IT'S ONLY ROCK N'ROLL (CREATION STORIES)
Whenever he is touting a new band whether it is the Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine or Primal Scream, the Glaswegian boasts they're "gonna be bigger than U2".
McGee would, of course, go on to handle an act that would be as big as U2 - at least in the UK - without achieving the longevity.
Oasis reigned supreme in the mid to late 1990s in their homeland, only to experience a creative slump and spectacularly self-combust in 2009.
McGee was, however, a key and very high profile figure during their rise - much like Malcolm McLaren's prominence during the rise of the Sex Pistols.
Given the success of his indie record label, it is inevitable that the Scotsman would be the subject of a movie in the mould of the Tony Wilson and Terri Hooley biopics '24 Hour Party People' and 'Good Vibrations'.
Directed by the actor Nick Moran of 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' fame, 'Creation Stories' is a suitably gobby account of McGee's life.
Executive produced by Danny Boyle and with a screenplay by Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanaugh, there's more than a whiff of 'Trainspotting' about it as Moran's movie hurtles through a colourful tale of sex and drugs and rock n'roll.
However it does all this with buckets full of charm.
'Trainspotting' alumnus Ewen Bremner plays McGee in a film that frames his life story around a series of chats with Suki Waterhouse's music journalist Gemma in LA and later London.
Moran, Welsh and Cavanaugh chart McGee's tough upbringing in a working class home in Glasgow, his love of rock music and his flair for entrepreneurship.
Squeezing additional income out of newspaper sales to buy records, Leo Flanagan's younger Alan befriends Ciaran Lawless' younger version of Bobby Gillespie who will go on to front Primal Scream.
McGee graduates from posing as Bowie in his bedroom and strumming a tennis racket to playing in a punk band, the Drains with Gillespie and Andrew Innes after the epiphany of watching the Sex Pistols for the first time.
He consistently clashes with Richard Jobson's bullying father John who hilariously lectures him about dressing ridiculously like "those Sexy Pistols" while wearing a Freemason's apron.
John, however, occasionally beats his son.
Luckily, McGee's mum Barbara, played by Siobhan Redmond, is supportive of his dreams, giving him some money to head to London and seek fame and fortune in the music industry.
Heading to the British capital with his girlfriend Seana Kerslake's Yvonne eventually joining him, Bremner's McGee initially lives in a dingy squat and works for British Rail.
However he doesn't let this grind his dreams down and he plays pub gigs with a new band, The Laughing Apple in a city that has moved on musically from punk and New Wave to the New Romantics.
When a gig is hijacked by an eccentric band known as The Television Personalities, McGee moves into management setting up Creation Records with Thomas Turgooose's Dick Green and Michael Socha's Joe Foster.
Discovering the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine, Creation becomes a credible indie music label but occasionally he has to keep the bailiffs away from its door.
McGee embraces shoegaze, indie, dance and eventually Britpop and is overjoyed when his old mate Joseph Marshall's Bobby Gillespie and his band Primal Scream sign for the label and create the classic album 'Screamadelica'.
His second epiphany occurs on a visit home to Glasgow and a trip with his sister, Rori Hawthorn's Laura to the legendary venue, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut.
On their arrival, he sees a band tussling with Jason Flemyng's owner but when Leo Harvey Elledge and James McClelland's Liam and Noel Gallagher and their band take to the stage, McGee is blown away by the strength of their performance and their songs.
He snaps up Oasis for the label and before long 'Definitely Maybe' rockets up the charts on the back of hits like 'Rock n'Roll Star,' 'Supersonic' and 'Live Forever'.
The next album 'What's the Story (Morning Glory)?' is even bigger, spawning the title track and also 'Wonderwall,' 'Don't Look Back In Anger' and 'Roll With It'.
Moran's film follows familiar rock n'roll story arcs - the nerdy obsession with music, the heady dreams, the adrenaline rush of success, the hedonism that ensues and the inevitable crash as a life of drink and drugs starts to take its toll on McGee's body and his sanity.
But rather than lecture its audience on the dangers of cocaine, ecstasy and too much booze, Cavanaugh and Welsh's screenplay refuses to downplay its highs.
The writers unapologetically accentuate the rollercoaster nature of McGee's life and Welsh's nose for a big brash statement shines through just as it did in 'Trainspotting' and 'Filth'.
"Pop culture reincarnates," McGee declares at one point.
"It never dies. Everything is going to be alright."
And he's right.
Moran tackles the film as a director with great enthusiasm, vivacity and joy and he is greatly assisted by Roberto Schaefer's slick cinematography and Emma Gafney's pulsating film editing.
Clearly comfortable in the presence of his fellow actors, he draws fun, yet focused performances from his cast.
Bremner is superb as McGee - hinting at what might have been had he taken on the role of Renton in 'Trainspotting'.
Bearing a resemblance to the music legend, he is great company and engaging throughout.
From Jobson and Redmond as his parents to Waterhouse, Kerslake, Turgoose, Socha, Marshall and James Hicks as a Creation Records colleague Murray, right down to Elledge, McClelland, Hawthorn and the cameos from Flemyng, Welsh, Saskia Reeves, Steven Berkoff as Aleister Crowley, Paul Kaye and Jason Isaacs as a sozzled English movie producer, every performance in the movie counts.
While 'Creation Stories' doesn't quite scale the heights of Danny Boyle's best work or Michael Winterbottom's or indeed '24 Hour Party People' or 'Good Vibrations,' it isn't that far off.
That's a pretty decent achievement.
It's just a pity thanks to 2021's lockdown, Moran's movie didn't really get the theatrical run it deserved, going instead to the small screen of Sky Cinema.
Even then, it's sheer cheek and vibrancy carries the day.
Amiable and full of feisty spirit, 'Creation Stories' is well worth a punt.
('Creation Stories' received its premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival on February 24, 2021 before being made to Sky Cinema and NowTV subscribers on March 20, 2021)
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