Alan McGee
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Alan McGee is a British music industry mogul and musician famed for founding the independent Creation Records label which ran from 1983 to 2000.
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[edit] Career
[edit] Early years
Born in East Kilbride on 29th 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.
[edit] Creation Records
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.
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 revolutionary figure of youth culture and courted his influence to spearhead a media campaign prior to the 1997 General Election.
As Oasis mania continued, 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; the final single was the third released from the said album, '"Accelerator"'. Following Creation's closure, McGee founded a new label called Poptones.
[edit] Poptones
With Poptones McGee found platinum success with The Hives and currently manages, under Creation Management, Mogwai, Dirty Pretty Things, King Biscuit Time, Norman Blake, Client and The Charlatans. He also has recording studios in Glasgow and London and publishes under Creation Songs to this day Oasis, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines, and Poptones Music publishes Client and Montgolfier Brothers. 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 and in Budapest, Hungary.
Poptones has been refounded and is about to release a whole batch of new acts The Singleman Affair, Viking Moses, Cherrystones, Souls She Said and Tobias Froberg.
McGee also 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.
