Poptones targets Japan

Poptones: The Queen has invested in the company

Alan McGee, the man credited with discovering Oasis, has signed a deal with Sony to distribute acts on his Poptones label in Japan.

The entire Poptones catalogue will be sold in Japan under the terms of the licensing agreement.

McGee's record company signs new acts onto small contracts, a shift from the methods of big record companies who often tie bands down to six-album deals.

Alan McGee: He discovered Oasis and Primal Scream

The new label has attracted high-profile investors, including the Queen, who invested £50,000 in the company.

Alan McGee set up independent label Creation Records in the 1980s, signing up Oasis and Primal Scream.

Poptones works to sell music both over the net and through conventional record stores.

"We had tremendous success in Japan with Creation, particularly with Oasis and Primal Screen," said McGee.

He added: "In some ways it has been a much bigger market for me than the UK."

Bands on the Poptones roster, which include Arnold and Cosmic Rough Riders, have yet to break the charts.

Since McGee set up Creation records, which closed with debts after he left, the Scottish-born music man has been almost as high profile as the bands themselves.

McGee's rock 'n' roll lifestyle led to a infamous incident in which he was rushed from an plane at Los Angeles airport to a hospital ward because paramedics thought he had a blood clot.

In fact, a drink and drugs problem was beginning to take over his life.

But the record company magnate first cleaned up his habit, and then cleaned up in the charts, with his biggest-ever signing Oasis becoming one of the most successful bands of the 1990s.