Upside Down: The Creation Records Story

The influence of Alan McGee’s Creation Records on the course of mid-’90s British music can’t be ignored. The label actually made its name in the burgeoning indie scene of the previous decade, with a roster of bands that included My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain. As Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie puts it, McGee specialised in the signing of “outsiders, chancers, lunatics…” whose behaviour made them, and their label’s boss, notorious.

During the label’s ’90s heyday, Oasis’ public feud with mockney rivals Blur made headlines in Britain even as their album What’s the Story (Morning Glory)? came to represent the mod-referencing, self-consciously retro spirit of its times. McGee, meanwhile, was courted by the Labour party before they came to power in 1997, in a bid to keep the younger elements of the electorate on side by playing up to a “Cool Britannia” ethos. Just two years later, however, as McGee’s dissatisfaction with the music business grew, Creation closed. Upside Down: The Creation Records Story tells the label’s riotous tale. It’s now available on DVD in the UK, with worldwide release dates yet to be confirmed.