carried on with what we were doing and wait to see if Mark came back but that never happens. You tend to make snap decisions in the moment of crisis I guess, and then you have to live with them. Your life is then laid out in a certain way as a result. That's what happens; in certain times of your life you have to go with one big choice or the other.

DiS: I guess it's better to look forwards rather than keep wondering what might have been.

Andy Bell: The brave choice is always go forward.

Source: drownedinsound.com

'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