The Creation: Two Minutes of Bow-and-Fuzz Genius

The first time you hear the guitar in "Making Time," it doesn't sound like a guitar. It sounds like something being tortured in a good way. That is Eddie Phillips drawing a violin bow across the strings, and it is the single most interesting thing about a band that only had about two years to be interesting.

📋 At a Glance

• Style: Mod rock / psychedelic pop
• Years active: 1966–1968
• Origin: London, England
• Core lineup: Eddie Phillips (guitar), Kenny Pickett (vocals), Bob Garner (bass), Jack Jones (drums)
• Key era: 1966–1967
• Label: Planet, Polydor

📖 The Short Version

The Creation were a mod band from London who released two enduring singles, broke up before the decade turned, and spent the rest of their existence being rediscovered by soundtrack supervisors and collectors. Their sound was built on Phillips's bowed guitar, Pickett's snarl, and a rhythm section that played every song like it might be their last. They never made a great album, but their best moments are as sharp as any mod-era artifact.

⚖️ The Case Against Them

The catalogue is tiny and uneven. The 1967 album is padded with B-sides and covers that don't match the quality of the singles. Later reunion albums exist, but they lack the original lineup's tension and feel like a tribute act to their own youth. The band is essentially a two-song legacy, and those two songs are very short.

🎻 The Bow and the Clock

The Creation's paradox is that their most famous gimmick—the bowed guitar—was genuinely innovative, but it also became a crutch. Phillips could play conventionally, but the bow became the story. Meanwhile, the band was running out of time. The mod scene was fading, psychedelia was arriving, and the Creation never quite figured out how to stretch a sound into a full album. Their best work feels like a sprint, not a marathon.

The Guitar That Squealed

Phillips's bowed guitar is the obvious entry point. He used a violin bow on the strings, creating a sustained, screeching tone that predated Jimmy Page's similar experiments by years. On "Making Time," it cuts through the mix like a siren. On slower tracks, it drones. The rest of the band played with a mod's discipline: tight drums, busy bass, and Pickett's vocals that shifted from a sneer to a croon. The production on the singles is dry and immediate, leaving no room for mistakes.

The Other Side

When the bow wasn't the focus, the Creation could write straightforward mod-pop with a harder edge. "Painter Man" is built on a fuzzed-out riff and a call-and-response chorus. "Biff Bang Pow" uses fuzz guitar and a simple, almost childlike melody. "How Does It Feel to Feel" shows them trying on orchestrated psychedelia, complete with strings and a softer vocal. It's not as distinctive as the singles, but it proves the band had range beyond the gimmick.

🎯 Why They Stick Around

The Creation matter because "Making Time" is a perfect two-minute statement of intent—aggressive, weird, and catchy. The bow technique was a genuine innovation that few other rock guitarists attempted. The song's use in Wes Anderson's Rushmore introduced it to a new generation. Meanwhile, "Painter Man" became a hit twice: once for the Creation and again for Boney M, whose disco version is a completely different animal. The original band left behind a small but potent body of work that still sounds like nothing else from its era.

⏳ Two Minutes Left

The Creation never made a masterpiece. They made two singles that sound like a band trying to break through a wall, and then they were gone. But that sound—the bow scraping, the drums hitting hard, the singer half-shouting—is still strange. It doesn't belong to any decade. It just belongs to them.

🎧 Essential Tracks

Making Time

The definitive Creation track. The bowed guitar intro is the band's signature sound, and the rest of the song is a tight mod-rock stomp with a sneering vocal and a drum break that hits like a punch.

Listen: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube

Painter Man

Their biggest hit, built on a fuzzed-out riff and a call-and-response chorus. Shows the band could write a pop song without relying on the bow gimmick.

Listen: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube

Biff Bang Pow 1967 - We Are Paintermen

A fuzz-guitar driven track with a childlike melody and a proto-punk energy. Demonstrates the band's ability to balance aggression with pop sensibility.

Listen: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube

How Does It Feel to Feel 1967 - We Are Paintermen

Orchestrated psychedelia with strings and a softer vocal. Shows the band attempting to expand their sound beyond the mod template, even if the result is less distinctive.

Listen: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube

Try and Stop Me

A straight R&B stomp with a driving bassline and a harmonica solo. Captures the band's earlier, more conventional mod sound before the bow became the focus.

Listen: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube

📚 Sources

The Creation (band) Wikipedia

Discography MusicBrainz

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