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John McCready

John McCready

John McCready began writing as a news journalist in Liverpool. One reluctantly allowed him a music column. With ambitions to write for NME, he bombarded then Live Reviews editor, Danny Kelly with an uncommissioned series of pieces. Danny called him to ask what the fuck he thought he was doing. John was given the NME news editor's job for a couple of months. He gave in on discovering the previous editor, having been sacked, had destroyed the filing system.

John freelanced for NME from 1986 and avoided the indie vs soul wars until the early '90s — being the first to write nationally about the La's, Half Man Half Biscuit and the Detroit Techno scene. He's proud to have barged Cilla Black onto the NME cover and to have also interviewed a puzzled Kenneth Williams: "I mean why? One thing I am not is a musician". He also wrote extensively for The Face and was hauled into Nick Logan's office one day for contributing a piece to it in which he communicated to its readers that most of the people who worked for it looked like "binmen". There were significant associations with ID, Radio Times, Mojo and Word.

John has compiled and written sleeve notes for releases by New Order and Stone Roses. He had a one-job-only career as Press Officer for Network Records in Birmingham — the pioneering dance independent which brought the world Detroit Techno. Select magazine once designed and delivered an award certificate for services to "Untruth and Dishonesty" following oblique press campaigns for the eternally entertaining Altern 8.

He has written and presented stories for Radio 4's Front Row and worked as a producer and music consultant in TV — overseeing an entire evening of anniversary programmes on John Lennon for Channel 4 —  together with documentaries for BBC and ITV on the Beach Boys, Abba and the  Carpenters.

A move to Manchester in 1990 saw John become a resident Hacienda DJ and a New Order tour DJ. He released records on the great Rob Gretton's label. He continues to DJ. A collection of wildly eclectic and disco centric Hacienda inspired mixes can be found at: https://soundcloud.com/gay-traitor

Currently teaching and lecturing on music journalism, John has created and taught courses at Leeds College of Music, Huddersfield University, Edge Hill University and for training specialists, News Associates in Manchester and London. He is a lecturer at Manchester School of Sound Recording.

John McCready online

76 articles

List of articles in the library

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The Nightingales, The Riotous Hues: System, Liverpool

Live Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 3 August 1985

GALE WARNING ...

Primal Scream, The Tractors: Mardis Gras, Liverpool

Live Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 7 September 1985

THE TRACTORS apologise. Too much to drink. Something about an unprofessional performance. No need! Ooop in St Helens, agricultural machinery is apparently fuelled by lager. ...

Half Man Half Biscuit: Tough Cookies

Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 14 December 1985

"Next week will solve all your problems/But now, fish fingers all in a line/The Milk bottles stand empty/Stay glued to your TV Set." (‘Ex-Lion ...

Half Man Half Biscuit: System Club, Liverpool

Live Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 29 March 1986

WARNING: PACEMAKERS TO BE SHOWN ...

It's Immaterial: Driving Force

Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 26 April 1986

In the past IT'S IMMATERIAL have lived up to their name only too well. Now, as their new single hits the charts, they reveal to ...

The Ramones: Ramones: Animal Boy

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 24 May 1986

THERE ARE but two reactions to a Ramones record. When it mumbles something like 'I Need Psychiatric Treatment', as they do here, you will either ...

Sigue Sigue Sputnik: Flaunt It

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 2 August 1986

AS STUPID as they are, the British public can take a joke if you give them a punchline to go with it. They bought Malcolm ...

The Human League: Flesh And Blood

Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 20 September 1986

Born to make mistakes? THE HUMAN LEAGUE, CLASS of '81 veterans, saved Phil Oakey from a life on the bins. Jon McCready talks to the ...

Cameo: Word Up (Phonogram)

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 11 October 1986

WISE UP! ...

The Pretenders: Get Close

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 25 October 1986

PRETENDERS LPs were always crap. Get Close is no exception. Having said that, though I have quite a bit of time for Chrissie Hynde, her ...

Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Mad Bastards

Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 8 November 1986

WITH A LITTLE help from his friends, Frankie went to Number One. He found that Number One was more exciting than Hollywood ever could be. ...

Kate Bush: The Whole Story

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 22 November 1986

IT WAS Mark Smith of top pop group The Fall who, in a typical broadcast of dedicated anti-trendiness, announced that vegetarianism helped one leave the ...

Madness: Utter Madness

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 29 November 1986

IT WAS almost as if they were trying too hard to convince themselves. With all the zip his curiously glum voice could muster, Suggs sings, ...

Madonna: The Crucifixion Of A Junkyard Angel

Comment by Lucy O'Brien, John McCready, New Musical Express, 13 December 1986

Madonna: The Crucifixion Of A Junkyard Angel, part 1Lucy O'Brien ...

Van Morrison: Live At Liverpool Empire.

Live Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 1987

"Didn’t I come to bring you a sense of wonder.Didn’t I come to lift your fiery vision brightDidn’t I come to bring you a sense ...

A Certain Ratio: Ten Years on the Factory Floor

Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 10 January 1987

Can you feel the 'force'? A CERTAIN RATIO's decade of inconsistent, meandering flight between trash and flashes of brilliance may well have come to an ...

U2: The Joshua Tree (Island)

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 14 March 1987

OUT OF LITTLE ACORNS... ...

Sly & Robbie: Rhythm Killers (Island)

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 2 May 1987

BONDED BRILLIANCE ...

The Railway Children: Wigan's Chosen Few

Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 2 May 1987

As their LP chugs into the charts, THE RAILWAY CHILDREN appear to be on the fast-track for pop stardom. JOHN "Beeching" McCREADY however, reckons it's ...

Schoolly D: Saturday Night Jive

Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 16 May 1987

Yo! and pass the fun-size Mars Bars! Eating lemon sherbets instead of lead death, JOHN McCREADY asks cutting edge B-boy SCHOOLLY D how he got ...

Trouble Funk: Trouble With Your Dancing Feet?

Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 27 June 1987

TROUBLE FUNK are going where no go-go has gone before, to radio-land. JOHN McCREADY supports this funky plan. ...

Boogie Down Productions, KRS-One, MC Shan: Boogie Down Productions/DJ Scott La Rock/KRS One: Criminal Minded (B Boy Records) / MC Shan: Down By Law (Cold Chillin' Records)

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 11 July 1987

IN NEW YORK, there's a war going on. Television ignores it, the papers don't speak of it. It's a war where most of the bloodshed ...

Luther Vandross

Profile by John McCready, Radio Times, August 1987

IT'S LIKE saying Miles Davis can play the trumpet, or Mike Tyson can knock most heavyweights into the middle of next week, but Luther Vandross ...

Michael Jackson: Bad

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 12 September 1987

Michael Jackson doesn't live in the real world. I read my Sun and Star every day. I know that the boy from Gary, Indiana is ...

The La's: The La’s

Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 24 October 1987

"WE CAN'T really play but we’re having ago. And we love music, that’s why we’re having a go... our songs are just dead catchy tunes ...

Pepsi & Shirlie: All Right Now (Polydor)

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 31 October 1987

PEPSI AND SHIRLIE would like to be taken seriously, but their past is working against them — the fact that they once danced behind The ...

Cash Money and MC Marvellous, Cool C, DJ Bones and Malika Love, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Jewel-T, Lord Supreme and DJ Groove, Master Vic and Exotic Don, MC Breeze, Yvette Money, Schoolly D, Steady B: Philly Busters: The Rappers That Ate New York

Report and Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 7 November 1987

After ten years in the shadow of New York Flash and Cool, Philadelphia is fast becoming the City of Brotherly Rap. A new generation of ...

The Beastie Boys: The Beastie Bit

Report by John McCready, New Musical Express, 21 November 1987

JOHN McCREADY on the Beastie Boys court case... ...

Smith & Mighty: Smith And Mighty: Bristol Rising

Profile and Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1988

Coming from the same sound system roots as Soul II Soul, dance producers Smith And Mighty are at the centre of a thriving West Country ...

The Farm: The Dark Side Of The Mersey: Retro-Rock Scallies

Report and Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1988

A HIPPIE IS chased down a darkened street by a group of 16 year-old Casuals. In most parts of Britain, what follows is likely to ...

Jamie Principle: Acid House: New Acid Daze

Report and Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 6 February 1988

As our charts bulge with British House, so its big American brother trips off in a new direction. Spacier and racier, mesmeric and dis(c)oncerting – ...

Enter The Acid House

Report by John McCready, New Musical Express, 6 February 1988

As our charts bulge with British House, so its big American brother trips off in a new direction. Spacier and racier, mesmeric and dis(c)oncerting – ...

Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Kool G Rap, Marley Marl, MC Shan, Roxanne Shanté: Cold Chillin' Records: Licensed To Chill

Report and Interview by Paolo Hewitt, John McCready, New Musical Express, 12 March 1988

Cold Chillin' Records was started in 1986 by Tyrone Williams. As manager of Marley Marl — a 23 year old producer, writer, arranger, and renowned New ...

Salt 'N' Pepa: Cookie Cruets

Profile and Interview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 2 April 1988

Rap moves fast. Blink and you'll miss a ship-full of 12-inch singles each one pointing in a dozen new directions. With almost ten years or ...

Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson: Techno: Don't Fear the Robot

Overview by John McCready, New Musical Express, 16 July 1988

TECHNO – a new Detroit sound vibration – is rocking the House of the future. John McCready checks out the credentials of the Third Wave ...

52nd Street, Chapter and the Verse, Fifth Of Heaven, Marcel King: British Soul: Declaration of Independents

Report by John McCready, The Face, October 1988

Scorned by the purists and ignored elsewhere, British soul has finally decided to go it alone. From bedrooms in Hackney and basements in Bristol a ...

Chaka Khan: Khanal Knowledge

Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1989

"ASK ME what you want, John. I can take it. I mean, what are you going to do — spank me?" ...

Depeche Mode: Modus Operandum: Depeche Mode in Detroit

Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1989

IT'S JUST after one at the best club on the planet. This is Detroit’s Music Institute, an all-night and most-of-the-next-day juice bar with a sound ...

Techno: A Bluffer’s Guide

Guide by John McCready, The Face, 1989

TECHNO HAS turned ordinary record buyers into badly-informed technology obsessives. ...

The La's: The La’s

Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1989

INSPIRED BY a single, ‘There She Goes’, and an assortment of odd, beautiful and tangential B-sides built from nothing but raw creativity, I feel like ...

Frankie Knuckles: The Godfather

Report and Interview by John McCready, The Face, May 1989

AS YOU'RE assaulted by yet another PWL production — the legacy of House lives on in 'I'd Rather Jack' — this question may or may ...

Jane's Addiction: Jane’s Addiction: Guns ’N Poses

Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1990

Some people think Jane’s Addiction are the new Guns N’ Roses, even the new Rolling Stones. Others think that singer Perry Farrell will save rock ...

Depeche Mode, Erasure, Inspiral Carpets: Staying Mute

Profile and Interview by John McCready, The Face, August 1990

ELECTRONIC. TEUTONIC. Independent. European. Regardless of the reality of its catalogue, Mute Records has a certain image. Like any record label with a desire to ...

The KLF: KLF: Tales From The White Room

Interview by John McCready, The Face, September 1990

SINISTER. That's the word. The KLF are sinister. With their pervy mail-order black-hooded packamacks, their propaganda and their perfect assimilation of rave culture they are ...

Janet Jackson: Into Control, Out Of Tunes

Interview by John McCready, The Face, October 1990

JANET JACKSON'S last single, 'Black Cat', was truly mind boggling in its awfulness. Its politely heavy metal styling was really just an excuse for Janet ...

Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: Sexier Than Shaky?

Interview by John McCready, The Face, October 1990

After one chart hit, The Charlatans are poised on the fringe of either stardom or obscurity. They may be better mannered than Happy Mondays and cuter than the Stone Roses, but will ...

Beats International, Fatboy Slim: Beats International are a Pop Group of Their Time

Report and Interview by John McCready, The Face, November 1990

...an indie star turned dance guru, a soap star turned singer, and a motley crew of British rappers, singers, musicians, graffiti artists and dancers passing ...

Massive Attack: The Bristol Bunch

Interview by John McCready, The Face, January 1991

MASSIVE ATTACK were part of Bristol's Wild Bunch crew, a posse who pioneered UK hip hop. In 1986 they helped put together ‘The Look Of ...

Baaba Maal: Baayo (Mango) ***

Review by John McCready, Select, June 1991

BAABA MAAL is best known in Africa as an exponent of Senegalese folk music, which he plays on guitar, fora and riti. Something of a ...

Adeva

Interview by John McCready, Mixmag, July 1991

The look, the voice, the haircut is back. However it seems the lady who was born plain Pat Daniels is is revealing a more sensitive ...

Electronic: Getting Away With It

Interview by John McCready, Spin, July 1991

John McCready probes the northern soul of Electronic, the first English supergroup of the '90s ...

Larry Levan: The Great Phoney Garage Revival

Comment by John McCready, Mixmag, November 1991

John McCready gets shirty about all this Garage hype. ...

Miami Bass: How Low Can You Go?

Report by John McCready, The Face, 1994

In Florida, a pair of 15-inch speakers carry more B-boy cred than a pair of fat-laced sneakers, and your car is judged not by speed ...

Amon Düül, Faust, Neu!: Welcome To The Machine: Kraut Rock

Overview by John McCready, The Face, November 1996

Julian Cope has championed it, new Nineties bands are ransacking it and the ageing German hippies that first created it are now packing in techno ...

10 Years of House

Retrospective by John McCready, The Face, 1997

TEN YEARS IS A LONG TIME. Three score short of a lifetime, I know, but long enough to establish your own space programme and see ...

In a Moog Mood

Guide by John McCready, MOJO, 1997

UNLIKE THE Hoover, a similarly undisputed brand leader which  describes any vacuum cleaner as all vacuum cleaners do the same thing, all synthesizers are, over ...

Manic Street Preachers: NYNEX, Manchester

Live Review by John McCready, MOJO, May 1997

FOR A group who have long flirted with the traditional tricks of "rawk", this is really a hell of a risk. The potential for misunderstanding ...

808 State, Happy Mondays, New Order: The Haçienda: Working on a Building of Love

Retrospective by John McCready, The Face, May 1997

It gives us such great joy to sayThat fifteen years ago todayA club was born — the HaçiendaA venue for the maddest bendersSo as you ...

Kraftwerk

Profile by John McCready, The Independent, 23 May 1997

IT IS inevitable and happens to everyone. James Brown's new bag is now full of holes. David Bowie, a former ideas factory, is reduced to ...

Paul Oakenfold: House Music: Promised Land

Overview by John McCready, The Face, August 1997

What have we got to celebrate after ten years of non-stop ecstatic dancing? Loads, says John McCready ...

Todd Terry: Ready For A New Day (Manifesto)

Review by John McCready, MOJO, September 1997

Disco legends guest on album that's mostly club deity and his drum machine. ...

The Verve: Urban Hymns

Review by John McCready, MOJO, October 1997

I CAN'T HAVE BEEN ALONE in not being convinced. Yet there were people from day one and the debut LP A Storm In Heaven making ...

Roni Size and Reprazent: Roni Size & Reprazent: Academy, Manchester

Live Review by John McCready, MOJO, December 1997

I'D STOOD in the same spot a month or so ago watching David Bowie — an old man using drum'n'bass as a kind of fashionable ...

Working on a Building of Love: The Great Days of the Haçienda

Retrospective by John McCready, The Face, Spring 1997

With Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People opening in the UK this weekend, we reprint Face writer John McCready's wonderful account of the club's rise, ...

Yes: Live At Manchester Apollo

Live Review by John McCready, The Independent, February 1998

LIKE ALICE Cooper, who I saw late last year playing the same game, it's interesting to note that former forces of the 1970s are bowing ...

King Tubby, Augustus Pablo, Lee "Scratch" Perry: A Bluffer's Guide To Dub

Guide by John McCready, Jockey Slut, 2000

Note: This piece originally featured in Jockey Slut magazine and was written to serve as an introduction to those who had heard the word Dub ...

Patrick Adams

Sleeve notes by John McCready, Counterpoint Records, 2000

THOUGH MANY have tried, it’s hard to free disco of the negative associations that have shadowed it. "Disco Sucks", they still say. Boney M and ...

Joe Meek: Hearing A New World: The Joe Meek Story

Retrospective by John McCready, MOJO, May 2001

NOTE: This piece originally featured in Mojo magazine in a truncated 8,000 word edit. this is the full near-12,000 word original piece. This is such ...

The Stone Roses

Retrospective and Interview by John McCready, MOJO, May 2002

ON FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1987, the greatest rock'n'roll band of the decade are playing to no more than 30 people at Planet X, a dark ...

Joy Division: Adventures in Hi-Fi: Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures

Retrospective by John McCready, MOJO, June 2003

ALREADY MAKING the transition from off-the-peg punk to something harder and darker, Joy Division were on the verge of great things in 1979. ...

Hot Chip: Super Fry Guys: Hot Chip's Made In The Dark (EMI)

Review by John McCready, The Word, February 2008

Hot Chip: Brains from Thunderbirds and his science-block mates create wonderful dance music — that you don't have to dance to. ...

Goldfrapp: Seventh Tree (Mute)

Review by John McCready, The Word, March 2008

Country Casuals: Farewell to Equus Goes Rollerdisco and "Hello trees, Hello flowers" as Goldfrapp undertake their own bucolic Relocation, Relocation ...

Grace Jones, Sly & Robbie, Tom Tom Club: Various Artists: Funky Nassau - The Compass Point Story 1980-1986

Review by John McCready, The Word, April 2008

Imagined in London, bankrolled by pop hits and prog rock — the disco-dub collision at Compass Point Studios created shockwaves. ...

Half Man Half Biscuit: CSI: Ambleside

Review by John McCready, The Word, June 2008

Forget the TV-obsessed japery of their John Peel years. Half Man Half Biscuit are now the most perceptive satirists in British music. ...

Propaganda: A Secret Wish (ZTT/Salvo)

Review by John McCready, The Word, September 2010

Fizzing with conflicting creative energies, Propaganda could have been a disaster. Instead they constructed a masterpiece. ...

Blancmange, The Human League: The Human League: Credo/Blancmange: Blanc Burn

Review by John McCready, The Word, April 2011

Shiny new albums by Blancmange and the Human League show they'll stop at nothing in the service of "electronic ideals". ...

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