Upside Down: Creation Film

As documentary films go, Upside Down - the story of Creation records 17 year existence - was a sharp, confident, engaging and senses juddering re-telling of a familiar indie fable. The two hours flew by and enjoyably so. Footage of the Mary Chain, The Loft (yes, I know), TFC and, in particular, My Bloody Valentine was genuinely thrilling to see and hear in a big screen environment. Ex-Creation bands and talking heads were open, considered and likeable throughout (even a normally reticent Bobby Gillespie) and, of course, McGee was a reliable 'force of nature' presence.

Already, criticisms of the film seem to rest on what they've left out rather than what's on the screen. It would, of course, have been impossible to cover every Creation act in any detail, but there was a sense that this was the 'Shine Compilation' version of Creation's history - the big hitters, the big sellers, the ones we've heard to death from 'Destroy the Heart' to 'Loaded' through to 'Rock'n'Roll Star' and so on. As such, Upside Down felt one-sided, too eager to lionise the big successes at the expense of smaller detail, as if Creation was only measured by sales figures alone.

The film made great play of being a label of 'misfits and weirdos', but the label's eccentricity - namely its often erratic output and mind boggling gestures - were largely absent. No mention of Les Zarjaz, Mishka or Kevin Rowlands trannie covers album or, for that matter, tales of McGee playing Tom Petty down the phone at 4am in the morning or the whole Baby Amphetamine scam. Even in big stories, the credibility is in the detail.

As an alternative we had copious amount of drugs and booze stories. In case we didn't get the drift that Creation was, you know, a rock'n'roll label, a map of Britain was helpfully done using white powder. By all accounts pills and nose-bag substances did play a big part in the labels later years, but at times it felt like we were stuck with Lad mag, coke bloke bores. Mysteriously, though, no mention of how all this paved the way for 'Be Here Now' and, arguably, the downfall of the label's iconoclastic instincts.

Perhaps the most weary aspect of Upside Down is the realisation that Creation's world was rather small, despite their admirably big ambitions. The early years of the label was driven by a desire to act out great rock'n'roll stories and, to their credit, they created some of their own. But the fixation on pop culture and rock'n'roll alone meant Creation's imagination only existed within these boundaries. Whereas Rough Trade was informed by the squatland politics of the 1970s and Factory had Wilson's art aestheticism and mercurial intellect, Creation tended to stop at old photos and biogs of Brian Jones and Arthur Lee. Creation only led you to want to buy more records rather than seek out obscure films, novels or neglected art movements. John Harris cited this as a particular criticism of Britpop in his Last Party book and, with barely any representation of Creation's imaginative gestures, wind ups and daftness in the film, it could equally be applied here. Still, terrific soundtrack and, for McGee and Gillespie, that's what matters.