Entertainment For Lively Minds
The forgotten heroes of Creation
So the new Creation Records movie is coming out, there's a BMX Bandits documentary in the works. Got me thinking who was your unsung hero on Creation that maybe didn't get the Kudos they deserved? Mine was Pat Fish, the Jazz Butcher. Fair enough he started off on Glass, but the run of albums on Creation from Fishcoteque onwards through to the career highs of Cult of the Basement and Condition Blue showed a knack of songwriting unparalled by the bulk of todays so called talents. From the humourous side of songs like Bicycle Kid, to the beauty of Pineapple Tuesday to the downright romanticism of Girl Go he is a totally underrated genius in my humble opinion. I'd be interested to hear your view on him and other acts.
Here's a wee tune to set you on your way....
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Funnily enough...
..I stumbled across my old copy of The Patron Saints of Teenage recently, (Creation Records' 10 year anniversary CD). Here's a bit of Meat Whiplash :
Outstanding!
"That'll get you a case of beer!"
and the support band at 'that JAM-C Riot Riot' gig, also blamed for starting the bad vibes
Hurricane #1
Howdy MVH! Fancy seeing you around here!
At the risk of sounding horribly uncool (who me?!), I really liked Hurricane #1.
Step into my World is a choon! Underrated band.
Really looking forward to the BMX Bandits doco!
Absolutely.
Hurricane #1 were a fine group and Step Into My World is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the finest songs ever recorded. Guitars. More guitars. Yet more guitars. Plus a few more guitars. And harmonies.
Still
think of this track as one of the definitive Creation releases
With you here
Giant Steps is one of my all time favourite albums.
(meanwhile I have a sleeve credit on another Creation release from around the same era. Has me down as 'engineer', when really I was only doing tape-op duties and making tea!)
Or there's this variation
With more than a nod to Propaganda about it.
Love it!
Thanks for sharing
Howdy there Kev, hope young
Howdy there Kev, hope young madame is letting you get some sleep ;)
Hurricane had some good tunes, loved Step, and Just another Illusion but never really got into the albums.
Lazarus was a class tune, I found the Boo Radleys frustrating, some great stuff, some way up your own arse stuff but Giant Steps is a classic.
Other faves of mine from Creation - Momus, Felt, Teenage Fanclub (though they at leat got a bit of respect), BMX Bandits (looking forward to the doc immensely, in fact heres a preview below), Hypnotone. I suppose I had better say Boyfriend as well in case my mate Del is reading ;)Oh and 18 wheeler had their moments. I could go on for hours here...
Arnold!
A sad loss, their Hillside album was full of top tunes and was stuck on repeat on my old car stereo for months after its release.
Anyone have anything on them recently - I would have thought they were very Word friendly. (Seem to remember learning about them in M*J* - possibly when Mr E was at the helm).
was that the
actual Arnold of Tony Blackburn fame in that video?
enquiring minds need to know
Well....
...the band were actually named after a dog, but long after Arnold (woof, woof) probably passed on.
I loved Shonen Knife...
...but I suspect they're not the sort of Creation act you mean.
Paolo, any Creation act
Paolo, any Creation act mate, I had forgotten about them :)
Swervedriver
Loved Ride and still do, but i suppose they got their dues, Going Blank Again is one of my all-time greats. Swervedriver though, i think did nae! Son Of Mustang Ford, choon!
Son Of Mustang Ford
Biff Bang Pow
McGee's own band were the essence of Creation!
Always thought it was cool that
when Creation folded the Super Furries' next album "Mwng" was their masterpiece. And then the opening line of first single after that was
"It's easy when you know how
To get along without Biff, Bang Pow!"
18 Wheeler
Famously the band Oasis were supporting 'that night' in King Tut's.
What could have been, eh?
Twin Action is a fine album, though, and Kum Back a fine song.
Embedding disabled by request, unfortunately.
They are also remembered
for being introduced by Mark Ellen's bandmate Tony Blair as 'Wheeler 18' at some charity bash organised by McGee in the 90s.
They were great, their third album Year Zero is a lost classic, they were getting a more electronic sound going but with strings and that belting Teenage Fanclub style vocal harmonising that only Scottish bands can muster
(The chord breakdown at at 0:59 still makes the hairs stand up)
With you 100% Dr.V
that is a great album. I have tried many many times to turn people onto it only to get blank stares.
Nice to know I'm not alone at last.
Adam and Eve?
*gets fig-leaf*
Teenage Fanclub
One of the better known Creation bands, obviously, but I've always felt that they deserved more attention. Pretty much my favourite band.
For such a bunch of jingle-janglers..
They sure knew how to dance
Love Corporation
Which I think was Ed Ball from The Times. I had this on a compilation tape given away with Select magazine and played it to death. Pre-dated Future Sound of London I think...
Ed Ball
As far as I remember Ball was heading up the dance side of Creation in an exec role, as well as making records.
GLR seemed to play this every hour
for about a year
why?
it's awful
I think he had pictures of Trevor Dann
in a compromising position with Matthew Bannister
Two wonderful clips of DIY MBV
Ha
I love how the guy in the 2nd clip has even re-created Kevin Shields' interview technqiue...
The girl in the first clip...
...is my kind-of-friend Emily. She's a member of the guitar forum of which I was a founder member, and prodigiously talented. She was about 15 when she recorded that. I've just facebooked her to let her know you posted that!
Tell her from me
It's great!
I did.
She was very pleased. :-)
I hope
her parents are proud, and don't just think it is a racket.
(somehow that makes me feel really old).
Death by music press
they very epitome of 'build 'em up...knock 'em down' by the NME, and probably MM and Sounds. Their name still elicits hoots of derision to this day but I loved them.
Can you guess who it is yet?
I love Slowdive
I love Slowdive. That's it. I can't understand why any derision should be sent their way. They were fabulous.
they were cracking. Blissful
they were cracking. Blissful even.
Another up for Slowdive
I also found their derision baffling - Nicky Wire of The Manics famously saying "We hate Slowdive more than We hate facsism" Silly chump - I don't recall the over-the-hill Welsh heavy metallers ever moving me the way gorgeous dreamy tracks like below do
Me too
Love Slowdive.
And well done to Cherry Red for the reissues last year.
Up The Hill And Down The Slope - The Loft
Still sounding fabulous - 'magpie eyes' and the guitar solo.
Plus Weather Prophets - Almost Prayed and Idha's album.
This thread could run and run...
Velvet Crush.
Fine band. Sugar were on Creation as well. They were fairly well-known, though.
Whose turn is it to post
The cover of Kevin Rowland's "My Beauty"?
Oh bloody hell not again.
Let me get the pan out ready for me to boil my eyeballs.
Were Rush on Creation?
I like them.
No you're thinking of Lush
but they were signed to 4 A D
Momus
His album, Tender Pervert (1989) is a lost classic. Nicholas Currie deserves a thread of his own.
Bill Drummond - The Man - CRELP014
I was just listening to this today.
Flawed but nice, doubt it would ever have been released on another label.
Wot no Heidi Berry?
Another forgotten Creation act, not that she was ever very well known, Heidi Berry did her best stuff after leaving Creation and moved to 4AD (her self-titled album is a real beauty); but her one full album fo McGee, Below The Waves, had one stunning song, Northshore Train. And here it is. Lovely pic on the cover, too.
"Therese" by the Bodines
... best single of the 80s (at least today)
I second that emotion
I often wonder what they are doing these days. I used to follow them around gigs in the south. Sadly at one gig in Reading I think they got mistaken by an unusually large audience who mostly seemed to be there to see The Bodeans (a similarly named American country rawk group) and who needless to say were not impressed by jingly jangly chimes coming from the stage. They were booed off and left the venue fairly sharpish. I left a note on The Bodines van expressing my disgust at the audience's appalling reaction and taste. I think they got swallowed up by Magnet Records and the Machine not long after. Big shame and waste of what could have been a great group...
CRE 138: Adorable. Against Perfection. 1993.