LETSLIVAPPY! (WHILE WE AWAIT OUR DEATH) the lucidly hoptimistic fanzine VIVONZEUREUX! VIRTUAL LABEL
november 2nd 2003		artists - chronicles - vivonzeureux! records - lists - links - contact
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(various artists)
"I believe in rock'n'roll"
1983-2003 : 20 years of Creation Records

Creation Records is 20 years old. 20 yeras since Alan McGee and his friends published two issues of their Communication Blur fanzine with accompanying flexidiscs featuring songs by The Pastels, Laughing Apple and Television Personalities. 20 years since Alan McGee and his friends The Legend!, Joe Foster, Dick Green launched a new club in a London pub, The Living Room, and put on gig headlined by bands uch as The Mekons, The Nightingales, Alternative TV, The Times or Television Personalities. 20 years since the release of a 3-track single by The Legend!, "73 in 83", with Patrik Fitzgerald guest-starring on guitar, a single that is now reviled by all concerned. 20 years, more importantly for me, since I attended my first Television Personalities concert, at theLiving Room, and bought issue 2 of Communication Blur, and then The Legend!'s single, then a few months later those by Revolving Paint Dream, Biff, Bang, Pow! and The Jasmine Minks.

Creation Records is not here anymore to celebrate its anniversary. Anyway, the last years of the label are not the ones that gave us the best music. What matters today is that Alan McGee (with Poptones), as well as Dick Green (with Wichita) and Joe Foster (with Rev-Ola) are still releasing the music they like and sharing their godd taste with us.

This umpteenth compilation of the Creation label was composed according to the usual rules : not more than one song per artist or band (even if some of the more active individuals find themselves on two tracks, obviously not by accident : it's the case for Joe Foster, Peter Astor, Andrew Innes and Alan McGee) and a priority given to the pleasure of good music. You are of course strongly advised to go roaming to discover more of the discography of the artists presented here.

There are few rarities in this collection, except for the demo version of "Upside down" by The Jesus and Mary Chain, which should have featured on a 12" single b-side, the release of which was cancelled by the band at the last minute in February 1985. Of course, on just one record it was not possible to account correctly for the whole of the huge production of the label. Felt would have deserved a compilation just for themselves (but this compilation exists elsewhere). As for those who are looking for Oasis and not finding them, they should not worry : our tastes favour the beginnings of the label more than its later days, and they can console themselves knowing that 'Oasis nearly made the tracklisting (but only nearly) with "Supersonic" or an early single b-side. But we did allow ourselves a little fantasy by including an updated version of "73 in 83", which only deserves to be as much reviled as the original version !!!

J.C. Brouchard