Upside Down: The Creation Records Story (2010)

Upside Down: The Creation Records Story (2010). 1h 41m | TV-MA

“Creation Records was a UK independent record label active in the 1980s and 1990s that was at the center of several legendary movements in popular music, namely shoegaze, acid-house-influenced pop, and Britpop. UPSIDE DOWN, released in 2010, is a documentary by Danny Ou0026#39;Connor looking back at the labelu0026#39;s rise, heyday, and eventual decline.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe documentary is centered around freshly-shot interviews with people recounting the history of Creation Records. The labelu0026#39;s founder and all around colourful character Alan McGee is featured most, as McGeeu0026#39;s initial obsession, increasing drug use, and mid-1990s crash offered the documentaryu0026#39;s maker a clear dramatic arc. There are, however, abundant interviews with members of the Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Ride, Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Fanclub, Sugar, Oasis, and Super Furry Animals. Other talking heads are McGeeu0026#39;s fellow label co-founders and Creation office staff, and a few music journalists. A major lacuna is Slowdive: the only sign we see of this highly acclaimed band is the cover of their album SOUVLAKI. The interviewed musicians are also entirely male; the sole female artist interviewed is Heidi Berry, who only says two sentences (neither about her own music). It is strange that neither Slowdiveu0026#39;s Rachel Goswell or MBVu0026#39;s Bilinda Butcher were interviewed to give a slightly broadened perspective on the label than all these lads.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe documentary will prove informative enough to someone completely new to all this, but if you are a viewer who is already familiar with some of these bands and passionate about them, there is little information here that you probably havenu0026#39;t already picked up elsewhere. For example, McGeeu0026#39;s issues, the fact that My Bloody Valentine nearly bankrupted the label, and the labelu0026#39;s merger with Sony had already been pretty hashed out in UK pop journalism. That said, there is a lot of great archival footage here that you may have never seen before, like some scenes of people off their heads in clubs during the mythical days of acid house in the late 1980s.”