"I bought far too many Biff Bang Pow and Jasmine Minks records for my own good health!"

Of course I'd like to say that the first Creation single that I bought was by Revolving Paint Dream or The X-Men but to be truthful it was "Upside Down", like many other people. By the end of that week my speakers (and maybe more) were blown. A love affair with both the Mary Chain and Creation had begun (to the point of ranting down the phone at the producer of The Old Grey Whistle Test when the "Never Understand" video was out-voted by a Talking Heads single on one of the shows). I scrambled my way back through the nascent Creation catalogue and managed to fill most of the gaps.

I bought far too many Biff Bang Pow and Jasmine Minks records for my own good health, but my obsession with all things Creation (an obsession that had only been previously matched by that for all things Two Tone) did thankfully lead me to be the first person in Oxford to own the debut House Of Love single. I know this for a fact because at this time I was working at Our Price (with Steve Queralt) as the singles buyer and ours was the only shop in town with a copy, which of course never even made it into the racks.

The Creation obsession was now starting to become a long-term relationship and Steve and I took every opportunity to go and see any Creation related band in Oxford, London or Reading. Primal Scream at St Paul's Arts Centre in Oxford, both the House Of Love and My Bloody Valentine at the After Dark Club in Reading, the Doing It For The Kids all-dayer at the T&C (where someone had the temerity to say to me about the House Of Love, "It's just 'The Back Of Love' all over again" - bastard). I had finally managed to convince Steve that this was a healthy pastime after (a pre-Creation) My Bloody Valentine had played at a tiny pub in Oxford in 1987 and it had left us both gob-smacked. One of their very few gigs as a 5-piece as it happens - just after Belinda had joined and just before David left. Looking back on it, that night was probably in many ways the first formative event for what was to become Ride - but that's another story.

Snub TV seemed to feature something Creation-like every week and even a small profile of McGee himself on one of the shows. The Valentines and House Of Love gigs were in bigger and bigger venues (one of my best gigs ever was My Bloody Valentine supporting the Pixies at the T&C) and then came the double whammy of "Christine" and "You Made Me Realise". Two of the best records that I've ever heard. Of course there was a load of crap along the way but even Biff Bang Pow made some good records and they always came in wonderful record sleeves."