Labelled with love

When I get asked why I wanted to start Creeping Bent, my usual glib answer is ''boredom''. This is indeed true, but there were more positive reasons. My fascination with independent labels began 20 years ago, when Britain was otherwise in grey industrial decline. Rough Trade had developed from a record store and distribution company into a fully-fledged independent label in some style, particularly with an early proto-electronic single by Cabaret Voltaire called Nag Nag Nag.

The fact that the Cabs were from Sheffield somehow seemed as political as their primitive synthesised fury. Other regional independent labels and groups imbued with year-zero attitude sprouted up across the country, creating great records like Transmission by Joy Division on Manchester's

Factory label; She is Beyond Good and Evil (The Pop Group, Bristol, Y); Treason (The Teardrop Explodes, Liverpool, Zoo); Ambition (Subway Sect, Rough Trade). In Scotland, for the first time ever, records were being released that were truly goosing the gander. Blue Boy by the mercurial Orange Juice on Glasgow's iconoclastic Postcard Records and Lubricate Your Living Room by the Fire Engines on Edinburgh's Fast Product organisation have probably never been bettered as mission statements. As a post-punk, angst-ridden 16-year-old existentialist in deepest, darkest Lanarkshire at the beginning of 1980, what more could a poor boy do but play in a rock 'n' roll band? Except the band I played in wasn't actually very rock 'n' roll at all, more a twee bunch with art school aspirations. We were called Article 58, and used to support groups like A Certain Ratio and Scars at places like The Bungalow Bar

in Paisley and Valentino's disco in Edinburgh. We released a 7in single produced by Postcard Records' Alan Horne and Malcolm Ross, toured England with Josef K - and then imploded in total apathy. That was that. Artistically, I'd peaked at 16.

I spent the next 10 years getting paid too much wedge working professionally in the music industry. My list of crimes included working as a roadie for Altered Images and Bourgie Bourgie; signing to a major record label in disco group Flesh (a misguided attempt at mating Chic with The Contortions); being signed to a major publishing deal, writing for the likes of Rose Royce and film soundtracks like Letter To Brezhnev; getting out of the disco and back on the dole with possibly Glasgow's most hated and inept group, The Jazzateers, and succumbing to more major label riches as a session musician whore.

Finally, I realised how sick and tired of the whole thing I'd become. I decided to spend my time fishing and playing chess, much more creative pursuits. Being an unpaid fan of pop was infinitely preferable to being a hired hand for sundry talentless egomaniacs. Then something strange happened. A German designer, Stefan Kassel, had started an independent record label in Hamburg, Marina Records. He asked me to produce and write for Marina. It was a joy. My enthusiasm suitably rekindled, I decided to take the plunge and start Creeping Bent.

And our public debut was a multi-media art event staged at Glasgow's Tramway Theatre: A Leap Into The Void (Bent 001) in homage to Yves Klein. Biblical rain and flooding soaked Glasgow; I was afloat as Mount Florida's Andy Warhol! Shortly afterwards, one of our first

singles, The Revolutionary Corps of Teenage Jesus's techno version of Suicide's Frankie Teardrop, was NME single of the week. Suicide's semi-legendary singer, Alan Vega, miraculously got in touch from New York, saying he wanted to join RevCorps and sign to Creeping Bent.

Our first London label showcase sold out. The NME's review of the gig said we were ''the coolest label ever''. One Bent band, The Secret Goldfish, along with its vocalist Katy McCullars, was invited to tour Hungary by the British Council. We were invited on TV to pontificate on the state of the nation, we even started selling loads of records. How-ever, the most exciting aspect of our increasing notoriety was the amount of support we were receiving from Radio 1's Mark Radcliffe and John Peel. While Radio Scotland's pereni-ally groovy Beat Patrol had been first to air Creeping Bent records, approval from a national institution like John Peel - one I grew up listening to - was a maximum groove. To date, Bent groups have recorded 12 sessions for his programme, and when Peel curated the 1998 Meltdown Festival from London's Royal Festival Hall,

he invited Creeping Bent to host an evening.

Recently, he invited The Nectarine No 9 to return to the RFH for a sold-out live Peel Session, broadcast on Radio 1. He's also been in touch about a special feature on Creeping Bent's fifth birthday and 50th release for his show.

If Creeping Bent has achieved anything over the past five years, it's in being artistically and

financially successful without making compromises.

Hopefully this will encourage others to organise themselves, dispelling the notion that you have to sign to a major label. It's extremely heartening to see Scottish groups and independent labels attaining success on their own terms, notably Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, and Glasgow dance label Soma.

When we recently relocated the Creeping Bent office to Glasgow's West End, I found lots of old press cuttings. Among them was the first Creeping Bent interview, in which I was asked what our musical influences were. I answered: ''Subway Sect, The Pop Group, Fire Engines, Suicide.'' Creeping Bent now works with the driving forces in these four groups, yet I'm even more excited by our new signings, three of whom (Element, Mongoose, Scientific Support Dept) can be found on our forthcoming Electronic Lullabies By Various Artists instrumental album.

n Bent Boutique/Chasing The Chimera is released on Monday (February 14). A double CD, it costs a frankly astonishing #3.99. Creeping Bent will celebrate five years of agitation at Glasgow's 13th Note, Clyde Street, tomorrow. Vic Godard, The Nectarine No 9, and The Bitter Springs all play live, kick-off 8pm. Tuesday's edition of The John Peel Show on Radio 1 will be a Creeping Bent special, featuring live half-hour sets from Speeder and Element.

The NME reviewed the gig and said that we were the coolest label ever