Artifact: The Dawn of Creation Records 1983-85
There's a quote in Alan McGee's 2013 autobiography that neatly sums up the Creation Records ethos. Discussing his own mid-80s band, Biff Bang Pow!, he laughs off those who dismissed him as desperate to start a label to compensate for his own musical shortcomings. "It was the same with all the records we did. It might turn out shit or it might turn out okay. Most of all, it was fun – and actually most of them did turn out alright."
More often than not, it turned out better than alright. While few talk about Big Bang Pow! today, Creation's wider hit rate remains astonishing. With the honourable exception of Rough Trade, no other independent label took as many chances on unsigned groups and so frequently unearthed gold in the process. From The Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream, to My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Teenage Fanclub and latterly the Super Furry Animals, Creation bands made an incalculable impact on music in the UK, the US and beyond. And throughout it all, McGee and his labelmates made no secret of the fact they were having a fucking great time.
Only one of those bands features on Creation Artifact: The Dawn of Creation Records 1983-85. The golden era arguably began upon the release of My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything in 1988 and ended around the mid-90s when the colossal success of Oasis allowed McGee to sign whoever he liked with no fear of the costs. Instead, this five disc box set shines a deserving light on the early days of the label – back when indie genuinely meant independent and wasn't just a generic description or term of abuse for guitar music. McGee, then in his early 20s, had followed many others Scots of his generation by moving to London. He had no qualifications and no previous managerial experience. What he did have was a low-paid job at British Rail, a burning love of music and huge ambition.
Borrowing the name of a legendary but entirely unsuccesful late 1960s London rock band, McGee founded Creation with pals Dick Green and Joe Foster – Foster would produce many of the songs collected here. Given McGee's later association with Oasis and the coke-fuelled days of Britpop, there's an incorrect assumption that Creation were all about brash and in-yer-face guitar music. But in their early days, they were responsible for releasing charming lo-fi pop classics by the likes of The Pastels, The Loft, The Jasmine Minks and The Revolving Paint Dream – the latter featuring a young Andrew Innes, who would later mastermind Primal Scream.
Many of these singles can already be found on YouTube as poor quality audio rips. Given that they were originally recorded on the cheap, such uploads inevitably sound tinny at best and a poor radio taping at worst. Thankfully, all tracks on Creation Artifact have been given a much needed polish. The Loft's superb Up the Hill and Down the Slope has never sounded so fresh and exciting. And if you've never heard of Meat Whiplash – a short--lived East Kilbride band with an even more fearsome reputation than the Mary Chain – you should make a point of hearing their solitary 7", Don't Slip Up.
Much has been written about Upside Down, probably the best known single from Creation's eary days, and its subsequent impact. Far more impressive, however, is the B-side: the JAMC's skin-shredding take on Syd Barrett's Vegetable Man, a song so fucked-up that Pink Floyd infamously decided never to release it. The Reid brothers don't so much cover it as strike it with a sledge hammer and wallow around in the shattered pieces. It remains a physically intense listen 30 years on.
There's also the usual slew of rarities and Peel sessions which will interest few beyond hardcore fans, but the 1984 demo version of Just Like Honey is fabulous - an acoustic guitar shimmers over that Ronettes beat and Jim Reid delivers an almost whispered vocal. You can imagine Alan McGee's excitement upon first hearing it; he had found a band destined for the big time, and not only were they signed to his fledgling label, but they were his mates from back home to boot. The Mary Chain would go on to sign for Blanco y Negro, a subsidiary of WEA, in early 1985. While no longer a Creation band, the cash allowed McGee to release further singles by the likes of Primal Scream, Felt and The Weather Prophets, ushering in that most famous second Creation era and all that followed. A valuable starting point.