Sound Mind
CREATION STORIES I Britpop king Alan McGee gets an explosive biopic…
Idon’t know if this is blasphemous, but who would you rather interview – God or Jesus?” asks actor-turned-director Nick Moran, not a man given to understatement. Blasphemous it may be, but it’s also rhetorical because neither are on the call sheet for today’s shoot, which has taken over a huge, semi-derelict pub in Shadwell, east London.
Instead, the scene we’re watching involves a fright-wigged Ewen Bremner, off his mash on a cocktail of chemicals, shouting, “GET TAE F***!” at Steven Berkoff. The latter portrays legendary occultist Aleister Crowley – a hallucination – while Bremner plays an alchemist of a different kind. He’s Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records, “a wee ginger c*** from Glasgow” who discovered Primal Scream, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Oasis and many more, almost blowing his mind in the process. “You don’t need any more drugs, do you?” a runner asks anxiously. McGee certainly didn’t.
In fact, McGee was more rock’n’roll than most of his bands, hence Moran’s theological musings, and hence why he has gathered Britpop cinema stalwarts Bremner, co-writer Irvine Welsh and executive producer Danny Boyle to adapt McGee’s explosive autobiography. “It’s a fantastic story, the guy who did everything wrong, but it all went right,” says Bremner, taking a break from tripping balls. “He wouldn’t lie down, he just kept on getting back up.” The latter was probably due to consuming prodigious quantities of cocaine – among other substances – represented on set by powdered vitamin B12. “It’s very good for you, actually,” notes Moran [of the B12, obviously].
McGee’s career straddled some of the UK’s most exciting music movements, from punk to indie to acid house, and Creation Stories promises a whirlwind of cameos. “It’s a spiderweb of popular culture,” agrees Bremner. After an open casting call to find the next Liam Gallagher, winner Leo Harvey-Elledge had to nip off to do his A-levels halfway through the shoot. Also, keep ’em peeled for This is England’s Thomas Turgoose, Michael Socha and Perry Benson, old lags Jason Flemyng, Jason Isaacs and Paul Kaye in various compromising positions, plus caricatures of everyone from Jimmy Saville to Margaret Thatcher. “You wait till you see my Tony Blair,” says Moran. Well, quite.
It sounds like ‘24 Hour Party People: The Cool Britannia Years’, but Moran is aiming for something even more irreverent. “I don’t want to ruin it for you,” he teases, “but there are scenes that have never been seen on film, that are so extreme, so offensive and so sidesplittingly funny. It’s Telstar [Moran’s directorial debut] meets Trainspotting meets The Wolf Of Wall Street.” Lord have mercy. MG
ETA | 20 MARCH / CREATION STORIES IS AVAILABLE ON SKY CINEMA NEXT MONTH.