by Mcgee, Alan
The next gig was crazy. We borrowed a drummer, this mad jazz musician who could play any song. Should have been in Sun Ra or Miles Davis’s band. There were about 1,000 people packed into a tiny bar, a really small DIY stage. Carl played his set and the place went mental. We ended up that night going back to a house. The party went on till about seven in the morning. Then we were in some kind of bus heading somewhere. There are a lot of drugs in the van. Not mine, but everyone else’s. A police car went past and someone – I suspect Carl – gave them two fingers. Next thing we were pulled over and all had to continue on our way with considerably lighter pockets.
These days I don’t travel nearly as much. I’m a family man, and I like the quiet of Wales. People come to see us.
Bill Clinton came to stay once. I was going to do a gig in New York in May 2001, and on AOL messenger Peter Florence, the director of Hay Festival, said, ‘Hi, Alan, what are you doing next weekend?’ When I said I was in America, the next question was, ‘Can Bill Clinton stay in your house?’
I told Kate, and she was very excited. What! Of course he can.
I didn’t particularly want Bill Clinton to stay at my house. American presidents, I know what their game is. Clinton’s no different to the others, he’s just really eloquent. But if Kate wanted it, that’s okay: Clinton could stay.
The irony of all ironies was that Kate, who thought she was going to get to hang out with Clinton, wasn’t even allowed to stay in her own house! She got kicked out and had to stay with Peter Florence’s mum!
That was the end of being a hotel for the literature festival but it’s still down the road every year. I spoke there in 2012 for an event based around Richard King’s brilliant book How Soon Is Now?, a history of independent music in the UK. And Irvine Welsh texted me the other day to tell me he’s doing the next festival. I met Irvine at the end of the 1990s. We all loved Trainspotting at Creation. Irvine would have fitted in very well with the Hackney days: he was always pissed or on an E. He’d come up to me and put his arm round me but he’d be so wrecked it was like being put in a headlock. He’d talk top speed in my ear while crushing my head like a vice. I imagine he’s calmed down these days.
I’ve met many of my heroes through becoming well known in music. When I was living in Primrose Hill, I used to see Robert Plant wandering around. We’d just done Knebworth so we had stories to compare. In 2005 he phoned me up and asked me to DJ his son’s wedding.
Well, you don’t get more flattering offers than that, and I showed up at the wedding in Robert’s place down the road in Kidderminster. Jimmy Page had just got sober and was wandering around. Jimmy Page is a god to me. I’d met him once before and rented him a floor of my office block.
I remember putting ‘Lola’ by the Kinks on as the first song and seeing Jimmy and Robert head to the dance floor and start dancing together. That was the absolute highlight of my DJing career!
23: 2013
I chucked music on 12 September 2008. No more management, no more record label. I’d become so bored with the music world. I’d been in it for thirty years since I moved to London with Andrew Innes, and I was convinced the world had more to offer. Three days later, 15 September, everything kicked off with the banks – and it felt like confirmation to me that I’d made the right decision, that we were getting out of the rat race at the right time. We decided to leave London then and settle for good in the house in Wales.
Here in Wales I seek nobody’s attention, affection or friendship. It’s my ongoing rehab from drink and drugs and rock and roll. I try to live a spiritual life here.
As I’ve got older I’ve realized that the thing that most annoys me in life is people. I was a social animal on drugs. When I was sober, I thought people were a bunch of twits. And I just don’t have to deal with them here.
I’ve had a great five years, reading, teaching myself new things.
I’ve found out I have an eye for art, for instance. I started wandering into galleries when I went to London, buying paintings with the money I earned from DJing. I just bought art that appealed to me, that I wanted to put on my wall. Some of what I’ve bought is worthless in terms of money, it’s just I like it. But Keith Vaughan has now become the biggest gay painter in the world. I used to have two of them in my office – I just liked them. My pal, who’s gay, came in one day and asked, ‘Do you know what these are?’
‘Er, Keith Vaughans?’ I didn’t know anything about him.
‘What do you think they’re paintings of?’ he asked me.
I said, ‘Well, that one’s depression, and that one’s kind of, like, bleakness?’
‘No, Alan,’ he said, ‘that one’s a guy fucking another guy up the arse; and that one’s a cowboy giving another cowboy a blow job.’ I’ve been sitting in the office beneath all this gay erotic art for years and never noticed. Now, I get it. They’re fucking good paintings.
I made a film in 2012 with my friend Dean Cavanagh, who shares my interest in occult thinkers and books. On a simple level Kubricks is about a director going mad trying to make a film at my house in Wales. We did it as an experiment to see if we could make a film and, incredibly, we could. It’s a completely improvised film; I play myself. I don’t act, I’m just myself. It’s about quantum reality. I’m living in one reality but the main actor Roger Evans is living in another existence where he thinks he’s shooting a movie. It took five days to shoot, all in my house and the grounds surrounding us. My friend Joanna Pickering is in it, a great actor and writer who one day should write the book about Death Disco. The premier screening was in Leeds in June 2013. Loads of my pals were there: Lee Mavers, Debbie Turner, James Allan. Mavers is a smart cookie: as soon as it started playing he came up to me, ‘What’s wrong with the screen?’ He was right, it was too small so we were missing lots of what was happening on the edges. It’s a film about someone living in two separate dimensions, and there was a whole third of the screen that was happening in a complete other dimension to the people in the room. I’d like to say it was intentional. But it was just a cock-up. The Creation ethos continues.
I’m in a film called Svengali! too which was written by my friend Jonny Owen. I play myself. People say to me I’m a good actor, to which I say, I’ve been acting since 1974. The real Alan McGee was left bleeding at the foot of the stairs in Glasgow; ever since then I’ve found it hard to know whether I’m playing a part, who’s really there behind the appearance. There’s a character called Alan McGee I’ve been playing for years, and I might play him a bit differently these days, but I can’t promise I’m not still playing him all the same.
Taking a break from the music industry was necessary for me. I needed to refresh myself, follow my nose and discover what it is that inspires me. I’ve loved this time. I’ve had a five-year break from the music business but I’ve never forgotten about it, never been able to take my eye off what’s going on out there, and now I feel ready to return.
A lot of the music I love has returned in 2013. There’s the great new record by My Bloody Valentine. Primal Scream have their best album for years, back at their best. Even House of Love are back too, with Bickers back in the band and another really good album. When they were touring recently someone in the audience shouted to Chadwick, ‘Take your clothes off!’ Chadwick thought about it for a second. ‘Those days are over,’ he replied.
My hero has returned too. Who apart from David Bowie could record an album in secret, release a single overnight and have it the most talked-about record of the year?
I’ve got my music buzz back. Music has completely changed as a business and that for me is fantastic, because I’m interested in it again after having found it stale for so long. There is actually a huge amount of good unsigned bands around these days, because it’s so hard to get signed. It’s not hard to find good music. Whether you can penetrate the market with it is another question, but I’d like to find out. In one way it feels similar to when we first started in the 1980s. The record labels don’t take risks any
more so I think there’s room for someone who will take a risk.
That’s why I’m setting up 359 records with Iain McNay at Cherry Red. It feels good to be working with an independent again. I want the label to be a launchpad for new talent and some ignored older talent. But it won’t be like it was running Creation or Poptones. My conditions for the deal are 1) I never have to go to another gig in London; 2) I never have to go to another marketing meeting; 3) I never have to go to another awards ceremony; 4) I will never come to your office again. Thank god for Ian McNay and Cherry Red! Who else would put up with those conditions?
I’ve signed a number of acts already. One of the first was Pete McLeod, who I’d met in 2007 and who had stayed in touch, badgering me to start up a label. He did more than anyone to get me back into music and I thank him. John Lennon McCullagh was another. He’s only fifteen years old at the time of writing, and full of talent. I met his dad in Australia, a mad Oasis fan. He asked me to DJ in Rotherham which I thought was hilarious – you can’t get a worse sounding gig than DJing in Rotherham – and I went along to see just how bad it could be. I had a great time in the end, but then John’s dad told me he was putting his son on stage, and I thought, Oh god. A fourteen-year-old with a sixties haircut stepped up. I’m going to have to try and be polite here. But he played six Dylan songs and it was incredible. A superb voice, great guitar and harmonica playing. I told him to go away and write some songs of own, and he might have a career. When he came back with a bunch of his own I signed him up.
These days technology means I can run a record label from a BlackBerry in rural Wales. Or on the beach in Goa if I prefer. And actually, I think I can run a label better from here than I can in London. No one here cares about Oasis or Creation and I can focus on finding genuine talent.
In London, it’s, ‘Hey, how’s the new label?’
‘Hey, can I send you a tape?’
I don’t mind that for ten minutes. Then I can’t wait to get back home. It’s so peaceful here, up on the hill. It has to be something special to bring me down.
Like managing one of my all time musical heroes, for instance. Perhaps I’ll do that.
Joe Foster is in Glasgow and wants to leave. I’ve just bought a chapel and am thinking of doing civil marriages there. Joe Foster says he’s an ordained minister. That would be a fitting ending – Joe Foster marrying people in my chapel in Wales. He’ll always be a part of what I’m doing. When he gets too much, I just don’t answer the emails.
Creation took its toll on all of us. Dick Green and I still have a publishing company together. Recently we were changing the company bank account and our adviser said to me, ‘I’ve checked out both of your addresses, and you both live absolutely in the middle of nowhere. What is that about?’
‘I suppose you had to be there,’ I said.
It would be easy to think my life has become less interesting over the last decade but, if anything, it’s the reverse. The journey has been worth it. Instead of being a yes man to a corporate boss, I’ve become a property dealer, an art collector, a DJ who travels the world, and now I’m writing this book. I love my family and I see them every day.
I remember buying my first guitar and deciding I wanted to be a punk rock star – I’ve travelled a long way from that teenager. Charlie’s got a little guitar and sometimes I’ll have a strum on it. She’s picking it up, and she’s a good piano player. We talk about music sometimes; she worries that One Direction might have gone off the boil, that the third album’s been a long while coming. But mostly I try not to comment on anything musical to her, to let her find her own way. When I tell her she’s a good piano player, she thinks, What does he know? She’s like me, she wants something to rub up against. So I listen to her playing classical piano, thinking how good she is, and I keep really quiet.
I would like to thank Luke Brown who has done an incredible job assisting me to pull my life story together. He was an amazing partner to work with.
PICTURE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All photographs are from the author’s personal collection apart from:
pagelink: © Paul Slattery / Retna Pictures
pagelink: © Valerie Hicks; pagelink: © Rex / Steve Callaghan
pagelink: © Dave Evans
pagelink: © Alastair Indge / Photoshot / Getty Images; pagelink: ©
Bleddyn Butcher / REX
pagelink: © Alastair Indge / Retna Pictures; pagelink: © Kevin Cummins / Getty Images
pagelink: © Bleddyn Butcher
pagelink: © Suzie Gibbons / Redferns; pagelink: © Retna / Photoshot
pagelink: © Grant Fleming; pagelink: © Ian Dickson / Redferns
pagelink: © Michel Linssen / Redferns; pagelink: © Roger Sargent
pagelink: © Photoshot
pagelink: © Stefan Rousseau / PA Archive / Press Association Images; pagelink: © Jill Furmanovksy
pagelink: and pagelink: © BP Fallon; pagelink: © Dave Hogan / Getty Images; pagelink: photo by Eitan Lee, courtesy of Kate Holmes
Every effort has been made to credit all copyright holders of photographs in this book but where omissions have been made the publishers would be glad to rectify them in future editions.
INDEX
Abbey Road Studios ref 1, ref 2
Abbott, Tim ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14
Albarn, Damon ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Ali, Waheed ref 1, ref 2
Allan, Denise ref 1
Allan, James ref 1, ref 2
Andrews, Jon ref 1, ref 2
Astor, Pete ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9
August Records ref 1
Baby Amphetamine ref 1
Babyshambles ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Bachelor, Dave ref 1
Balfe, Dave ref 1
Ball, Ed ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17
Barât, Carl ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17
Barker, Dave ref 1, ref 2
Barr, Agnes (grandmother) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Barr, Jimmy (grandfather) ref 1
Barrett, Jeff ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20
Barrett, Syd ref 1, ref 2
Bates, Dave ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9
Bates, Martyn ref 1
Beady Eye ref 1
Beatles, the ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9
Beattie, Jim ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Beggars Banquet ref 1
Belinda (girlfriend) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11
Bell, Andy ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7
Bellas, Moira ref 1
Bickers, Terry ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15
Biff Bang Pow! ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7
Big Brother ref 1
Big Star ref 1, ref 2
Birkett, Derek ref 1, ref 2
Blair, Cherie ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Blair, Tony ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10
Blanco y Negro ref 1, ref 2
Blow Up ref 1
Blur ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
Bonehead ref 1, ref 2
Bonnar, Brian ref 1, ref 2
Bono ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Boo Radleys, the ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Bowen, Mark ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Bowie, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Boy George ref 1, ref 2
Boy’s Own ref 1
>
Branson, Richard ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
Brewer, Dr Colin ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Brighton ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18
Brit Awards ref 1, ref 2
Britpop ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9
Brown, James ref 1, ref 2
Buchanan, Pete ref 1
Buffett, Jimmy ref 1
Butterfly Records ref 1
Buzzcocks, the ref 1, ref 2
Byrds, the ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
C86 ref 1, ref 2
Calloman, Cally ref 1, ref 2
Campbell, Alastair ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons ref 1
Carpenter, Graham ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
Carr, Martin ref 1
Cartel ref 1, ref 2
Cast ref 1
Cavanagh, David ref 1
Cavanagh, Dean ref 1
CBS ref 1
Chadwick, Guy ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21
Charles, HRH Prince ref 1
Charter Nightingale, Lissom Grove ref 1, ref 2
Chelsea FC ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Chequers ref 1
Cherry Red ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
China Records ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Clash, the ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Client (band) ref 1
Client (fashion label) ref 1
Clinton, Bill ref 1
Cobain, Kurt ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
