Guide to British Music of the 1960s

February 2000

CD Review

The Creation- Making Time / Biff Bang Pow

Making Time

Biff Bang Pow

• About Making Time

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A personal perspective is that my first knowledge of The Creation, was like for many others, the inside sleeve of The Jam's All Mod Cons. I investigated at the time but there was nothing available by the Creation except at high prices. I thought I'd never hear what they sounded like.

Jump forward to 1983, roughly, and I was a second year student in London. A regular Saturday afternoon haunt was the record shops of the West End. There, just off Carnaby Street, I found a small secondhand record shop. Don't look for it, it's not there anymore. Imagine my surprise when I saw a vinyl copy of a Creation album on Planet Records called If I Stay Too Long. Clearly attracted by the cover which was along the lines of Disraeli Gears or 5000 Spirits or the Layers of The Onion with its swirling Paisley patterns, I looked at the track listing. The names of the songs meant little at the time although I did recognise Painter Man. £6 was a lot of money to me in those days and so I thought it wise to listen to a track first. It only took three or four seconds of Making Time before I rushing off to the nearest cashpoint.

Jump forward less than a year and I was living in Germany. Again while busying myself around the local record shops I came across the Creation. the band had been bigger in Germany than at home and some compilations LPs of Creation material had just been released. This gave me more or less the complete collection. A release of tracks by the Mark Four with some Creation material completed the set.

Imagine my surprise when, in the early 1990s, the band reformed. What's more, they were playing the Mean Fiddler in Harlseden, just a few miles from where I was then living. Now there is a "new" CD, a live CD (with myself in the crowd) and all the original 1960s material is available on CD.

The pair of CDs brings together all the tracks recorded in the 1960s along with extra mixes such as stereo and mono and some live tracks. The latter are taken from the German TV show Beat Beat Beat. These have been shown on VH-1 from time to time. Three feature the original line-up with Making Time, That's How Strong My Love Is and I'm a Man. The other two are Painter Man and Try and Stop Me with Bob Garner on lead vocals and Kim Gardner (previously of the Birds) on bass. 

Making Time and Painter Man are the outstanding tracks and the two which were hits, albeit minor, in the UK. They feature Eddie Phillips using the violin bow on his guitar, a feat later popularised by a certain Jimmy Page.

The majority of songs are Creation originals although there are a number of standards such as I'm a Man, Bony Maronie, Cool Jerk, Like a Rolling Stone and Hey Joe. It is the originals that stand out, not just the two UK hits but also Biff Bang Pow and Midway Down. The latter was after Eddie Phillips had left the band and a new guitarist Ronnie Wood joined to team up with his former Birds partner Kim Gardner.

If you have never heard the Creation, this is your entry point, If you do know them then this collection will give you the complete set, or almost. After all, Alan McGee named his record label after them and his band, Biff Bang Pow, after one of the b-sides.

Essential Tracks:

• Making Time

• Painter Man

• Biff Bang Pow

Track Listing:

1. Making Time
2. Try and Stop Me
3. How Does It Feel To Feel
4. Tom Tom
5. Nightmares
6. If I Stay Too Long
7. How Does It Feel To Feel
8. For All That I Am
9. Uncle Bert
10. Cool Jerk
11. Bony Moronie
12. Ostrich Man
13. I Am The Walker
14. For All That I Am
15. Nightmares
16. How Does It Feel To Feel
17. Instrumental
18. I'm A Man
19. That's How Strong My Love Is
20. Making Time

Biff Bang Pow

1. Biff Bang Pow
2. Painter Man
3. Life Is Just Beginning
4. Through My Eyes
5. Midway Down
6. The Girls Are Naked
7. Can I Join Your Band?
8. Sweet Helen
9. Hey Joe
10. Like A Rolling Stone
11. Biff Bang Pow
12. Painter Man
13. Can I Join Your Band?
14. Midway Down
15. Life Is Just Beginning
16. Painter Man
17. Try And Stop Me