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
