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 fuck 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 Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Fan Club 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.