Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Creation Records


One of my nearly ran bands for Piley and I's Sound-a-Like podcast were The Creation. An outfit of heavy legacy, but little credit or recognition (excepting revisionists and retro-ologists).

Primarily it's Creationist fret-fiddler Eddie Philips who's due for the retrospective nods and tips of the titfer. The first guitarist to experiment with violin style bow-ing techniques - a trick later nicked by Jimmy Page to scrape unearthly squeaks and squeals  from his Les Paul. Factor in Eddie's invite to join The 'Orrible 'Oo as a second guitarist, that Ron Wood briefly served as a Creation member, the Sex Pistols covering the band's Through My Eyes and you've got something of a glowing CV by any standard.

So what in the name of Boney M has all this got to do with sound-a-likes they chorused? Well, to my old ears The Creation's How Does It Feel sounds entirely like the type of heavy-level stomper reformed and reformatted by Oasis as a template tune for their signature sound.

The Creation - How Does It Feel



And in a mobius style movement of music trivia: who were Oasis spotted and signed by? Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records. A label named after - The Creation...

Bow Selector - Eddie can be caught having a fiddle on a tune covered by Boney M?!?

14 comments:

Cocktails said...

Well Oasis were never the most original band ever were they!

And to make matters even more 'creation-y', Ride did a cover of 'How Does it Feel' on their Carnival of Light LP. It's not that great either.

Mondo said...

Yes have heard it - very thin dirge (if that's possible). The US release of How Does it Feel had even more grind and feedback. Great tune for playing guitar to though

Mondo said...

PS is it me, or is there a touch of Johnny Marr about the boy Philips in that pic'?

Cocktails said...

Yes he does! It's all in the hair.

Simon said...

Love The Creation. They really don't sound like any of the other 60s bands, it's such a massive sound on How Does It Feel, especially those drums.

Mondo said...

Great do shorter fringe and longer bangs ~ I may have to lift that look.

It's a heavy, heavy monster sound Simon. Also The Action and The Attack for more vintage winners

Piley said...

yeah, like it! Certainly more than a bit of Oasis there... was there ANY originality with them??! Creation + Slade + Beatles = ?

P

Paul Messis said...

The Creation were a great British group, everyone should check them out when they were The Mark Four.

I personally am not into their latter stuff.

However I'd rank them as a great group of the time alongside groups such as The Sorrows and The Birds.

Mondo said...

I don't know The Sorrows or Birds (isn't there a Ron Wood connection there, though) Paul, where would you recommend starting?

P grab this all the Creationism you need in one bundle

John Medd said...

Finally got round to watching Anvil. Even if you're not overly fond of the genre, I can't recommend it highly enough. Their shy and retiring front man, Lips, uses something else to play his gee-tar.

Swiss Adam said...

Great song, by a good band. Featured this one myself at bagging Area a while back. That Ride cover version's poor, agreed. And you're right about his haircut. V cool.

Mondo said...

It's surely not his ol' fella *peeps through fingers*. Phew! Couldn't he just use a whammy bar for extra vibrato?

And super cool guitar to Adam, Gibson ES 335 by the look

Paul Messis said...

WOah... You haven't heard The Sorrows?... man go on ebay NOW.

Buy their LP 'take a heart' it's certainly one of the best Lp's in the British 'Mod' Genre.

The Birds, yep you're correct, Ronnie Wood's first group, the Birds are class too, considering they were from the area that I too grew up (West Drayton) ... there is a great CD featuring all their recorded output... however your best bet is to hit Youtube and start listening to both bands.

I think Ronnie Wood briefly played with The Creation, although am unsure if there is any recorded output whilst he was in the group.

Mondo said...

On it now Paul, I'll dig about youtube too. I'd also add to the list of should've been bigger The Knickerbockers and The Favourite Sons