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How to Run an Indie Label
A no-holds-barred rampage through gigs, clubs, boardrooms, drugs and booze, mad scenes, brilliant signings, machine gun quotes and a resilient wild spirit.
Music is like no other business.
It's about being at the right place at the right time, following your nose and diving in feet first. It's about being plugged into the mystical electricity and about surfing on the wild energy. It's about how to f--k up and how to survive and be sustained by the holy grail of the high decibel.
No one captures this wild feral spirit better than Alan McGee whose helter-skelter career through music has made him a major force. Wilder than his bands, more out of control than his most lunatic singer, more driven than his contemporaries and closer in spirit to the rock'n'roll star he could never be himself, McGee was always in a rush. Creation would sign people and not just the music. McGee understood that running an indie label is mainly about the charisma, the game changers, the iconography and the story. It's about never being boring.
His ability to start a raw power ruckus brought the visceral danger back to a moribund mid-eighties music scene. His nose for danger and his ear for classic guitar rock'n'roll brought us The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Fanclub and Ride before topping out in the nineties with the biggest band in the world, Oasis.
By no means a conventional instruction manual or business book, How To Run an Indie Label tells you everything you need to know about how to be a creative force.
Music is like no other business.
It's about being at the right place at the right time, following your nose and diving in feet first. It's about being plugged into the mystical electricity and about surfing on the wild energy. It's about how to f--k up and how to survive and be sustained by the holy grail of the high decibel.
No one captures this wild feral spirit better than Alan McGee whose helter-skelter career through music has made him a major force. Wilder than his bands, more out of control than his most lunatic singer, more driven than his contemporaries and closer in spirit to the rock'n'roll star he could never be himself, McGee was always in a rush. Creation would sign people and not just the music. McGee understood that running an indie label is mainly about the charisma, the game changers, the iconography and the story. It's about never being boring.
His ability to start a raw power ruckus brought the visceral danger back to a moribund mid-eighties music scene. His nose for danger and his ear for classic guitar rock'n'roll brought us The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Fanclub and Ride before topping out in the nineties with the biggest band in the world, Oasis.
By no means a conventional instruction manual or business book, How To Run an Indie Label tells you everything you need to know about how to be a creative force.
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Published September 5, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 19, 2025
Creationbossen som gav världen The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Oasis m.fl. berättar om de klassiska åren där höga ideal och den personliga smaken var de drivande krafterna. Obligatorisk för den intresserade men känns som att det måste ha funnits ännu mer att berätta.
January 14, 2025
Entertaining autobiographies contain a raft of stories which the reader didn't know about at the time and unsurprisingly there are many here. The blurb for the book gives an insight into what to expect.
Excellent autobiographies, on the other hand, contain self-reflection and there is very little in "How To Run An Indie Label". His relationship with his father is glossed over. Even for little errors of judgement, there is almost zero regret surfaced, for example, when he talks about advising a band to "feature [their song on] an advert for the Sun" for short term financial gain at a cost of losing their credibility and career. His memories of meeting other industry pioneers such as Tony Wilson are sparce. Of the bands he says he loved as a teenager, he doesn't describe how any of their songs made him feel; the book gives more impersonal descriptions such as "the best band in the world". In the film Creation Stories there is a scene where a young McGee sees the Sex Pistols for the first time on TV and there is a long, slow-motion shot of the hair on the back of his neck standing up. No such revelations here.
It feels a bit lazy, both on the part of the subject and, presumably, the ghost writer; more like a public relations exercise rather than a life reflected.
Excellent autobiographies, on the other hand, contain self-reflection and there is very little in "How To Run An Indie Label". His relationship with his father is glossed over. Even for little errors of judgement, there is almost zero regret surfaced, for example, when he talks about advising a band to "feature [their song on] an advert for the Sun" for short term financial gain at a cost of losing their credibility and career. His memories of meeting other industry pioneers such as Tony Wilson are sparce. Of the bands he says he loved as a teenager, he doesn't describe how any of their songs made him feel; the book gives more impersonal descriptions such as "the best band in the world". In the film Creation Stories there is a scene where a young McGee sees the Sex Pistols for the first time on TV and there is a long, slow-motion shot of the hair on the back of his neck standing up. No such revelations here.
It feels a bit lazy, both on the part of the subject and, presumably, the ghost writer; more like a public relations exercise rather than a life reflected.
May 5, 2025
Stories and obscure connections from the 80’s and 90’s music scene. Great if you’re into the Jesus and Mary Chain, primal Scream or oasis. Good if you are excited by learning that his mentor Seymour Stein signed the Ramones, Talking Heads, Madonna, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Ice-T and many more. Or that Youth, who Alan McGee trusted so much was in the band Killing Joke (for a short time with David Grohl) and that one of the members went to Iceland (fearing an apocalypse) and discovered the band who would become the SugarCubes.
Great if you want a glimpse of connections between
Spacemen 3, Slowdive, or want a gruesome story about the Libertines.
A quick read and somewhat repetitive in places. I didn’t really feel an artistic and narrative thread in the same way as I did with fellow Oasis collaborator Johnny Marr’s autobiography, “Set the Boy Free”.
Great if you want a glimpse of connections between
Spacemen 3, Slowdive, or want a gruesome story about the Libertines.
A quick read and somewhat repetitive in places. I didn’t really feel an artistic and narrative thread in the same way as I did with fellow Oasis collaborator Johnny Marr’s autobiography, “Set the Boy Free”.
August 30, 2025
I really loved Creation Records in the 1980s. Some brilliant bands and a distinctive sounds, so I was excited to be given a copy of this book.
Unfortunately this is a bit of a mess. Lots of repetition (he's from Glasgow, he's mad, he works on instinct), lots of contradictions, very little insight and no introspection. Very few anecdotes .
I really wanted to like but sadly it was just underwhelming
Unfortunately this is a bit of a mess. Lots of repetition (he's from Glasgow, he's mad, he works on instinct), lots of contradictions, very little insight and no introspection. Very few anecdotes .
I really wanted to like but sadly it was just underwhelming
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews