BIFF BANG POW

Although he is best known as the founder of Creation Records, one of the '90s' richest stables of British alternative rock talent, Alan McGee also headed his own band, Biff Bang Pow!, from the mid-'80s through the early '90s. Named for a song by the '60s mod/art-pop group the Creation, Biff Bang Pow! was often compared to the Television Personalities, with obvious '60s touchstones including the Who, the Hollies and the Kinks. Biff Bang Pow!'s lineup has fluctuated over the years; McGee's Creation Records partner Dick Green was often involved, and other members included Times guitarist Edward Ball and Primal Scream guitarist Andrew Innes. The group was formed in 1981 and issued their debut single, "Fifty Years of Fun," in 1984, the fourth release on McGee's Creation imprint; the LP Pass the Paintbrush, Honey followed in 1985. The chief source of many Television Personalities comparisons, it featured both tight,'60s revivalist pop songs and noisy, psychedelic guitar freakouts. The band's next full-length album, 1987's The Girl Who Runs the Beat Hotel, showed an improvement in songwriting and a greater interest in '60s art-pop. Oblivion was issued later in the year, and it continued to polish the band's sound and style, concentrating on vocal harmonies more than ever. 1988's Love Is Forever put acoustic guitars to greater use, producing a sunny folk-rock sound on some tracks while sticking with loud electric rock on others. 1989 produced a collection of alternate versions, demos, and outtakes misleadingly entitled The Acid House Album; the group returned with new material in 1990 on Songs for the Sad-Eyed Girl, a heavily acoustic album. 1991's Me (More Songs for the Sad Eyed Girl) continued in the melancholy, acoustic direction of its predecessor, with McGee sounding almost like a solo artist on many tracks. Another collection of outtakes, The Debasement Tapes, appeared in 1992, a year after the British retrospective L'amour, Demure, Stenhousemuir.

As Creation's roster grew, McGee found himself with acclaimed and commercially viable bands to publicize, and so the Biff Bang Pow! project gradually fell by the wayside; Me proved to be the group's final album. Creation initially made its name as a shoegazing imprint, featuring such bands as the Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, House of Love, and the Boo Radleys, as well as Primal Scream; the label was put into dire financial straits by MBV's magnum opus Loveless, a problem later solved by the emergence of Oasis as arguably Britain's most popular band. The Boo Radleys' shift toward Britpop provided an additional shot in the arm. Meanwhile, a Biff Bang Pow! best-of collection was finally issued in America in 1994 under the title Bertula Pop.

.

.