The Creation (2) – Creation Theory

“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.
Compiled with the assistance of Eddie Phillips himself, this limited edition deluxe media book presents a chronological history of the band. The four CDs include all eight single sides by The Mark Four (and three live reunion recordings from 1985), all of The Creation’s legendary recordings for Shel Talmy, in both mono and brand new stereo mixes, the 1987 album and the Creation Records album, and some solo recordings by Eddie from 1990 and 2011.
The DVD features a lengthy new interview with Eddie, filmed in October 2016, five songs from The Creation’s two live appearances on the legendary German 60s TV show “Beat Beat Beat” (from the original tapes, three songs appear on DVD for the first time), and 21 songs from the band’s two reunion concerts at the Mean Fiddler in the 90s.
The book has been designed by Phil Smee and features exclusive photos and memorabilia from both his and Eddie’s collections, as well as a new extensive annotation by Alan Robinson."