hen the Postcard Records bands and the Smiths emerged in the early 1980s, one of their impacts on UK music was to make male sensitivity and guitars fashionable again. A whole host of small, independent labels were pleased to pick up this mantle—and among them was Creation.

Founded in 1983 by Scot Alan McGee, Creation Records eventually became the self-professed “International Guardians of Rock and Roll,” an ironic title for a label whose guitar music went from invention to retread.

McGee moved to London hoping his band, Laughing Apple, would gain notice but eventually worked to promote gigs for other bands—including the Television Personalities and Primal Scream. Eventually, he was granted a £1,000 bank loan to start Creation. (He would later release records by his band, Biff Bang Pow!)

In an inauspicious beginning Creation’s first release was the godwaful “73 in 83” by the Legend, written by then-fanzine writer Jerry Thackery (Later known as Melody Maker editor Everett True). Most of the label’s other early singles were, frankly, not so great, but amidst the lo-fi strumming and off-key warbling were solid releases by the Loft, Meat Whiplash, and the Pastels.

By 1986, Creation was one of a clutch of labels pushing fey indie. The best of the sound peaked in popularity that year with a pair of ground-shifting compilations, the NME’s cover-mounted C-86 tape (which featured Creation artists Primal Scream and the Bodines) and Creation’s Doing it for the Kids. Unlike the monosyllabic C-86, Doing it for the Kids is a diverse blend of proto-shoegazing, bedsit indie, and jangle pop, highlighted by the House of Love’s “Christine” and the Jasmine Minks’ “Cut You Deep.”

Creation’s first pivotal release was the Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Upside Down,” which spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the UK independent chart and sold upwards of 35,000 copies. “Upside Down” blends of cacophony and melody was among the first UK indie singles to find inspiration in pre-Sex Pistols’ rock, matching New York and Detroit proto-punk to Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. It was also the perfect crystallization of the sonic adventure that characterized the label’s best work and history mining that characterized its worst. After its success, McGee had to give JAMC up to a major label before they recorded their debut LP. (He did, however, continue to manage the band for a brief time.)

The label’s second breakout act, the House of Love, also quickly outgrew the label thanks to the success of their self-titled debut and a string of smart, punchy singles. The fourth and final for Creation, “Destroy the Heart,” topped the 1988 John Peel Festive 50.

It was a symbolic honor. Just as the label conquered UK indie world, it moved on to more ambitious sounds and goals. At first, McGee’s attempts at mainstream success failed. He launched a Warner's imprint, Elevation, in order to be able to fund single-artist, full-length albums but few bought the records and McGee faced ruin. The label was saved from this creative and financial failure when Acid House reached its fever pitch in 1988 and kicked the musical Thatcherism of C-86 out the window. Creation’s greatest contribution to this sonic revolution was My Bloody Valentine. In one of rock’s most spectacular leaps in creativity, MbV emerged from its cocoon on the strength of the seminal single, “You Made Me Realise.” The band’s translucent, shimmering layers of guitar were at once hypnotic and pummeling.

After My Bloody Valentine came onto the scene, other purveyors of shoegazing and dream-pop such as Ride, the Boo Radleys, Swervedriver, Slowdive, and the Telescopes emerged as well. Collectively, they were a group of Serious Young Men playing Serious Music. The post-My Bloody Valentine shoegazers were also attempting to make guitar music relevant in the face of acid house, the UK’s first real paradigm shift since punk. Their music was a return to volume, muscle, and professional playing. Perhaps more importantly, though, it was a reaction against the shambolic, fey sounds of previous incarnations of guitar based pop music.

The increasing focus on polyrhythms, the abrasive 303 synth sound, and the collectivity of rave culture informed most of British music—even Creation’s paisley indiepoppers Primal Scream. “Loaded,” an Andrew Weatherall remix of an old Scream single was a pioneering indie-dance fusion and Creation’s first UK top 20 single. (It wasn’t until Ride’s “Leave Them All Behind,” in 1992, that Creation broke the UK top 10.)

Despite the label’s later Oasis-fueled success—and rampant substance abuse that eventually landed McGee in a rehabilitation clinic—this was its artistic peak- thanks to My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, the Boo Radleys, Teenage Fanclub, Ride, and Sugar. The major labels began to take notice and in 1992—faced with bankruptcy after the heavy cost of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless production costs—McGee sold 49% of the label to Sony.

The acid house-inspired experimentation soon fizzled. Shoegazing, acid house, and proto-Britpop were exciting times in UK indie, but, ironically, McGee helped drive the final nails into their coffins. At an 18 Wheeler show, he caught a four-song set by Oasis. The band had fury and determination, and they projected both an ambition to escape small-town life and restore the band-as-a-gang mentality associated with the Clash. Oasis also sniffed at invention, and made chart success and a place in rock’s canonical linear history the goal of the British guitar band. By the time of their second album, Oasis had become almost dreadfully MOR—and one of the biggest bands in the world. For their part in restoring the “Cool Britannia” image, McGee and Oasis leader Noel Gallagher were invited to New Labour parties-cum-photo ops at No. 10 Downing Street. It all seemed as soulless as the cocaine-fueled follow-up, Be Here Now, an orgiastic mess of inflated ego and bombast.

What’s worse, Oasis cast a pall over the industry and the label. Most of the bands signed by Creation in the aftermath of “Supersonic” were almost painfully traditional and often laughable. Even some of the label’s once structurally ambitious artists lapsed into busking-level tunesmithery (Ride, Hurricane #1, Teenage Fanclub) or became the UK Black Crowes (Primal Scream). Of the label’s ’60s worshippers, only the Boo Radleys and their part-Baroque, part-Beatles sunshine pop came away unscathed. And of the new signings, only the wildly inventive Super Furry Animals weren’t merely standing on the, ahem, shoulders, of giants.

McGee panicked and gave second and third chances to former starts such as Bernard Butler, Edward Ball, Kevin Rowland, and the Jesus and Mary Chain (who actually delivered a soild, underrated single, “Cracking Up.”) It was a continuation of his long-standing policy of tolerance for outsiders and inconoclasts, first adopted with the mid-1980s signing of Felt, Momus, and Nikki Sudden (ex-Swell Maps). Other signings were more ridiculous and the label’s absolute nadir was white “ragga” artist Mishka, the brother of one of McGee’s wife’s closest friends.

By the time they closed shop in August 2000, the label was the perfect illustration of the bubble and burst of Britpop, and depending on whom was asked, Creation was either the best of British guitar music or the worst example of rock’s conservatism. Depending on which period from the band’s history you’re listening to, either of those opinions could be correct.

Label Roster Highlights: My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, Oasis, Ride, the Boo Radleys, Super Furry Animals, Teenage Fanclub, Slowdive, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Sugar, Swervedriver, Felt, the Telescopes, the Jasmine Minks, Adorable, the Pastels, the Weather Prophets, the Loft, the Razorcuts, Jazz Butcher, Momus, Bernard Butler, Hurricane #1, the BMX Bandits, 3 Colours Red, Heavy Stereo, Arnold, Biff Bang Pow!, Edward Ball, Kevin Rowland.

Ten Essential Singles/EPs:
Upside Down, the Jesus and Mary Chain (1984)
Christine, the House of Love (1988)
You Made Me Realise, My Bloody Valentine (1988)
Come Together, Primal Scream (1990)
The Concept, Teenage Fanclub (1991)
Flying, the Telescopes (1991)
Lazarus, the Boo Radleys (1992)
If I Can’t Change Your Mind, Sugar (1993)
Some Might Say EP, Oasis (1995)
Ice Hockey Hair EP, Super Furry Animals (1998)

Ten Essential Albums:
Forever Breathes the Lonely Word, Felt (1986)
Doing it for the Kids, Various Artists (1988)
Nowhere, Ride (1990)
Bandwagonesque, Teenage Fanclub (1991)
Loveless, My Bloody Valentine (1991)
Screamadelica, Primal Scream (1991)
Giant Steps, the Boo Radleys (1993)
Souvlaki, Slowdive (1993)
Definitely Maybe, Oasis (1994)
Radiator, Super Furry Animals (1997)