Alan Mcgee Talks Oasis
By
Stop Crying Your Heart Out
on
May 17, 2011
Taken from an interview with Alan Mcgee, read the full article here.
What I thought was a good point was when Noel [Gallagher of Oasis] talks about the end of Creation Records. I remember talking to people who worked for the label the day you shut it down and it seemed almost everybody, aside from you, was like, “What the fuck are they doing? This is so unnecessary!” Do you ever look back and think, “Shit, maybe I should have kept it going”?
Not at all. See, the last ten years have been really interesting for me. There’s no way I’d have ended up doing what I’m doing now if I’d have kept Creation going. You don’t learn anything unless you go down a different path. You could look at that decade and go, “Well, he managed the Libertines, signed the Hives, signed Glasvegas and sold millions more records”—you could go on about all that shite, but I’ve learned a lot more about life in the last decade than I did in the one before it.
I think you learn more from getting stuff wrong than getting stuff right, too. Between 1990 and 1994 we really got it right artistically, and from ’94 onwards we really got it right commercially. We could have just rolled on if we were only in it for the money. We could have hired a staff of six or seven people and loads more bands, but you know what? Creation was an idea that Joe Foster and I had in 1983, and by ’96 we had achieved that idea, but back then my ego was too big to let it go, so I continued to ’99. It got to a point where it was just really drudgey—like we’re all sat around off our faces, waiting for the next Oasis album so we can be number one again, waiting for the next Primal Scream album so we can be number two again, you know what I mean? It was time to get out.
You had the big drug heart attack on the plane and then gave up partying during the time that Oasis were going bananas with the second record. Did you ever go to NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings?
I went once or twice, but I think I went to the wrong places. I went to the Peckham one and I remember people talking about shooting people. So it was never that appealing. I just did it one-on-one, sort of. And it’s okay now. I see people like Gillespie and the guys who are probably slightly damaged goods now because we all did a lot of drugs, but it’s all okay.
I have a theory that there has been a massive rise in cocaine use in this country...
It’s probably got a lot worse quality…
And I have a theory that people like yourself and Noel Gallagher are personally responsible for that rise. What do you think about that?
Haha. I think it’s an interesting theory.
All of a sudden, after Definitely Maybe, it seemed that everybody in the country was suddenly doing more cocaine. There was never really a band on the radio all the time that promoted cocaine use as much as Oasis. And I am being serious, too.
Well, I think I am being serious back. I think drugs are endemic in society. People think drugs are rock’n’roll, but everyone does drugs. Not to do drugs is probably more rock’n’roll. Literally, the guy that comes and fixes my cupboard in my house, he probably goes out on a Friday and comes back on a Sunday. You know what I mean? I think there was a point in the 90s when Noel said “drugs are like having a cup of tea” in the toilets at some party somewhere. It took us six months to get over that one, off-the-cuff remark.
Source: www.viceland.com
Upside Down The Story Of Creation Records is in store now, and entered the Official Music DVD Chart at number two this week.