From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alan McGee is a British music industry mogul and musician famed for founding the independent Creation Records label which ran from 1983 to 2000.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Early years 1.2 Creation Records 1.3 Poptones Records/Creation Management/Death Disco 2 External links

Born in Glasgow on 29 September 1960, he moved to London in the aftermath of the punk movement, forming the band Laughing Apple who released 3 singles in 1981/2. In 1983, McGee founded Creation Records (named after cult 60's band The Creation) and also formed a new band, Biff Bang Pow! (named after one of The Creation's songs), which would continue until 1991. Whilst working for British Rail he began managing a band called The Jesus and Mary Chain who became an underground sensation when McGee issued their first single on his label in late 1984.

Creation Records was one of the key labels in the mid-eighties indie movement, with early releases featuring artists such as The Pastels, Primal Scream, The Jasmine Minks, and The Loft. When The Jesus And Mary Chain moved to Warner Brothers in 1985, from McGee's profits as their manager Creation was able to release seminal singles by acts including Primal Scream, The Pastels and The Weather Prophets. While these records were far from chart successes, McGee’s enthusiasm and uncanny ability to woo the weekly music media ensured a healthy following, especially since he’d projected a notorious image of The Jesus And Mary Chain that often courted violence and loutish behaviour.

Following an unsuccessful attempt to run an offshoot label for Warner Brothers, McGee regrouped Creation and immersed himself in the burgeoning dance and acid house scene. The legacy of which saw him release era-defining albums from Creation mainstays Primal Scream and new arrivals like My Bloody Valentine and Teenage Fanclub. For all their artistic health however, these records were not huge commercial hits and, with McGee’s escalating drug use Creation had run up considerable debt that was only held off until he sold half the company to Sony Music in 1992.Mcgee calls the Sony years as the beginning of the end of the real Creation Records.One that was driven by mavericks Tim Abbott,Dick Green and McGee himself not by Sony accountants and marketing managers.To this day he claims he hated the nineties and preferred the eighties as he hated Sony with a passion forever more.

At almost precisely the moment it looked as though Creation would collapse into receivership, the recently signed Manchester band Oasis began selling albums in huge quantities as they epitomised the cultural Britpop movement of the mid 90s. The success of Oasis was unprecedented for an act on an independent label, and their second album, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory soon grew into the biggest selling British album of the decade. This brought previously unimaginable exposure to McGee, whose position was noted by the revitalised Labour Party that considered him a figurehead of youth culture and courted his influence to spearhead a media campaign prior to the 1997 General Election. Mcgee was largely responsible for changing government legislation in relation to musicians being able to go on the New Deal which gave musicians 3 years to develop and be funded by the government instead of having to take other jobs to survive. Omnibus even went on to make a documentary on Mcgee and Creation in 1998 for BBC1.

As Oasis mania continued they went on to sell nearly 50 million records by 2007, Creation continued issuing acclaimed albums by other artists, none of which came anywhere near the success of the Manchester band and rumours of McGee’s dissatisfaction with what his once proud indie label had become began to circulate. In late 1999 it was announced that Creation Records would close. The final album released by the label was Primal Scream's 2000 release XTRMNTR which went gold in the U.K. The final single was the third released from the said album, '"Accelerator"'. Two books were written in the wake of Creation Records selling the rest of the shares to Sony in 2000 for an overall price that was staggered through the nineties of around 30 million US dollars. For the often publically awkward seven year partnership between Creation Records and Sony Music read two books - one by Paulo Hewitt on McGee and his personal lifestyle and the other one by Dave Cavanagh called My Magpie Eyes. Both books are sold out currently and the Dave Cavanagh book is now selling for 150 pounds and more for a used copy on Amazon.co.uk. McGee calls it the accountant's tale and has openly mocked it. Following Creation's closure, Mcgee developed into property - buying houses, flats, a farm in Wales and even an office block in Primrose Hill. McGee also got into buying art as a hobby because he liked the way a painting looked but, as by chance, McGee had luckily bought paintings by the next generation of upcoming painters: Keith Vaughan, Howard Hodgkin and Roger Hilton. Again as in Music in Property and Art, Mcgee had become successful by default. As a final insulting gesture to Sony Music and The Labour Government who he had now fallen out with, one of McGee's last act's as Creation Records boss was to use £20,000 of Creation's money to fund Malcolm McClaren, in what was known in the media as Malcolm for Mayor, to run for Mayor of London. Up until the point Ken Livingstone decided to stand for Mayor, McClaren had gathered an estimated 6% of the capitals vote in street polls which would have given McClaren a political role in Livingstone's team to run London. This put McGee on the front page of The Sun 3 days in a row and upset Tony Blair and 10 Downing Street. McClaren immediately stood down when Livingstone did finally decide to stand for Mayor. McGee had by 2000 had enough of the Labour Party and declared more interest in football than politics. McGee immediately founded a new label called Poptones in homage to John Lydon and Public Image Limited it was the end of an era for all concerned.

With Poptones, although it was written off by Paul Lester of Uncut after 8 days of opening as a label, McGee found platinum success within the second year with The Hives and currently manages under Creation Management, The Charlatans, Mogwai, Dirty Pretty Things, King Biscuit Time/Black Affair, Norman Blake, Client, a new Welsh band called The Peth and in recent times The Paddingtons. He also has recording studios in Glasgow and London and publishes under Creation Songs to this day Oasis, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines, and Poptones Music publishes Client and Montgolfier Brothers and the producer Joe Foster. McGee also runs the international club night Death Disco and two other London club nights, The Queen is Dead and Now We're Off to Rehab. McGee also DJ's around the globe under the moniker of Death Disco, having residencies in New York, Budapest and Inverness in Scotland Death Disco now plans to open in Moscow and Tokyo monthly sometime in 2007. He also tours Europe with his friend and client Tim Burgess of The Charlatans on dj tours every year mostly by train for fun.He runs Death Disco in London with his son Dan Waks who is now a busy dj at the age of 18 and like his father has now started a record label called Waks Records funded by his dj'ing and putting out records by Glasvegas and Hatchem Social Club to critical acclaim in the NME and Vice.

Poptones has been refounded by McGee and Poptones has, like Creation Records once again, found critical acclaim in the press with new acts The Singleman Affair, Viking Moses, Cherrystones, Souls She Said, Tobias Froberg and Sailboats are White.Paul Lester was proven wrong as Poptones is over 6 years old and is becoming internationally well known.

McGee managed The Libertines on Rough Trade up until their split in 2004 and now manages Carl Barat's new band, Dirty Pretty Things, for Vertigo after Barat and Doherty split as a working partnership. Dirty Pretty Things reached number 3 in the UK with their debut album Waterloo to Anywhere and is near platinum at the end of 2006. Dirty Pretty Things will have a new album scheduled for release in September 2007. Alan McGee now writes for the Guardian music blog twice a week,The Metro Newspaper as the judge for the music blogs in 2007. On 21st December 2006 he then launched www.medicatedandsedated.com which is a photographic review of Death Disco from all over the world plus all things Poptones and Creation Management related and is a reflection of the London club scene.Mcgee spends half his time in America mostly in Los Angeles due to business interests and half his time in the U.K with his family and business interests in the UK giving thus Creation and Poptones a global perspective by spending so much time abroad. McGee has bizzarely now developed an interest in the stock market in the last year.He claims his ambition is to retire to Wales one day and read all the books he has collected and never read which are all in storage in his house in Wales.

• Official site
• Alan McGee's Myspace Page