As the end of 1994 was approaching, Creation commercially had experienced it’s most successful year to date. On top of the celebrations to mark the labels tenth anniversary, Oasis had also given the label its first No.1 album and their latest single was currently at No.3 in the national charts. The year had also seen Primal Scream, Sugar and Ride deliver top ten albums whilst The Boo Radleys had just recorded the track which would dominate the airwaves of the following year.

International Guardians of Rock ‘N’ Roll was a 10 track cassette sent to subscribers of the label’s mailing list in December 1994. In the first half of the 90’s a mailing list meant postcards being sent via the post, the first Creation website was about to be launched but we were still a few years away from the dot-com boom and downloading via the net was unheard of.

What this compilation shows is the other side of Creation that is forgotten about from 1994. Much has been written about the Gallagher’s, when people talk about Creation during this era it’s always about record sales and chart positions but there was still some great music being released.

The tunes that stood out for me were the inclusion of the first track we heard from Slowdive’s third album along with the opening number from Adorable’s second and final album.

Sadly by now Adorable had not only been dropped by Creation but they’d also split up, whilst Slowdive only had a matter of weeks left before they would follow the same course of action. The demise of both bands went unmentioned in the music press. Velvet Crush were to only release one more single before departing the label as 1995 saw the label grow a long way from its indie roots of the previous decade. They would soon release the biggest selling album of the decade in 1995 and things would never be the same.

Below you can listen to most of the tracks from the cassette along with the sleeve notes to fully capture the spirit of the compilation.