“Eddie Phillips is a combination of Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend.”
– Shel Talmy (producer of The Who, The Kinks, and The Creation)
Alan McGee was such a big fan of The Creation that he named his record label after the band, and named his own band after one of their songs – Biff Bang Pow. The Creation was formed in 1966 from beat combo The Mark Four, and was quickly signed to a production deal with Shel Talmy, The Who’s producer. The first release was the urgent “Making Time”, which featured guitarist Eddie Phillips playing his guitar with a violin bow, two years before Jimmy Page started doing so. Whilst very popular in Germany, UK success largely eluded the band, and after a number of non-charting singles and line-up changes (including Ron Wood), the band broke up in 1968 without ever having released an album. Bizarrely, Boney M had a huge hit in 1979 with the band’s composition “Painter Man”.
Phillips and lead vocalist Kenny Pickett recorded an album in 1987 that remained unreleased until 2004, and in 1995, following reunion concerts at Harlesden’s Mean Fiddler, Alan McGee and Joe Foster managed to persuade the original line-up to record a new album, for release on Creation Records.