AUTUMN MUSIC SPECIAL
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He discovered Oasis and, through Creation Records, lavished us with some of the finest music these small islands have ever seen, but he's not finished yet. For the publication of his authorised biography by Oasis/The Jam biographer Paolo Hewitt, ALAN McGEE discusses past, present and future.
Interr.’re‘.'.: Mark Robertson
The Lrst So what do you think of the book?
Alan McGee I honestly do thrnk rt’s a brrllrant book. There's another one comrng out by Dave Cavanagh but I don’t thrnk Dave really got me. He reckOned l was a dysfunctional control freak lackrng rn communrcatron skrlls. How does someone wrth poor communrcatron skrlls get rnto Chequers for the weekend to chat polrcy wrth the Prrme l\/lrnrster.7 To descrrbe Paolo Hewrtt’s book, rt's ’sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll’; to descrrbe Dave's, rt's ’the accountants' tale.’ If you want to read that, you can, but I can’t rmagrne anyone apart from other accountants wantrng to. But good luck to hrm, rt’ll sell abOut 225 copres by my estrmatron. TL And Paolo Hewitt's?
AM | thrnk Paolo’s book potentrally could go on and sell loads, but rt JUSi depends.
TL Does it feel good to try and put the whole Creation era to bed and move on?
AM | thrnk we’ll be puttrng rt to bed for the next twenty years to be honest. I don't thrnk rt wrll stop now. When yOu frnd the brggest group srnce Led Zeppelrn, people wrll always want to drscuss rt.
TL Was it difficult then to try and move on?
AM It was, rn a way. That was why we drd
fit) 2.5
Poptorres [hrs new multI-medra company] lrke we drd, wrth the rnrtral releases berng El Ve/ (the Hrspanrc Elvrs> and stuff. It was lrke sayrng ’l’m not tryrng to frnd another Oasrs, rt'll never happen, but what I mrght do rs frnd two Prrmal Screams'. And that's frne because, you know what, Prrmal Scream are the greatest rock ’n’ roll band rn the world, so rf | frnd two of them, I’m dorng well. I’m not krddrng myself on, I'm 39 now but I’ve got krds out there frndrrrg out what's gorng on and they come back and put on grgs and I get to see the best bands. I’m not sayrng I know what’s gorng on any more. You've got to hold your hands up and say ’l’m gettrng old, I’m gorng bald, I don’t have all the answers any more'. When you're 29 you probably have a lot of the answers and rf you’re good at rt Irke l was, you’ll do well. t’s a brt lrke football; Paul Gascgorne at 21 was a genrus, Paul Gascgome at 31 was a erI fat, lagered-up fuckrng rakey. I love hrm to brts, but he rs what he rs.
TL You said you’d wished you had jacked in Creation the night of the Oasis gig at Knebworth. Do you still think that?
AM It would have been legendary, but rf The Clash had stopped at Combat Rock rnstead of gettrng
shrte, they would strll have been remembered for dorng some amaxrng thrngs.
TL So what else are you doing with Poptones? AM I’ve srgned up frfteen new acts and srgned up loads of re-rssues so I'll be puttrng out 30 albums rn the frrst year. The websrte’s up and runnrng and there's drgrtal radro streamrng from there and rt floated on the stock market for around £15 mrllron. It's good.
TL How does your lifestyle compare now to your hedonistic past?
AM I’ve been up untrl Sam for the last two nrghts out, but the only way I can do rt these days rs wrth frve cans of Red Bull.
TL Who sums up Creation best?
AM Oasrs may have been the brggest but Prrmal Scream embodred all that was great about Creatron. They were there when rt started and agarn when rt ended.
The final record on Creation, Acclrtr by Primal Scream is out now. Alan McGee And The Story Of Creation is published by Mainstream on Mon 2 Oct.