Rival Creation Myths

More a side note, but there's apparently some battle royale between Hewitt and Mark Manning aka Zodiac Mindwarp via letter exchanges over on the As to the real reason of McGee's displeasure...well, there's actually this one guy I can ask. He's more friends with Dick Green than Alan, though.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 13 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Spectacularly ugly, that post. And it ate up my Martin Carr/McGee story too. To refer to the site with the Hewitt/Manning exchange again:

Tangents, found at http:// www.tangents.co.uk/.

Do you have a more exact URL for the Z - Hewitt exchange? I don't really fancy wading through Tangents looking for it. Today is the Lord's day, after all.

Having read the Creation book by Paolo Hewitt, I can tell McGee favors that one over Cavanaugh's because Hewitt's is basically a bio having little to do with the label. I'm going to track down Cavanaugh's book 'cause Hewitt's is so damn lopsided. Of course McGee would favor the book that has more of him in it.

A flip to page nine for a look at the "cast of characters" (meaning "those interviewed"/"McGee's closest mates") will list two people who actually recorded for Creation -- Ed Ball and Mark Gardener. Ball's quotes pop up every few pages; Gardener has one pointless line. McGee's quote take up 65-70% of the book, much of which goes through his drug problems. It's a funny and quick read, although I feel as if it told me a very small fraction of the story.

There's a paragraph in each chapter that reads something like: "And then me and _____ (random member of Primal Scream) ended up dancing on the table with a mound of coke, punching the air while listening to the Ramones. Two birds were touching each other on the couch, but me and _____ didn't care. And then when I woke up I knew I had to stop, but I didn't. And then I sacked half of my staff that morning."

I've flicked through the Cavanagh book , and will probably get it sooner or later. Whilst a flick through isn't particularly reliable, it seemed to me that there was quite a high proportion of "in the studio with the House of Love - how Terry Bickers recorded his guitar parts while dressed as a tree" type anecdotes, and very little "controversial stuff" about McGee. Someone I know who's read it confirmed this, but of course who's to say what set McGee off.

I tend to avoid anything written by Paolo Hewitt. His "Noel let me sit at his table, and Paul was there too" grovelling style is almost worthless.

Cavanagh = reliable diligent journalist. I'd trust him to ferret out a fact, but not to invent a revealing or telling fiction.

Hewitt = one of the strangest men in pop. If he ever writes a book telling HIS story, and omitting the dullard-popsters he hangs with, I'd be first in line. I remember him telling a story of himself as a child, aboard ship off Italy and trying to sleep, kept awake by gunfire. Even if he was making it up (gunfire off Italy?) the image stuck... I think he hangs with the dullard-popsters because they confirm (to him) how much more interesting his life has been to theirs. Downside: for him to make a living out of thus hanging, we have read about them not him. (Paolo? Fuck Weller, fuck the fucking Gallaghers: your uncensored autobiog NOW!!)

For the Dirty Vicar and others interested (and here's hoping the formatting gods smile on me):

Manning tackles the Hewitt book: http://www.tangents.co.uk/tangents/ modern/creation.html

Hewitt responds in kind: http://www.tangents.co.uk/tangents/main/2001/ feb/paolo.html

Alastair Fitchett has his own thoughts: http:// www.tangents.co.uk/tangents/main/2001/march/opinion.html

Zodiac-as-was accuses PH of being Jeff Koons: I think he's right and I say Totally Yay Paolo on this one!! Says Hewitt: "Typos, spelling mistakes. Editor's fault not mine. Give him a bell"

The man is a Prior God of Utter Cheek (I've subbed his copy and I know...) By comparison, Mindwarp = McGee = feeble nonsense.

1. Ned, it wasn't Mark Manning who wrote that critique of Paolo Hewitt's book, it was Mark Morris, who sometimes contributes here.

2. To address Momus's question, I thought the introduction to the book was an invaluable account of UK indie, although perhaps with a little too much accent on two or three characters (Travis, Horne, Alway) and perhaps not quite enough of a sense of a leaderless babble. I really enjoyed the stuff about the Living Room / early days of Creation, too. I was bored by the tales of big business and all those terrible rock records which Creation issued.

My only real disappointment in the book was its failure to make any kind of critical reassessment of the music. The stated opinions of the music (Creation releases and the broader independent scene) were pretty much as you would have expected from the inkies of the time. I was really hoping that he might have come up with something else. I don't necessarily mean he should have adopted my lines - Jasmine Minks one of the very best bands of the 1980s, House of Love as boring as all hell, and so on - just that I didn't appreciate knowing what he'd say about the quality of each band before I got there.

As for history refuing to be written by the winners, perhaps the Oasis-driven success of McGee is history's first chance to cast this motley bunch as winners?

I keep getting those two confused for some reason. My apologies to Mr. Morris, who, yes, I have seen round these parts. One of these days I'll get them straight in my head; thanks, Tim!

In answer to Nick's question: McGee is cross with Cavanagh for a pretty pathetic reason (the feud was running full steam last time N. was in London but seems to have died down).

Before publication, McGee was fine about the book, and even submitted to about 10 interviews (Momus did two) which AMc thought was pretty anal, but still complied in a fairly bemused way. The book was good and was commissioned by an editor at Virgin who was ex-Melody Maker (also commissioned Simon Price's Manics biog and Stuart Maconie's Blur thing), who has since left to do Internet stuff.

It's hard to write a good music book because of issues like (you guessed it) image maintenance on the part of artist and their 'people' (I use the term loosely in many cases). Often the 'people' care more about this than their artists do. Then, when a writer wants a publisher, in most cases they must deal with someone who is intimidated by any culture they aren't part of which equals condescending comments like, 'ooh, that's a bit trendy for us.'

Since winding down Creation, McGee has been running a club night in London called Radio 4. McGee sends a round-robin email to London music industry people about what's happening at the club this week, while issuing a postmortem on last week's events. It's terribly gushy and fanboy-like, thus open to ridicule and parody. Which is what happened - somebody wrote a wicked satire of it and posted it back to all the CC's on Alan's list. According to Cavanagh, McGee thinks he's the evil parodist and started to rubbish the book and Cavanagh after this incident. Cavanagh denies the charge and really had no reason to be snotty to Alan, so I take him at his word.

Like most boyrocker feuds, this one is highly silly and one-sided. Check out the Cavanagh if you can, it's fine. And Paolo Hewitt? He's more a plus-one than a writer; he lost it trying to be everyone's best friend.

If I may say, Hewitt lost it the moment he started calling himself 'The Cappucino Kid.' Jesus god in heaven! That's a moniker that makes you want to kill people slowly, with complete and utter malice.

Hey, Suze (nice to see *you* round here, grrls and insiders welcome!), all we need to make this thread perfect, 18th Century Grub Street skullduggery stylee, is for some kind soul to post the satire that stoked the ginger satyr's ire. Come on, give us a laugh!

i dunno about the email being gushy and fan boy like, I was on that list and i'm hardly a music mover and shaker..........................

momus, have you written any more marquis de sade albums, must admit, i stopped buying them in 1990. but had first snog to '...perverts...'

Grub Street writes: I'll try to find the postings Alan did (ginger satyr?!? Nicholas, I shudder to think of him spreading Ready Brek DNA in such a manner) but these hilarious missives are dated way back and on my old mail system.Grrrr.

Until then...

I prefer the Hewitt book.

SC

Yes, the sentences are much easier to read and understand. The other book was too big and used long words.

but how can you intellectualize bad behaviour? the cavanaugh book does that. intellectualizes, bad behaviour. equivalant to really studying jim morrrison poetry. boring boring boring. give me the music and not the words. no feeling. journalists out there today are lazy bastards and not half as exciting as classic music journalism.

journalists out there today are lazy bastards and not half as exciting as classic music journalism.

Aaaargh! Good Old Days alert! The problem is, the publications we all found so liberated in the past are now totally branded. You can't get anything published these days if it clashes with brand sensibility or the cashflow projections of the fashionably dressed but deeply conservative advertisers. Editors have given up a great deal of autonomy in exchange for an easy life of paying the bills on time, which involves streamlining their commissioning logic to mesh with the desires of the marketing departments of entertainment or consumer goods companies. If you go off-message, you are off the mailing list as they can always get some cheerleading schmuck to toe the line of the month if a more talented, conscientious writer is unwilling to, or pisses off someone with more power or capital (who is, in turn, terrified of annoying those 'above' them, a yucky cycle of art abuse). Frankly, I find this situation so exhausting that I've all but ceased writing about music, unless I'm asked nicely by an editor who gives me the required degree of autonomy.

It is very, very lazy to decry standards in the music press by blaming those who are in fact on a low rung of the ladder (to marketing types, anyway) who want to write well in the manner of those who have inspired them, about interesting things, or want to express themselves more fully in a climate of corporate censorship. To write off *all* today's popcult scribes as media muppets without letting on about an awareness that all might not be rosy behind the scenes is terribly myopic.

Now, back to tonight's episode of Handbags at Dawn starring Al, Paolo and Dave.

tha'ts why i don't write for magazines. find it hard to whore myself out like that. think i would hate myself.

For self-hate in excelsis check out Jerry Thackray / Everett True's online journal on www.tangents.co.uk. A real insight into the futility and misery of a rock writer's life. I read it in the Organic Cafe in Tokyo and felt really humbled and grateful that I am not 'The Legend!'

*does so* Well, what do you know, my suppositions all those years ago were right -- he and Sarah Kestle in fact were an item. I clearly remember too much about early nineties MM than is healthy, as has been mentioned before.

The Everett True diary on Tangents is a very depressing read. He seems to spend most of his time grubbing about for work in the local papers and the dailies, going to see bands he doesn't care about and waiting for old music-press buddies to call him. This is all set against a backdrop of intense self-loathing, which from time-to-time switches into "I used to be somebody" bitterness. Not pleasant.

I just read the above as well. I never thought I'd say this, given that his manner in print used to be quite irritating, but I actually felt really sorry for the poor fux0r. Won't somebody give 'im a job?

x0x0

I read the book, and am supposed to be reviewing it for a semi-large metropolitan paper in the US. (SUPPOSED to - I've been dragging my feet so long on it, my opportunity's probably gone buh-bye.)

I'd have to agree with Tim's assessment - the beginning section (detailing the aftermath of punk rock & such) is quite interesting. The more McGee & Co. become entangled in the music biz, the less interesting the book becomes. By the time Oasis hits, it's a dull melange of A&R people and publicists and major label knobheads rolling in the dough.

It simply tells a story. The funny thing is, it's not really McGee's story. Cavanaugh writes it more like a Forrest Gump tale, where McGee is walking through history (in this case, the development of the current British music scene), and just HAPPENS to make millions of bucks and just HAPPENS to be smack-dab in the middle of it.

I've heard that Hewitt's book is more pandering & self-serving (as I'm guessing the rest of you have as well). Cavanaugh simply tells it like it is; the drug use (of which there is an abundance) gets treated with the same importance as the label signings.

Given that I'm from the US, Cavanaugh does tend to gush like a stuck pig about bands that didn't really amount to squat in the music circles I spin around in (i.e. House of Love, Weather Prophets). However, I definitely think it's a fine book about the UK indie scene. Just don't expect much about Alan McGee. And, personally, I'm very grateful that Oasis didn't show up for 400+ pages. Reading about the House of Love's drug issues is vastly more entertaining. And intelligible.

Cavanaugh does tend to gush like a stuck pig

ha ha, next time I see a stuck pig I'll ask it about UK 80s indie and see if it's opinions are embarrasingly uncritical/fanzine-esque.. that phrase has made my week - buoyed me right up again after the horrible trial of reading Everett True's journals

in fact, if Alastair Fitchett is reading this board, he should consider renaming Everett's diary as "the stuck pig journals"

and this forum....the stuck pig arses?

fitting...

Tangents is student nonsense run by a self important indie kid who is middle aged.Up it's own arse and totally self important.Garbage and that is me being kind...

Garbage and that is me being kind...

...kind of stupid? Cos tangents is actually kind of a fun read. For those who know how, anyway.

I read the Hewitt book, which was short, heavily padded out, and scrappy in the extreme, a while ago. At one point in the book someone, I think Alan McGee, picks up a ringing phone and says something like, "Hi, yeah, I'm doing an interview. Can I call you back?", and this gets transcribed word for word. It's probably most interesting for McGee's side of the story. I recently saw the Cavanagh book in the shop and thought, "Well, that's the one I should have bought" but it was too late. So the pre- emptive publishing of the former, if that was the intent, worked on me!

Is it me, or is it very hard for a Canadian citizen to get his hands on the Cavanagh book?

I read it, it was in in the U of T music library. One of Montreal's universities must have it.

aaargh, nothing at Concordia and McGill though there are some choice selections (Meltzer, Bangs) that might hold me over for awhile.

Just saw this the other day on creation-records.com
http://www.creation-records.com/images/creation_montage.jpg

Heh. When I first got the internet connection, back in the late sixties (i think), that picture was one of the first things I saw. And it only took 40 minutes to download...

I hope his mother never sees that. The Shame.