Many know Alan McGee for his involvement with setting the music industry on its head along with his partner Dick Green (now founder of Wichita Records) with their label Creation Records. What many are not as familiar with are their contributions to music with the bands they were in.
Tonight we will be focusing on 2 hours of Alan and Dick's contribution to music with a tribute to "BIFF BANG POW"..."The REVOLVING PAINT DREAM"...and "The LAUGHING APPLE".
Glaswegian Alan McGee had previously been in the band Laughing Apple (along with Andrew Innes later of the Revolving Paint Dream, Primal Scream, Church of Raism, etc.) , who released 3 singles in 1981/82. After moving to London, McGee formed a new band, Biff Bang Pow!, taking their name from a song by one of his favourite bands, The Creation. The first release on Creation records, "73 in 83"" by The Legend! came with a flexi-disc featuring a split with The Pastels "I Wonder Why?" and Laughing Apple's "Wouldn't You", a song that would later appear on the first Biff Bang Pow! album.
The initial Biff Bang Pow! line-up was McGee on guitar and vocals, with Dick Green on guitar, Joe Foster (Television Personalities/Slaughter Joe) on bass, and Ken Popple on drums, later adding others like Ed Ball (Television Personalities/The Times).
Biff Bang Pow! — the music-making endeavor of Creation Records founder Alan McGee — was for a long time a touchstone for the influential label's definition and development, albeit one that never assumed the limelight or achieved any major hits. (Having named his label for the great '60s aggro-art-mod group, it was probably inevitable that the Glaswegian's band, which never used the Creation for specific musical cues, would take its moniker from one of that band's songs.) From the initial recordings, rife with brisk, neo-psychedelic garage pop, to the spare, acoustic laments at the end, Biff Bang Pow! ambled along, releasing a string of well-conceived and well-executed singles and albums that still sound fresh. (Ira Robbins-Trouser Press)
McGee's position as head of Creation Records perhaps meant that his band were never given a fair hearing by the music press, although they always maintained a loyal fanbase.
The Revolving Paint Dream was not only the most mysterious band on Creation Records' original roster back in 1984, but also one of the most inventive.
After a memorable psychedelia-tinged single, Flowers In The Sky/In The Afternoon, in February, the band disappeared for three years before a strange collection of what seemed like out-takes, OFF TO HEAVEN, reached the shelves in June 1987.
'60s-influenced psych-pop sat alongside weird, distorted soundscapes to create an album that lacked any overall identity but was stacked full with ideas.
It transpired that the band comprised Primal Scream's second guitarist Andrew Innes, Nico-like vocalist Christine Wanless (both present on several Biff Bang Pow! recordings) and Luke Hayes, with some involvement from label organizers Alan McGee and Richard Green , among other members from Creation Records' bands. (like Dave Musker - keyboard player with The Jasmine Minks & Television Personalities). (Taken from www.revolvingpaintdream.com/creation.htm)
Although Alan and Dicks contribution to music through their label Creation Records have certainly not gone unrecognized...unfortunately their own personal musical contributions have not been as recognized. So tonight on We're Gonna Be Timeless we are going to make sure they get the proper due they deserve!
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