Creation Myth

This February marks the return of the highly acclaimed Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, an eleven day event showcasing the best of Irish and international cinema. With this year’s line-up including Antonia Capuano’s challenging Dark Love, a film about both a victim and perpetrator attempting to deal with the consequences of rape; Yony Leyseyer’s intriguing documentary of the bedevilling libertine beat poet William S. Burroughs, and Irish writer and director Oonagh Kearney’s latest feature The Christening, JDIFF’s programme of 130 films has something to satisfy every movie lover’s taste. And if this taste happens to be slightly off the beaten track, Jameson’s Cult Film Club is ready to keep you obsessives happy. Held in locations relevant to the movies, the Cult Film screening uses live theatre, props and staging to help create an electric atmosphere. This year’s chosen cult classic is everyone’s favourite mind-boggler The Usual Suspects, and don’t be scared, but Keyser Söze himself will even be in attendance. (You’ll be safe – just don’t tell him he talks too much.)

Among the documentaries chosen for the festival is Upside Down, Danny O’Connor’s revealing examination of Creation Records. Headed by the infamous Alan McGee, Creation was one of the most influential record companies of the ‘80s and ‘90s, signing such acts as Oasis, Super Furry Animals, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and many more. But despite the big rock ‘n roll hitters involved, director Danny O’Connor insists that Upside Down is not just a film about music, but the characters behind it.
“You’ve got the story of Alan McGee and Bobby Gillespie, who went to school together, one becomes this Mr. Label Svengali Guru character, and the other becomes this pretty significant rock star, and yet they were both completely interdependent,” O’Connor explains. “So the film starts and ends with them, and really it’s a story about friendship, about them falling in and falling out and their relationship.”
A relationship somewhat more dramatic than most, given the host of infamous rebels Creation associated with. With larger-than-life characters such as the Gallagher brothers taking centre-stage, O’Connor is adamant that it was these personalities that made Creation “rock ‘n roll to the core.”
“The music aside, the thing I absolutely loved about Creation was the attitude. It was very much about the swagger. And swagger is an ever-disappearing commodity, especially in the increasingly corporate age of music. The thing I really like about these people is that they are so independent. And I think anyone, especially people who read Hot Press or listen to Creation or watch my film, hold up independence as such an important thing. But ultimately, independence became ‘indie’, and indie seemed to have shitloads of apologies attached to it – invariably it seemed to wear a fucking cardigan. And that pissed me off! So the attitude attracted me, and once I got stuck in I quickly realised that this was either going to put me in the loony bin or get me out of the loony bin! It took four years to make for God’s sake – that’s a World Cup!”
Centred entirely around interviews with Alan McGee, Noel Gallagher and Creation’s other big-hitters, Upside Down is unique in its lack of narration, which allows the typically Glaswegian candour of the interviewees to shine through as the debauched lifestyles of the artists are completely laid bare, in all their rock ‘n roll glory.
“It’s an Irish-Scots thing, isn’t it? You’re either in or you’re not in. It’s either full on or fuck off! And the unique thing about Creation is that everyone’s still alive – fucking ironic given their lifestyle, but they’re all still around, so everyone said ‘Let’s do it.’ I’d be lying if I said I set out with a storyline, because I didn’t at all. I knew I wanted it to appeal to people who don’t like music. I wanted it to be a documentary about fucked up men, and my God they gave me shitloads of material! Absolutely everyone was incredibly candid. The word ‘apology’ isn’t in their vocab, there’s just candid, straight-forward honesty. They just say “Yeah, I did this, I was freebasing” or whatever, and Alan talks about himself at the height of his complete breakdown. He talks about being taken off planes by paramedics and says: ‘I genuinely thought I was up there with Shakespeare and Beethoven, I was delusional.’ It’s actually very moving.”
Apart from being a constantly compelling insight into the lifestyle of Creation, Upside Down also acts as a piece of visual art itself, with its unique mix of archive material, vintage 35mm camera footage and film noir palette making it look unlike any other music documentary.
“I wanted it to be iconic,” admits O’Connor. “I didn’t want to let the side down – all these people have made this amazing music, so if I didn’t make a film that looked cool as fuck I’d be embarrassed!”

JDIFF runs from February 17 to 27 in cinemas and venues across Dublin, with Upside Down playing in Cineworld on February 24. For more details see www.jdiff.com.