YOU gotta roll with it...was the message from the man behind bands like Oasis and Primal Scream yesterday.

Alan McGee, the founder of Creation Records, gave a speech to 100 teenagers at Merton College.

He spoke about his upbringing in Glasgow, his love of The Beatles and what it was like to sign bands like Oasis.

Mr McGee, 50, said: “The main thing I wanted to let people know is that you have to fail to succeed. You can’t know success until you’ve known failure.

“When I was their age my future was mapped out for me, maybe I would become an electrician or something.

“But I knew I didn’t want that.”

Mr McGee, who sold Creation Records in 2000 to Sony, now lives in Wales and fills his time delivering speeches, developing property and DJ-ing.

He said he hadn’t kept in touch with many people from his days in the music business.

He said: “To be honest, I’m not trying to stay in touch with them. I find a lot of musicians boring.

“I think my 11-year-old daughter, Charlie, knows more about music than me. She thinks all that stuff I did was rubbish though.”

Mr McGee was speaking at TEDxOxford, a one-day conference organised by students for young people aged between 16 and 25.

Other speakers included British hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, inventor of the ‘bob’ cut.