I am, admittedly, a record collector. This collecting generally takes the form of English record labels that have gone out of business, but maintain a “legendary” status and were headed by “personalities.” “Niche coffee table labels” in the parlance of Momus (Click Opera-IMomus). Two examples are Factory Records (1978-1992, boss/personality: Tony Wilson; sadly, Tony Wilson passed away this year) and Creation Records (1983-2000, boss/personality: Alan McGee). Initially, I primarily collected Factory, but since amassing much of the back catalog have moved onto Creation. My collecting (and that of many of my peers) has root in my teen years when I listened to alternative radio in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this time the alternative and college airwaves were saturated with Creation (My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Swervedriver and Teenage Fanclub) and Factory (Electronic, Happy Mondays, Joy Division, New Order and Revenge) bands. I had no choice but to like this stuff, really.
In recent years collecting Factory releases has been quite faddish with the rise of modern bands influenced by Joy Division and New Order and the general Factory aesthetic. This collector frenzy was further aided by the release of 24 Hour Party People in 2002. Since that time the general collecting market has cooled with the advent of Freak Folk. Collectors (the generation x variety) have turned their gazes to Buffy Saint-Marie, Roy Harper, Vashti Bunyan and Bert Jansch records and other folk and Americana releases. However, 2007 is set to usher in another phase of popular Factory collecting with the re-release of the Joy Division back catalog and the release of Control (awesome, sad).
One label that doesn’t seem to have the same reputation as Factory, but is still very, very cool is Creation Records. The storied history of Creation is well known (Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, etc.), but the furthest reaches of the catalog are not. Creation collectors are fetishistic, but not with the devotion of Factory collectors. For this reason alone it is easier to collect Creation releases. Second hand Factory releases have become quite expensive despite many of them being amassed onto compilation CDs (see all the anthologies and compilations by the great record label LTM). Some of the Creation bands have had retrospective CDs and double CDs (Revola and Sanctuary) released but generally the original releases are available in affordable second hand shops and mail order distributors.
Some of the differences between the labels:
* Creation lasted longer than Factory meaning that there is more product to collect (This also means that many of the releases are not as good. More doesn’t always mean better. The low quality releases-for both labels-are pretty interesting, though!).
* Creation covered a period of activity necessarily neglected by Factory (but covered by Factory Too): 1992-2000. In a way, Creation filled the void left by Factory, releasing shoe gaze and Britpop records, the next logical step(s) (sometimes contemporaneous, as well) after the Happy Mondays, Madchester and acid house.
* Creation didn’t have the same cataloging system as Factory, meaning that Factory has many cool items (pins, etc.) within the discography that are not actual musical releases. While this makes the Factory catalog quite interesting it means that finding these anomalies are problematic and pricey.
So new collector, before you go crazy and spend all your hard earned dough on Factory singles, consider visiting your local record store or online retailer for some Creation swag. My plan is to slowly review some of the more unique Creation releases. That being said, some of the stuff I care about are pretty well known. Nonetheless…
Jesus and Mary Chain-Upside Down/Vegetable Man 7” (CRE 012)
And with this release JAMC were unleashed upon the world. After this 7” the band were to relocate to a major. However, this slab of sonic pop-noise nihilism set the template by which future generations of music would be judged and the blueprint by which Creation would operate for the next half decade. “Upside Down” has been included on many JAMC comps, so the real catch here is the cover of Syd Barrett’s “Vegetable Man”. The Barrett cover is propulsive and buried under layers and layers of feedback. Wonderful. This record has been repressed many times, but is still hard to find for less than $30.00.
