Creation Stories - Alan McGee/ Creation Records film

[The Culture Bunker]

Factory had some decent bands (besides the big two) who made good records, but were so inept at promotion that nobody ever got to hear them. Wilson was an excellent self-promoter, but not good at promoting his bands (he also had a massive blind spot when it came to dance acts, much to Graeme Park's annoyance). McGee was probably the opposite (at the time, at least).

It's all a matter of taste, of course, but in terms of albums, Creation put out stuff that I love by: Felt, Ride, Slowdive, Boo Radleys, Sugar, Telescopes, My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Fanclub, the House of Love... I quite enjoyed the Bill Drummond album too.

With Factory, it comes down to the "big two" (and even with the Happy Mondays, I only ever got anything from 'Bummed') plus Durutti Column, who I do love dearly. There's plenty of OK stuff, A Certain Ratio had their moments, but nothing that comes to mind that I'd take over the above mentioned acts on Creation. But, again, that's just my own tastes - I certainly like the idea, so to speak, of Factory more than Creation! Though in truth, I'm probably more likely these days to be listening to something from 4AD.

[SteveDave]

The Tony Blair was jarring. The portly, gurning version at the end of the film plus the one in the poster with shades of Red Skull. Pretty bad film all round, Spud apart.

Truly horrific. Do you think they originally used a real picture of Tonty Blair but had to change it using special effects? Because that's some Tubbs and Edward shit right there.

[non capisco]

And McGee claiming to be responsible for the rise in CD sales and getting Labour into power is a bit of a stretch as well

Ha ha ha, you what?! Stop making me want to watch this piddle!

[lipsink]

Bizarre, isn't it? A film about Tony Wilson, that makes sense. He was interesting, charismatic and (not always intentionally) funny. McGee is a self-aggrandising dullard who signed some great bands over 30 years ago. That's why the film tries so hard to dazzle viewers with its frenetic pace and 'anarchic' flourishes - the protagonist is boring.

Wait till you find out that there's a film about Toby Young:

[Sebastian Cobb]

I watched that and had no idea it was about Toby Young, and only really found out who Young was when he started acting like a big enough bellend to permeate my quite detached conscience.

I definitely wouldn't have watched it had I known who Young was, I wonder how many other people watched this film under these circumstances.

Of course if the film came out today, the fact the protagonist is played by Pegg would be enough to put me off, but that's by-the-by.

[Egyptian Feast]

I'm really tempted by this. I fucking hate music biopics, but I'll make an exception for ones that sound especially shit.

I thought it was mentioned earlier in this thread, but it must've been in another, and it's been bothering me for days: What is the deal with My Bloody Valentine, cat shit and a lighter? Somebody spill, please. I need to know. I've googled it and it asked me if I meant My Bloody Valentine t-shirts. I did not.

[phantom_power]

It is worth a watch as there is some great music in it and some good performances and it is never dull. I like a good shit music biopic and this is pretty much a textbook example of that genre

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

A perfect summation. It's a really shit music biopic, an utterly risible film, but the pace never flags so you'll enjoy laughing at it on a pretty much constant basis.

It's no Summer Dreams: The Story of The Beach Boys or Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story, but few things are (apart from those specific films).

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Miaow could have been massive.

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

I'm really tempted by this. I fucking hate music biopics, but I'll make an exception for ones that sound especially shit.

I thought it was mentioned earlier in this thread, but it must've been in another, and it's been bothering me for days: What is the deal with My Bloody Valentine, cat shit and a lighter? Somebody spill, please. I need to know. I've googled it and it asked me if I meant My Bloody Valentine t-shirts. I did not.

That's an anecdote in David Cavanagh's excellent Creation Records book 'My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize' - a journalist who was interviewing Kevin and Colm in their Kentish Town squat asked to borrow a lighter, someone threw him one and it landed under the sofa.  He crawled under the sofa to get it and found it stuck in a mound of cat shit that was festering under there.

[The Culture Bunker]

That's an anecdote in David Cavanagh's excellent Creation Records book 'My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize'

I believe McGee himself never liked it, presumably because it had stories like that and not all rock-n-roll outlaws taking it to the man etc. I'd consider it pretty essential, along with 'Facing the Other Way' (about 4AD) and James Nice's 'Shadowplayers' (about Factory), though Cavanagh's one is my favourite.

I did pick up a copy of McGee's own 'Creation Stories' a while ago, as part of a 'three for £5' deal at Fopp, just for something to read on a flight and 'twas a most slight tome.

[Egyptian Feast]

That's an anecdote in David Cavanagh's excellent Creation Records book 'My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize' - a journalist who was interviewing Kevin and Colm in their Kentish Town squat asked to borrow a lighter, someone threw him one and it landed under the sofa.  He crawled under the sofa to get it and found it stuck in a mound of cat shit that was festering under there.

A-ha! Ugh. Thanks for sharing that, xxxx xxx x xxx.

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

A-ha! Ugh. Thanks for sharing that, xxxx xxx x xxx.

Blame Jockice! He brought the subject up in another thread somewhere.

I can't work up much enthusiasm for seeing this film for some reason, but everyone with an interest in this thread should read Cavanagh's massive book if you haven't already.

[Spiteface]

I believe McGee himself never liked it, presumably because it had stories like that and not all rock-n-roll outlaws taking it to the man etc.

Pretty much. There was another book about Creation out around the same time, which he was involved with. He dismissed "My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize" as being "The accountant's tale" which isn't true. It's just more in depth than the one McGee endorsed.

[The Culture Bunker]

Pretty much. There was another book about Creation out around the same time, which he was involved with. He dismissed "My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize" as being "The accountant's tale" which isn't true. It's just more in depth than the one McGee endorsed.

Ah, yes - wasn't that other one written by Paolo "I'm Paul Weller's mate" Hewitt?

[Spiteface]

Think so.

This one, looks familiar

[The Culture Bunker]

Think so.

This one, looks familiar

The cover also does suggest it's mainly about all the elements of Creation that aren't that interesting, Kevin Rowland aside. 'Upside Down' as song, OK, but the Reid brothers themselves are pretty boring (at best) people. I mentioned on another thread the excellent story from 'Magpie Eyes' that Smash Hits asked a load of musos their opinions on the royals - the Reid brothers managed a meek "abolish the monarchy", while McGee despaired as Chris Lowe was the one who said "publicly execute them".

[jobotic]

Should have asked them about American stuff, they love it. Pepsi. Jesus. Sidewalks. All that.

[jamiefairlie]

Factory had some decent bands (besides the big two) who made good records, but were so inept at promotion that nobody ever got to hear them. Wilson was an excellent self-promoter, but not good at promoting his bands (he also had a massive blind spot when it came to dance acts, much to Graeme Park's annoyance). McGee was probably the opposite (at the time, at least).

Wasn't the non-promotion policy part of a deliberate philosophy though?  At least in the early days it was flagged as an essential part of the Factory ethos not to actively promote and play the music business game.

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

So I watched this, and thought it was a brilliant piece of film-making - bringing McGee to life as a charismatic, flawed but noble figure and vividly bringing to life the world of 90s Britain as it genuinely was.

Not really, it was crap.

Thought the film struggled for someone to root for (other than McGee's dad, who you were constantly hoping would return and start belting him again). It didn't manage to present the music as being worth the battle - the TV Personalities came across as the worst people in the entire world, while the interesting output of Creation was represented by a thirty-second scene about MBV where they didn't even speak. It kind of crystallised something I felt reading the lists of good Creation bands on this thread - that McGee always favoured the crap on his roster, and gave it far more attention than the better stuff. Hence him dropping MBV but keeping Primal Scream, even though Give Out But Don't Give Up cost more than Loveless and had a fraction of the merit.

Unlike 24 Hour Party People, it really struggled for humour (other than in the scenes of bantz between the Creation execs, which seemed entirely alibied from the Coogan/Constantine stuff in 24HPP). But I reckon that unlike New Order or Happy Mondays, the Creation groups depended on being treated with total po-faced seriousness. Once you start making any concessions to admitting the ridiculousness of Primal Scream, they dissolve in a puff of air.     

The Savile stuff was deeply weird. I guess it was supposed to symbolise the evil of Blair, but if "everyone knew" the extent of Savile's crimes, then McGee has a moral responsibility to do something about it just as much as Blair, and moaning about it in a car afterwards isn't enough (in reality of course, no one really knew - McGee himself says he had no idea Savile was a paedophile).

Also, I think the moment where his mother says "go to London, Alan. Follow your dream" might have been a tiny bit clunky. But then the whole script felt like it been hammered together using recovered timber rather than typed. 

[Vitalstatistix]

The only good bit was the guy in the group counselling session who looked like Nick Clegg.

[Neomod]

Incredible that there was no drug-fuelled-slapstick-montage to Up the Hill and Down the Slope.

Telstar's better.

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

Here's something else - for all the proclamations about how important it was to be different, everyone important was a straight white man. I mean EEVERYONE. The only women were there to react to McGee in various ways (journalist, nagging ex wife) while Mandelson was played as John Inman cos gays are hilarious, at least to people like McGee or Irvine Welsh whose entire lives are an articulation of their own fucked up issues around masculinity.

[holyzombiejesus]

Thomas Turgoose was nice.

[Custard]

"Thought the film struggled for someone to root for (other than McGee's dad, who you were constantly hoping would return and start belting him again)"

Is both the greatest and also most appalling thing I have read on here in a long time. A+, love it

[holyzombiejesus]

He put out a record by his dad, didn't he? An album of orchestral version of Edward Ball songs.



One for the shit record covers thread.

[Blue Jam]

I fucking hate music biopics

Why is that? Asking because I don't give a fuck about sport (apart from snooker) but love sports biopics, and I like music but I can't think of a single decent music biopic right now. I'm wondering if there's something in this, like sportspeople just being more inteteesting than musicians or something.

Just got a Sky Movies pass and will probably watch this tomorrow because it looks amusingly shit. Just watched the Oasis documentary Supersonic on Netflix as an warm-up and found it surprisingly enjoyable. Is Bonehead in this? I hope so, he was the Legend Gary of Oasis and he was fucking great.

[Egyptian Feast]

Why is that? Asking because I don't give a fuck about sport (apart from snooker) but love sports biopics, and I like music but I can't think of a single decent music biopic right now. I'm wondering if there's something in this, like sportspeople just being more inteteesting than musicians or something.

I dunno, but I hate sport and enjoy sports movies too. Maybe it's because I know nothing about sports, so there's less perceived wrongness to annoy me.

I like some music biopics, but only ones that are ridiculous and up their own arse (The Doors), unintentionally funny (Hysteria!), intentionally funny (Walk Hard) or directed by Ken Russell.

[Custard]

The Doors is really quite bad. Rewatched it recently, and most of it is plops

[Egyptian Feast]

It's complete shit. There is nothing about it that isn't laughable. I was so hyped to see it when it came out. I was 13 and it sounded like the greatest film ever. I had a knockoff t-shirt of the poster from Penney's and a tape of the soundtrack album which got me into The Doors and The Velvet Underground. I waited what seemed like an age for it to come out on video and when I finally saw it, the movie was such a load of shit it may have been the first I ever enjoyed for the wrong reasons. If Walk Hard didn't exist, it would be my favourite music biopic as it's the one that perfectly demonstrates why music biopics are absolute toot.