How many of today’s label executives will have a biopic made about their career?
That remains to be seen, but Alan McGee – the man who founded the original Creation Records and brought you Oasis, Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine – is about to receive that honour.
Creation Stories – based on McGee’s 2013 autobiography of the same name – has been executive produced by Danny Boyle and written by author Irvine Welsh. To cement the Trainspotting links, McGee is played by Ewen Bremner, who played Spud in that film. Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels’ Nick Moran is directing.
McGee is still in the game with his new label Creation 23 and his artist management company, where he looks after the likes of Happy Mondays, Cast and Glasvegas. While a cinema release date looks uncertain amidst the current coronavirus restrictions, he confirmed to Music Week that the film is almost finished, to the point that he’s been showing a rough cut to his current artists.
“I have people round to the flat and I’m showing them,” he told Music Week. “I was showing [Creation 23 signing] Cat SFX the film and she said, ‘You’re not really as manic and dramatic as that’. And I said, ‘I maybe was at one point, but I haven’t been for a long time…’. But it’s artistic licence. There are characters in the film that don’t exist [in real life]. But I can see who people are going to think some of them are! It’s going to be funny. There are some characters I’ve never met, but Irvine’s created the character.”
McGee’s story actually needs little enhancement – his recent Music Week Aftershow interview was stuffed with tales of Oasis, drugs and having Bill Clinton as a houseguest, with the heady days of the original Creation resembling a real life Kill Your Friends.
“It’s really funny,” he said. “The real truth is, I don’t know if I’m that dramatic – but the bottom line is, it’s a film so that’s what it’s like. That’s the way these things go down. I like John Niven’s book but, in my book, it’s real. The people actually were fucking insane.”
McGee’s life is a lot quieter now, but he remains as ambitious for his artists – which include The Clockworks, Shambolics and The K’s – as he was when he helped make Oasis the biggest band in the world.
“If that comes to me again, it comes,” he said. “When I first started Creation in the ‘80s, my first record was by The Legend! If I was trying to be fucking massive at that point, it definitely eluded me! I was just putting records out and then, what happens is what I’m sure will end up happening with this: you sign somebody who starts happening, you see the realms of possibility open up, you get a hard-on for it and then you decide to do it.
“At the moment, I’m just putting records out. But I’m not naïve enough to think that something won’t break through eventually, because it always does with me.”
* To read our recent Aftershow interview with Alan McGee, click here. To make sure you can access Music Week wherever you are, sign up to our digital issue by clicking here.
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