Listen free for 30 days
-
Creation Stories
- Riots, Raves and Running a Label
- Narrated by: Phil McKee
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Categories: Arts & Entertainment, Music
People who bought this also bought...
-
The Second Summer of Love
- How Dance Music Took Over the World
- By: Alon Shulman
- Narrated by: Alon Shulman
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1987, four friends from London - Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway and Johnny Walker - took a weeklong holiday to Ibiza. What they saw there and brought back home would give rise to a new global music and counterculture movement. As the '80s drew to their close, with Thatcherism holding the nation tight in its grip, something funny was happening right across the jungle of Britain's nightlife scene. People were dressing down, not up, to go to clubs. And they were dancing right through the night armed seemingly with only bottles of water.
-
-
Great Performance
- By Christopher on 17-05-20
-
The Hacienda
- How Not to Run a Club
- By: Peter Hook
- Narrated by: Peter Hook
- Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Peter Hook, as co-founder of Joy Division and New Order, has been shaping the course of popular music for 30 years. He provided the propulsive bass guitar melodies of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and the bestselling 12-inch single ever, 'Blue Monday' among many other songs.
-
-
Deadpan Funny
- By Steve K on 17-05-12
-
Set the Boy Free
- By: Johnny Marr
- Narrated by: Johnny Marr
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Johnny Marr was born in 1960s Manchester to Irish immigrant parents and knew from an early age that he would be a musician. Forming his first band at 13, Marr spent his teenage years on the council estates of Wythenshawe playing guitar, devouring pop culture and inventing his own musical style. It wasn't until the early '80s, when Marr turned up on the doorstep of a singer named Steven Patrick Morrissey, that both a unique songwriting partnership and the group recognised as one of the most iconic bands of all time were formed.
-
-
exactly as you would expect from Johnny Marr...
- By Craig C on 04-11-16
-
Record Play Pause
- Confessions of a Post-Punk Percussionist: The Joy Division Years
- By: Stephen Morris
- Narrated by: Stephen Morris
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before he was responsible for some of the most iconic drumming in popular music, Stephen Morris grew up in 1960s and '70s industrial Macclesfield, on a quiet road that led seemingly to nowhere. Far removed from the bright lights and manic energy of nearby Manchester, he felt stifled by suburbia and feared he might never escape. Then he joined Joy Division - while they were still known as Warsaw - a pioneer of the rousing post-punk sound that would revolutionise 20th-century rock.
-
-
Absolutely bloody fantastic
- By John Grandin on 06-09-20
-
Oasis
- The Truth - My Life as Oasis's Drummer
- By: Tony McCarroll
- Narrated by: Stephen Ballantyne
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1991, five wannabe Mancunian musicians came together and cracked the spark that ignited the explosion which became Oasis. The band went from obscurity to a global phenomenon in the space of a year, achieving world-wide recognition and selling over 70 million records. What started out as five young lads with a common dream of becoming rock stars eventually disintegrated into in-fighting, clashes of egos, and financial disputes.
-
-
Insightful
- By Jack on 29-09-16
-
Glastonbury 50
- The Official Story of Glastonbury Festival
- By: Emily Eavis, Michael Eavis
- Narrated by: Gemma Whelan, Jamael Westman, Lauren Laverne, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story begins in 1970. The day after Jimi Hendrix's death...dairy farmer Michael Eavis invites revellers to his field in Somerset to attend a 'Pop, Folk & Blues' festival. Tickets are £1 each, enticing more than a thousand customers with the promise of music, dance, poetry, theatre, lights and spontaneous entertainment - as well as free milk from his own Worthy Farm cows. Fast forward through five tumultuous decades, and the Eavises' vision now encompasses a gigantic 'city in the fields', with a total annual population nearing a quarter of a million.
-
-
Surprised how this book translated
- By Kiran on 03-11-20
-
The Second Summer of Love
- How Dance Music Took Over the World
- By: Alon Shulman
- Narrated by: Alon Shulman
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1987, four friends from London - Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway and Johnny Walker - took a weeklong holiday to Ibiza. What they saw there and brought back home would give rise to a new global music and counterculture movement. As the '80s drew to their close, with Thatcherism holding the nation tight in its grip, something funny was happening right across the jungle of Britain's nightlife scene. People were dressing down, not up, to go to clubs. And they were dancing right through the night armed seemingly with only bottles of water.
-
-
Great Performance
- By Christopher on 17-05-20
-
The Hacienda
- How Not to Run a Club
- By: Peter Hook
- Narrated by: Peter Hook
- Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Peter Hook, as co-founder of Joy Division and New Order, has been shaping the course of popular music for 30 years. He provided the propulsive bass guitar melodies of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and the bestselling 12-inch single ever, 'Blue Monday' among many other songs.
-
-
Deadpan Funny
- By Steve K on 17-05-12
-
Set the Boy Free
- By: Johnny Marr
- Narrated by: Johnny Marr
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Johnny Marr was born in 1960s Manchester to Irish immigrant parents and knew from an early age that he would be a musician. Forming his first band at 13, Marr spent his teenage years on the council estates of Wythenshawe playing guitar, devouring pop culture and inventing his own musical style. It wasn't until the early '80s, when Marr turned up on the doorstep of a singer named Steven Patrick Morrissey, that both a unique songwriting partnership and the group recognised as one of the most iconic bands of all time were formed.
-
-
exactly as you would expect from Johnny Marr...
- By Craig C on 04-11-16
-
Record Play Pause
- Confessions of a Post-Punk Percussionist: The Joy Division Years
- By: Stephen Morris
- Narrated by: Stephen Morris
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before he was responsible for some of the most iconic drumming in popular music, Stephen Morris grew up in 1960s and '70s industrial Macclesfield, on a quiet road that led seemingly to nowhere. Far removed from the bright lights and manic energy of nearby Manchester, he felt stifled by suburbia and feared he might never escape. Then he joined Joy Division - while they were still known as Warsaw - a pioneer of the rousing post-punk sound that would revolutionise 20th-century rock.
-
-
Absolutely bloody fantastic
- By John Grandin on 06-09-20
-
Oasis
- The Truth - My Life as Oasis's Drummer
- By: Tony McCarroll
- Narrated by: Stephen Ballantyne
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1991, five wannabe Mancunian musicians came together and cracked the spark that ignited the explosion which became Oasis. The band went from obscurity to a global phenomenon in the space of a year, achieving world-wide recognition and selling over 70 million records. What started out as five young lads with a common dream of becoming rock stars eventually disintegrated into in-fighting, clashes of egos, and financial disputes.
-
-
Insightful
- By Jack on 29-09-16
-
Glastonbury 50
- The Official Story of Glastonbury Festival
- By: Emily Eavis, Michael Eavis
- Narrated by: Gemma Whelan, Jamael Westman, Lauren Laverne, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story begins in 1970. The day after Jimi Hendrix's death...dairy farmer Michael Eavis invites revellers to his field in Somerset to attend a 'Pop, Folk & Blues' festival. Tickets are £1 each, enticing more than a thousand customers with the promise of music, dance, poetry, theatre, lights and spontaneous entertainment - as well as free milk from his own Worthy Farm cows. Fast forward through five tumultuous decades, and the Eavises' vision now encompasses a gigantic 'city in the fields', with a total annual population nearing a quarter of a million.
-
-
Surprised how this book translated
- By Kiran on 03-11-20
-
Liberation Through Hearing
- By: Richard Russell
- Narrated by: Richard Russell
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For almost 30 years as label boss, producer and talent conductor at XL Recordings, Richard Russell has discovered, shaped and nurtured the artists who have rewritten the musical dictionary of the 21st century, artists like The Prodigy, The White Stripes, Adele, M.I.A., Dizzee Rascal and Giggs. Growing up in north London in thrall to the raw energy of 80's US hip hop, Russell emerged as one part of rave outfit Kicks Like a Mule in 1991 at a moment when new technology enabled a truly punk aesthetic on the fledgling free party scene.
-
-
Inspiring!
- By Mr IMS on 01-07-20
-
The KLF
- Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds
- By: John Higgs
- Narrated by: John Higgs
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The strange tale of the death, life and legacy of the hugely successful band. They were the best-selling singles band in the world. They had awards, credibility, commercial success and creative freedom. Then they deleted their records, erased themselves from musical history and burnt their last million pounds in a boathouse on the Isle of Jura. And they couldn't say why.
-
-
This book Is worth listening to several times
- By Michelle S. on 09-04-18
-
Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn
- By: Brett Anderson
- Narrated by: Brett Anderson
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suede began by treading the familiar jobbing route of London's emerging new 1990s indie bands - gigs at ULU, the Camden Powerhaus and the Old Trout in Windsor - and the dispiriting experience of playing a set to an audience of one. But in these halcyon days, their potential was undeniable. Anderson's creative partnership with guitarist Bernard Butler exposed a unique and brilliant hybrid of lyric and sound; together they were a luminescent team - burning brightly and creating some of the era's most revered songs and albums.
-
-
an emotional rollercoaster
- By Liam_H on 24-11-20
-
Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division
- By: Peter Hook
- Narrated by: Peter Hook
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by the attitude and energy of punk, Peter Hook and school friend Bernard Sumner joined lead-singer and lyricist Ian Curtis and drummer Stephen Morris, and with some cobbled-together instruments, they created their own unique sound. In 1980 they had released two albums and were on the cusp of touring America when Ian Curtis committed suicide. In this no-holds-barred account, Peter Hook gives us the inside story of life with Joy Division. He talks with candour and reflection about Curtis's suicide and covers the band's friendships and fall-outs....
-
-
Superb!
- By simmering123 on 02-04-16
-
I Wanna Be Yours
- By: John Cooper Clarke
- Narrated by: John Cooper Clarke
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Cooper Clarke is a phenomenon: Poet Laureate of Punk, rock star, fashion icon, TV and radio presenter, social and cultural commentator, reluctant national treasure. At 5 feet 11 inches (116lb, 32in chest, 27in waist), in trademark suit jacket, skin-tight drainpipes and dark glasses, with jet-black back-combed hair and mouth full of gold teeth, he is instantly recognisable. As a writer his voice is equally unmistakable and his inimitable dry Salford drawl shines through the prose.
-
-
Fabulous!
- By Sue ONeil on 16-10-20
-
Acid for the Children
- By: Flea
- Narrated by: Flea
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The strange tale of a boy named Flea starts in Rye, NY. It was all very normal. But soon his parents divorced and his mother Patricia remarried a jazz musician. Flea's stepfather frequently invited musicians to his house for jam sessions which sparked Flea's interest in music. The family moved to Los Angeles, where Flea became fascinated with the trumpet, idolising musicians like Miles, Dizzy, and Louis....
-
-
amazing + beautiful
- By stephen on 31-05-20
-
The Story of the Streets
- By: Mike Skinner
- Narrated by: Mike Skinner
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this thoroughly modern memoir, the man the Guardian once dubbed "half Dostoevsky… half Samuel Pepys" tells a freewheeling, funny and fearlessly honest tale of Birmingham and London, ecstasy and epilepsy, Twitter-fear and Spectrum joysticks, spread betting and growing up. He writes of his musical inspirations, role models and rivals, the craft of song writing, and reflects on the successes and failures of the decade-long journey of The Streets.
-
-
A hard way to make an easy living
- By Sara on 12-07-12
-
Sing Backwards and Weep
- By: Mark Lanegan
- Narrated by: Mark Lanegan
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Mark Lanegan first arrived in Seattle in the mid-1980s, he was just 'an arrogant, self-loathing redneck waster seeking transformation through rock 'n' roll'. Little did he know that within less than a decade, he would rise to fame as the front man of the Screaming Trees, then fall from grace as a low-level crack dealer and a homeless heroin addict, all the while watching some of his closest friends rocket to the forefront of popular music.
-
-
Compelling and sad
- By Mr. S. Burgess on 16-05-20
-
Mr Pikes
- The Story Behind the Ibiza Legend
- By: Tony Pike, Matt Trollope
- Narrated by: Howard J Davey
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s not every day you come across an autobiography which starts out with learning how to overcome sexual abuse as a child, how to become an international playboy who built the most famous boutique hotel in the world, where people like Freddie Mercury, George Michael, Julio Iglesias to name a few, called a home away from home, add in the odd shipwreck or two and more than a few thousand sexual partners and misdemeanors along the way, and when your finished, you'll agree that this book is not just another great listen but its perhaps the greatest story every told.
-
-
Fantastic listen
- By Paul Walton on 16-09-19
-
How to Write One Song
- By: Jeff Tweedy
- Narrated by: Jeff Tweedy
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are few artistic acts more mysterious than writing a song. But what if a shift in perspective - and some practical guidance - could overcome that mystery? Anyone wanting to experience more creativity and mindfulness will be inspired to do just that after listening to How to Write One Song. Why one song? The difference between one song and many songs isn't a charming semantic trick - it's an important distinction that can simplify a notoriously confusing art form.
-
-
Truly Inspiring
- By Anonymous User on 30-11-20
-
Crossroads
- In Search of the Moments that Changed Music
- By: Mark Radcliffe
- Narrated by: Mark Radcliffe
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Standing at the crossroads - the Mississippi crossroads of Robert Johnson and the devil's infamous meeting - Mark Radcliffe found himself facing his own personal crunch point. Aged 60, he had just mourned the death of his father, only to be handed a diagnosis of mouth and throat cancer. This momentous time in his life, and being at the most famous junction in music history, led Radcliffe to think about the pivotal tracks in music and how the musicians who wrote and performed them.
-
-
Thoroughly enjoyable meandering saga
- By JJC on 03-01-20
-
Mister Good Times
- By: Norman Jay
- Narrated by: David Monteith
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mister Good Times is the enthralling story of a black kid growing up in a (largely white) working class world; of vivid, often violent experiences on the football terraces; of the emerging club scene growing out of a melting pot of styles; of how Jay, with his contemporaries, took the music of black America, gave it a distinctly London twist and used the marriage of styles to forge a hugely successful career as a trailblazing DJ and broadcaster, becoming an inspiration to a whole generation of dance music fans, black and white, without ever compromising his integrity.
-
-
Great view of an interesting time and person
- By Christopher on 12-05-20
Summary
Alan McGee's role in shaping British musical culture over the past 30 years is hard to overstate. As the founder of Creation Records, he brought us the bands that defined an era. A charismatic Glaswegian, who partied just as hard as any of the acts on his notoriously hedonistic label, he became an infamous character in the world of music.
In Creation Stories he tells his story in depth for the first time, from leaving school at 16 to setting up the Living Room club in London which showcased many emerging indie bands, from managing the Jesus and Mary Chain to cofounding Creation when he was only 23. His label brought us acts like My Bloody Valentine, House of Love, Ride and, of course, Primal Scream.
Embracing acid house, Alan, decamped to Manchester and hung out at the Hacienda, and took Creation into the big time with Screamadelica. His drug-induced breakdown, when it came, was dramatic. But as he climbed back to sobriety, he oversaw Oasis' rise to become one of the biggest bands in the world, Alan himself becoming one of the figureheads of Britpop.
Having sold the label to Sony to stave off bankruptcy, he became disenchanted with the increasingly corporate ethos and left in 1999. Since then he's continued to be an influential figure in the music industry, managing the Libertines and most recently setting up a new label, 359 Music, with Cherry Red.
What listeners say about Creation Stories
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jonathan
- 09-05-20
Quality
great listen. Alan found my favourite band. but until I listened to this i realised he done a lot lot more than that. what a man