‘You’re not going to bed.. not when you’ve just won a Golden Globe’
Craig Armstrong has earned multiple awards for his soundtracks and has plenty of fans among Hollywood royalty. But this modest star from Glasgow’s east end likes being able to go for a pint without being recognised
WHEN Michael Caine was asked to star in the movie The Quiet American, he agreed only on the condition Craig Armstrong wrote the score.
Director Oliver Stone said the Scottish composer’s music “glows with a power that’s beyond words” and US comedian Amy Poehler was in touch this week to declare herself a fan.
Craig is arguably Scotland’s most successful composer – yet you may not know his face, even if Hollywood royalty does.
You will most certainly know his music and have seen his name roll on the big screen.
It would take too many column inches to name all the movies he has scored, the A-list stars he has worked with and the awards he has won.
But the films include Romeo + Juliet, which won him a BAFTA and Ivor Novello, Moulin Rouge!, which earned him a Golden Globe and another BAFTA, Grammy-winning Ray and The Great Gatsby, which landed an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Original Music Score.
Artists he has collaborated with include Madonna, U2 and Pavarotti.
Not bad for a boy from Glasgow’s east end.
We meet in his studio in the city, where he keeps promising to build a shelf for his awards but never gets around to it.
He is understated and easy company, confesses to shyness and does few interviews. Craig likes that he can go to his local and not be recognised.
As we speak, his latest soundtrack for Mrs Lowry and Son, starring Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave, is playing in the background.
It is tricky to concentrate as his music is a seductive temptress, too beautiful to ignore.
Craig is set to release a studio album, Sun On You, as part of a major new deal with Decca Records. It’s a beautiful collection of original works for piano and strings.
It will go on sale on September 7, following a series of major European tour dates.
When he says his love is for the music, he means it. But every now and then, the enormity of his reach hits him.
He said: “I remember when The Great Gatsby was out, going to get the shopping in Byres Road, and the posters were everywhere. I thought, ‘How weird is that?’
“I had just flown home from working on it in Australia. The film had covered the planet.
“It could have been Mumbai and there would have been Great Gatsby posters.
“I would divide those films that are like cultural events from the smaller films, which are no less important.”
On another occasion, as he flew to Australia to work on Moulin Rouge!, his music was playing during a stopover in Hong Kong airport. When he went for dinner in Sydney a few hours later, the restaurant was playing a track he had made with Massive Attack.
He said: “I had crossed the planet and the two places I had been were playing my music. That was the first time I could really see how far my music travelled.
“But I have never had that moment when I have thought, ‘I’ve really made it.’”
Not even when he won a Golden Globe and looked out to an audience with Steven Spielberg cheering him on.
That night, he returned to his hotel and turned in for the night – only for staff to bang on his door with a magnum of champagne minutes later.
“You are not going to bed when you have just won a Golden Globe,” they chided him.
It’s not that Craig feels he hasn’t earned his place among Hollywood’s glitterati. He was reared to be
Who the hell would want to play the violin in Shettleston? CRAIG ARMSTRONG ON HIS EARLY YEARS