How to Run an Indie Label by Alan McGee – Book Review

How to Run an Indie Label by Alan McGee

Published by: Allen & Unwin

Release date: 5 September 2024

When Alan McGee founded Creation Records, he wanted a label that was as rock’n’roll as the bands it represented. This highly readable book tells the story of a larger-than-life adventure as wild as any musician’s career.

From post-punk indie through acid house and the Britpop years, from the Jesus and Mary Chain to Oasis, Creation was a central, and influential, part of the musical landscape. This book tells you how it happened, in funny, streetwise and enjoyably opinionated prose.

Halfway between a manual and a memoir, the book could have been titled “How NOT to run an indie label”. There is a lot in McGee’s career that should not have worked – including, obviously, copious amounts of partying – but somehow it did.

On one level, the book describes the lessons that came out of that career, through themed chapters in roughly chronological order. Readers can learn from those if they want. On another level, it’s a manic journey through rock’n’roll excess and readers can just sit back and enjoy the ride.

The very first sentence sets the scene: “The music biz is nuts and there is space for all kinds of mavericks, but I think we took it to the extreme.”

McGee grew up in the Glasgow of the 1960s and 70s: tough, street-smart and surprisingly arty. That typifies the man too, as he comes over in the memoir.

Although the book tends to focus more on the professional than the personal, he describes three formative factors in his teenage years. One is the violence at home that eventually leads to therapy in later years. One is being a music obsessive, and another is an early aptitude for making money.

The young McGee was determined to find a place – and an escape – in the music business. Punk opened the door because it became possible to make things up as you went along. As he tells it, that approach seems to have served him well throughout his career.

The first step was being in a band. The second step was moving to London and releasing an indie single. The third step was hanging around Rough Trade, the leading music shop, label and distributor, and learning. McGee was a fast learner.

He pays credit to his influences: along with Rough Trade, there was also Whaam! Records (formed by Dan Treacy and the Television Personalities), mentors including Tony Wilson and Malcolm McLaren.

He also pays credit to his colleagues at Creation, especially those who looked after the boring jobs that kept the business running. McGee recognises that his role was as frontman – the character that becomes the face and image of the operation. Like all the most influential music figures, McGee had vision and belief. He also had the ambition and attitude to bring the vision to life. And he knew how to create a “pop culture myth”.

Of course, there is another side to all this mayhem. McGee acknowledges: “The trouble with creating a myth is that you have to live up to that myth, and maybe that was what caused my breakdown in 1994.” That’s where the personal stuff comes in – with burnout and rehab – and the fun stops.

What’s great about the book is that it never undermines the myth but it has realism too. There are stories about excess but there are also stories about money and music. And lots about people, always central to all the stories.

You’ll hear about the non-stop partying in the acid house years, the truth about the Blur versus Oasis rivalry and why “Cool Britannia” didn’t work out. You’ll also get lots of opinions about the changing nature of the music business, the meaning of “indie” and what makes a great record. And of course, what makes a great record label.

You may learn a lot from this book. But be warned. Don’t try this at home, kids.

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How to Run an Indie Label is available at all good bookstores.

Words by Penny Kiley. You can read her Louder than War reviews at her author profile, and her archive music journalism on Substack.