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Alan McGee

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Alan McGee

Alan John McGee (born 29 September 1960) is a Scottish businessman and music industry executive. He has been a record label owner, musician, manager, and music blogger for The Guardian. He co-founded the independent Creation Records label, running it from 1983 until its closure in 1999.

McGee subsequently founded the Poptones label, running it from 1999 to 2007. He has managed or championed acts such as the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Telescopes, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Momus, Oasis, and the Libertines. He was also the lead singer and guitarist for the indie pop group Biff Bang Pow!, who were active from 1983 to 1991.

McGee was born in Partick, Glasgow, on 29 September 1960. He grew up in Glasgow and attended King's Park Secondary School, where he met future Primal Scream founder Bobby Gillespie. McGee left school at 16 with one O-grade. He and Gillespie were heavily into punk rock, and they joined a local punk band, the Drains, in 1978. The band's guitarist was Andrew Innes.

After the breakup of the Drains, McGee and Innes briefly joined the band H2O, then moved to London and formed the band the Laughing Apple with Mark Jardim, a drummer from Croydon. In 1983, quitting his job at British Rail, he co-founded Creation Records (named after cult 1960s band the Creation).

McGee said that his intention with Creation "was to merge psychedelia with punk rock". He also formed the band Biff Bang Pow! (named after the Creation's song), which would continue until 1991, and began running a club night called "The Living Room" at The Adams Arms in Central London. He also began managing the then-unknown band the Jesus and Mary Chain, whose first single was issued on McGee's label in November 1984.

Creation Records was one of the key labels in the mid-1980s indie movement, with early releases featuring artists such as Primal Scream, the Jasmine Minks, and the Loft. When the Jesus and Mary Chain moved to Warner Brothers in 1985, Creation was able to use McGee's profits as their manager to release singles by acts including Primal Scream, Felt, and the Weather Prophets. While these records were not commercially successful, McGee's enthusiasm and ability to promote Creation releases in the weekly music media ensured a healthy following. 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.

During this time Creation had run up considerable debts, which forced McGee to sell half of the label to Sony Music in 1992. McGee describes the Sony years as the beginning of the end of the real Creation Records, which was driven by Joe Foster, Tim Abbot, Dick Green and McGee himself, and not by Sony accountants and marketing managers. Just at the point when Creation seemed like it would collapse into receivership, the recently signed Manchester band Oasis began selling albums in huge quantities, and became one of the leading lights of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. The success of Oasis was unprecedented for an act on an independent label, and their second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, became the biggest-selling British album of the decade.

This brought McGee substantial exposure, and his position was noted by the revitalized Labour Party, who considered him a figurehead of youth culture and courted his influence to spearhead a media campaign prior to the 1997 General Election. McGee was largely responsible for changing government legislation in relation to musicians being able to go on the New Deal, which gave musicians three years to develop and be funded by the government instead of having to take other jobs to survive. In 1998, Omnibus made a documentary about McGee and Creation for BBC One.

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