Craig McLean
Craig McLean is a freelance writer and editor from Scotland. He's been bothering pop folk, rock stars, actors and the like since starting university in the year of our lord C86. Consultant Editor at The Face, where he was Deputy Editor in the late '90s/early '00s (as best he can remember), he was the ghostwriter of Phil Collins' best-selling 2016 memoir Not Dead Yet.
17 articles
List of articles in the library
Crash Test Dummies: Things that make you go mmm...
Interview by Craig McLean, Vox, 1994
Crash Test Dummies smile and say "cheesy" in a desperate bid to avoid rock'n'roll pretentiousness. So why is frontman Brad Roberts still so serious? ...
Report and Interview by Craig McLean, The Face, November 1994
Shampoo are two grown-up schoolgirls who've turned their private world of sweeties, ciggies and suburban naughtiness into a hit commodity. Welcome to the world of ...
Radiohead: The Bends (Parlophone TPS7372)
Review by Craig McLean, Vox, 1995
THIS TIME last year, there was abject fear in the Radiohead camp. The band were in Micky Most's Rak studios in London, in the middle ...
Report and Interview by Craig McLean, The Face, June 1995
Two years ago Björk drove herself into the nation's hearts with Debut. Now she's back with a new LP that's even stranger and more compelling. ...
Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky: Massive Attack: Unique 3
Report and Interview by Craig McLean, The Face, December 1995
With sales of Protection approaching a million. Massive Attack are going seriously global. They have recorded a love song with Madonna, Tina Turner wants to ...
Interview by Craig McLean, The Face, January 1996
...as man of the year? Man of the last 15 years more like. Over a goblet of mulled wine the sound of young (ahem) Scotland ...
Beck: With Beck all things are possible
Report and Interview by Craig McLean, The Face, May 1997
He is rhythm wizard, zombie fawn, Prada punker, Spice Boy and hip hop beatnik. Step with us, if you will, into Beck's American dreamstate: where ...
Special Feature by Craig McLean, The Face, 1998
It spans eight years, three continents and an aborted Fleetwood Mac cover. It features Richard Ashcroft, Thom Yorke and Mike D. How did DJ Shadow ...
Dallas Austin, Tricky: Tricky: The Mad Father
Interview by Craig McLean, The Face, May 1998
They used to call him Tricky Kid, now they call him The Boss... He is the overworked businessman with his own label who is to ...
Robbie Williams: Resurrection man
Comment by Craig McLean, The Face, September 1998
Boy band clown. Drug band hanger-on. Solo flop. So how did Robbie manage to come back for good? Because whatever he's said, whatever he's done, ...
The Beta Band: Beta Band: Space Jammers
Profile and Interview by Craig McLean, Spin, June 1999
THEY PLAY SNIPPETS OF BONNIE TYLER HITS. THEY WORK POTTED PLANTS INTO THEIR LIVE SHOW. MEET THE BETA BAND — THE WEIRDEST GROUP IN ENGLAND ...
Review by Craig McLean, The Observer, 23 June 2002
Noel and Liam — unchained ...
Review by Craig McLean, The Word, July 2003
Eels have emerged from the tunnel of despair ...
Sufjan Stevens: Liturgical sounds for restaurant place-mats
Interview by Craig McLean, Daily Telegraph, 29 July 2006
Sufjan Stevens makes dazzling celestial music from the minutiae of everyday life. Craig McLean meets him. ...
The Fratellis: Fratellis: Costello Music
Review by Craig McLean, Daily Telegraph, 9 September 2006
WHATEVER YOU DO, don't mention the Libertines. ...
Donna Summer: Too hot to handle
Retrospective and Interview by Craig McLean, Daily Telegraph, 13 June 2008
A devout Christian, Donna Summer was an unlikely queen of disco, particularly one who wore her crown with such raunchy abandon. Now a 59-year-old grandmother, ...
Retrospective and Interview by Craig McLean, The Observer, 6 May 2018
Pamela Des Barres had the giants of rock'n'roll in the palm of her hand, as her candid memoir reveals. ...
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