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The Masterplan….
Welcome to the home page of the MOJO Award winning Creation Records film ‘Upside Down’.
Over a quarter of a century since it began and more than a decade after it folded, this is the definitive film about Creation Records, one of the world’s most successful and colorful independent labels. This is the story of the rock n roll dream and its accompanying nightmares. Millions of sales on both sides of the Atlantic, near bankruptcy, pills, thrills, spats, prats, success, excess, pick me ups, breakdowns and of course some of THE defining music of the late 20th Century. This is the definitive and fully authorised story of the UK’s most inspired and dissolute label, from the Jesus & Mary Chain at the Living Room to Oasis at Knebworth.
Following our debut at the 54th BFI London Film Festival in late 2010, we went on to feature at more than 50 other Film/Music festivals across the globe, from Belfast to Buenos Aires, Glastonbury to SXSW. Click here for a full rundown.
Apart from the aforementioned MOJO award , we were also voted music film of the year by NME music critics, beating Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison biopic into second place no less
To date we’ve released in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Oz, Japan, Benelux, Canada, Germany and Scandinavia. Check out our distribution partners here.
Press wise, we’ve featured in ‘Variety’ magazine, been described as “one of the most rock’n'roll films ever made” by the Sunday Times, had top billing on a BBC ’Creation’ special and had special front cover editions of both the NME and Big Issue. Check out our press section for more details.
It’s been quite a ‘ride’, (ahem), and with an American release in the pipeline later this year, that rollercoaster is set to continue.
Thanks for visiting,
Cheers, The Documentalists.
Before we get carried away let’s go back to the beginning. Here’s an interview with the director Danny O’ Connor at the London Film Festival in late October 2010.
And here’s some of our highlights since then………..
The Television Personality. McGee on Later…
Alan McGee joined Bootsy Collns, Robbie Robertson and Glasvegas as a guest on Later With Jools. The show aired on the BBC on Fri April 15th. Check it out here
You Made Me Realise – Upside Down hits Dublin.
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“On the rocky road all the way to Dublin, Whack follol de rah !”
Celtic Soul Brothers indeed. After a great night in Glasgow, Dublin too was rammed to the rafters with Creation heads filling Cineworld.
Catch the latest review from Film Ireland here.
If you haven’t seen it, there is a great feature in Ireland’s music bible Hot Press here…
Also, Creation wound up on the pages of the Irish Times. Check it out here or download the PDF (2mb) here
Howdy! U.S. premiere at SXSW on Paddy’s Day….
‘Upside Down’ premiered in the USA on the 17th March at the prestigious Vimeo theatre, (501 E. 4th Street, Austin, TX) in the heart of America’s largest music and film convention, SXSW. A very happy St. Patrick’s Day was had by all…thankyou for coming.
SXSW scene report from Austin 360 is here
A snapshot of an interview with Danny available in PDF format here. Full article here.
A preview of the movie from austinist.com here.
Movin’ On Up – UK Cinema Run..
Like A Daydream – “one of the most rock n’ roll fims ever made.”
‘Upside Down’ featured on page 28 of The Sunday Times Culture magazine on Easter Sunday 2011. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, then here’s the online version in PDF.
The Concept – 200 turned away in San Francisco….
It was an honour and pleasure to do our first tastemaker screenings in the USA. Thanks to everyone who showed up at the Mondrian in Los Angeles, the Clift in San Francisco and the Tribeca Grand in New York. Mark Gardener played solo gigs on the West Coast and DJ’ed in NYC. Check the photos from LA and SF. Below is a short film from San Francisco.
Giant Steps – Upside Down wins Mojo Award…..
Upside Down was honoured to share a stage with a Beatle, a Beach Boy and a Sex Pistol at the 2011 Mojo awards. The film won the Mojo Vision award at the knees up which also saw accolades go to Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, John Lydon and many more including the Arctic Monkeys and Primal Scream… The award was collected by director, Danny O’ Connor and the film’s music supervisor, former Ride frontman, Mark Gardener…See the video here
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- “The background to all this is a tale of near-bankruptcy, hard partying, bitter feuds, sell-out accusations, heavy drugs and nervous breakdowns. McGee, with the help of key players at Creation, puts his side of the story in Danny O'Connor's brilliant, passionate and significant documentary....”
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“THERE'S a running joke in this amusing documentary about Creation Records that one of the reasons the label became so distinctive was because nobody could really understand what its Glasgwegian founder Alan McGee was saying half the time; the music he put out therefore had to do most of the talking. It's not really true, of course. Though his passion for music and his determination to put out only the bands that he liked was matched by a determination to lead the same kind of debauched rock'n'roll lifestyle as his acts. The film celebrates all this in gleeful fashion, running through Creation's punky Scottish origins to its bloated, Tony Blair-endorsed, champagne soaked end-point. Lots of rare archival footage and new interviews with the likes of Noel Gallagher and the now clean-and-sober McGee ensure that it's entertainingly riotous.”
- “From his meeting with school friend Bobby Gillespie to being whisked off an aeroplane by paramedics at the height of Oasis’s success Danny O’Conner’s film is a compelling portrait of Alan McGee's time running Creation Records, one of the music industry’s most influential independent labels.”
- "A gripping tale, well paced and held together by some great tracks"
- “Producer-director Danny O’Connor has done them a service not only by securing access to all the principals, but also by exhaustively including many of Creation’s lesser acts.”
- “One of the most rock’n’roll films ever made, Upside Down, the documentary about Creation Records, is a wild trip remembered. Alan McGee, Bobby Gillespie, Noel Gallagher and Kevin Shields, among many others, capture the madness of what was the key label in Britain of its time. It’s a very human story told with an abrasive honesty, with great interviews by its director, Danny O’Connor.”
- "O'Connor has assembled a formidable star chamber to look over McGee's career. Starkly shot black-and-white interview footage shows figures including Gillespie, Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain, Noel Gallagher of Oasis and the novelist Irvine Welsh pondering McGee's story. McGee is also on hand too to look back at his younger self.At times, the film has an elegiac air."
- “The full extent of the debauchery, precarious nature and genius of the independent label is to be laid bare in the most revealing rock'n'roll film since 24 Hour Party People...”
- “Thank goodness then for Upside Down, a trend bucking rock doc charting the rise and fall of Creation Records.”
- “Upside Down cost director Danny O’Connor the best part of five years of his life, most of his independent production company’s money, his sanity and his health. But could the definitive rockumentary about Creation Records have been made any other way? It took one “loony” Celt to convince another that he was the right man to capture it all and he did.”
- “Apart from being a hugely compelling insight into the lifestyle of Creation, Upside Down also acts as a piece of visual art itself, with its unique mix of archive material, vintage camera footage and film noir palette, making it look unlike any other music documentaries.”
- "Believe the hype! The simple tale of a legendary label. ****”
- “Directed by Danny O'Connor with fast-cutting zeal, Upside Down can't fail to entertain.”
- “The footage of the Mary Chain riots at north london poly in 1985 is worth the admission fee alone”
- "Its witnesses are key players, rather than context dispensing media commentators.”
- “I'm forever indebted to Danny O' Connor. He has totally nailed the spirit of Creation Records. Normally I find it really hard if I'm involved in things to be complimentary but it's shockingly good.”
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"There is a charm of a rather less gentle sort on display in the talking-heads documentary Upside Down: The Creation Records Story. Creation founder Alan McGee, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream and Noel Gallagher of Oasis are just a few of the “misfits, sociopaths and drug addicts”, as the film puts it, who reminisce about the days of acid house, shoe-gazing, indie and, finally, Britpop. It’s a rise and fall story (of course) and between the no-nonsense interviewees and the wealth of footage, a vivid and moving one. Those with a limited tolerance for the words “mental” and “phenomenon” are advised to stay away".
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"It's to director Danny O' Connor's credit that Upside Down reaches beyond the mania to reveal the tale's poignant undertow; what happens to friends when their wildest dreams come true. Upside Down is documentary gold, capturing the essence of what happened and the spirit of the age, as well as anointing McGee's lieutenant Dick Green "the Secret Hero" of Creation, the man who kept his head while all around were losing theirs. In an era when the old patron/artist business model is crumbling, a record label may never be worthy of such a tribute agin. But Creation stood up for rock n roll greatness, we miss its cavalier presence".