ALAN MCGEE
Creation’s irrepressible music lover talks Tony Blair, crack dens and magick.
With eye-popping bio-pic Creation Stories upon us, the maverick record man remembers the mud, the blood and the pills. And Oasis.
DURING CREATION Records’ 17-year lifespan, Alan McGee was the biggest character in UK independent music. He discovered both The Jesus And Mary Chain and Oasis and released landmark albums by Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub and My Bloody Valentine in 1991 alone. Following Oasis’s colossal success, McGee went into rehab and worked with the Labour government on the New Deal for Musicians. Since shuttering Creation in 1999, he’s founded three independent labels and his Creation Management company. New film Creation Stories, co-written by Irvine Welsh and starring Ewen Bremner, is based on McGee’s 2013 memoir.
Is Creation Stories an objective account or your own version of events?
It’s Irvine’s version. I had to let go. What’s the point of getting a genius like Irvine Welsh and telling him how to write a script? But you asked about my version of Creation? Well, I am Creation! There’s been different people I’ve partnered with but if it’s me, it’s Creation. So if I say that’s what happened, that’s what happened.
When, for you, was Creation’s golden age?
The film argues that it all went downhill once the big money came in. You don’t agree?
Probably around ’91 when Sony wasn’t involved and we were doing Screamadelica, Loveless, Bandwagonesque. We were never better musically. But it was all good to be honest.
I’m different to Irvine. I’m left of centre but I’m not that left. Thank fuck I got rich! Because it was shit being poor. There was a funny moment when the people who got me clean said, “What’s wrong Alan?” And I said, “I’m fucking miserable.” And they said, “Why?” And I said, “Oasis are Number 1 in 32 countries.
(Sobbing) I never asked for this level of success.” And they were laughing at me. But that was a moment of weakness. Overall, I fucking liked it.
The film is also cynical about New Labour. Was your venture into politics worth it?
I passed the New Deal, which meant that musicians could get benefits. That’s what I did. It’s probably not cool but I liked Blair and Brown overall. Compared to what came later, I loved them. Before he decided to start bombing Iraq, I think Tony Blair did good. I had a cup of tea with him about 18 months ago.
Who do you still see from the Creation days?
I’m still tight with Noel. I haven’t seen Liam for years. I see [Andrew] Innes for walks. I actually ran into Bob [Gillespie] during lockdown.
Fact-check time. Did you really study Aleister Crowley’s magick?
At one point, yes. Not any more. When I went to Wales in 2008 I was fucking about with magick. I was bang into it. You absorb yourself in the books.
Did you have a breakdown after visiting a crack den in LA (one of the film’s most sordid tableaux)?
That scene? Not true. But crack dens in LA? One hundred per cent true. Three days into a bender, you end up in strange places like brothels and crack houses. I was terrible like that. I was addicted to prostitutes and shit. I was a fuck-up. And then I got sober.
Was it uncomfortable reliving that period through the film?
My whole life I’ve been troubled because I was beaten to fuck by my father when I was a kid. He jumped on my head when I was 14. I was put in hospital. So of course that affects you in later life. I don’t need drugs to be mad but I was taking a shitload of drugs. I was a psycho, probably.
Did you actually meet Jimmy Savile at Chequers, as the film portrays?
That happened! October 1999. I was talking to Tony Blair and then the second guest comes in – “Now then, now then” – and it was fucking Jimmy Savile. I thought he was a sleazy guy towards my missus but I didn’t know anything ultimately. I just thought he was a gangster. I thought, “You’re fucking connected, mate.” You’d think that bit was made up but that’s the Creation story for you: the maddest bits are actually true.
Tell us something you’ve never told an interviewer before.
One of our A&R men, Ed Ball, used to come to work dressed as a priest for a few years. He liked acid because it was £1.50 and ecstasy was £20 but he didn’t realise it was deranging him.
See Creation Stories from March 20 on Sky Cinema.
“Three days into a bender, you end up in strange places. ALAN McGEE