Craig Else (born October 12, 1964 in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...

) is a guitarist,

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproductio ...

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, and

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

Career

1970s and 1980s

In 1978 after years of music lessons given by his Grandmother, Craig discovered punk rock and formed his first band, Twisted Minds. He was influenced by

The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the w ...

Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...

and the Sex Pistols. Craig moved to South Africa in 1981 and played with Steve Fataar of

The Flames The Flames was a musical rock group from Durban in South Africa. They performed across London in the late 1960s, where they met Brian Jones, Keith Moon, Keith Richards, Jerry Garcia, Miles Davis and Carl Wilson. They later traveled to Los Ange ...

and Ivy and the Creepers before joining Petit Cheval. Petit Cheval enjoyed great success in the 1980s. They sold out tours to fan frenzy not seen since the days of

Rabbitt Rabbitt were a South African rock band formed in 1972, evolving from a band called The Conglomeration, consisting of members Trevor Rabin, Duncan Faure, Ronnie Robot, and Neil Cloud. Their successes included making it to the top of the South A ...

. They released two albums, "The Voice of Reason" and "Perfect Gift" WEA along with seven singles and two compilation albums, "Young Lions" and "Once in a Lifetime". They had two number one singles, "It Was the Wind" and "Once in a Lifetime" and won the Sarie Award (South Africa's equivalent of a Grammy) for best new band. After leaving Petit Cheval in 1987 he did session work and eventually moved to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in 1999 to work on Geffen records recording artist Vincent Rocco's solo album co-produced by Steve Van Zandt. He then joined "Tribe After Tribe" featuring Robbi Robb of South African band "Asylum Kids" and

Three Fish Three Fish was an American rock band formed in 1994 by Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament. The lineup featured Ament, Robbi Robb of Tribe After Tribe, and Richard Stuverud of the Fastbacks and War Babies. History The band was formed by bassist Jeff Ame ...

and appeared on the albums "Enchanted Entrance" and "Ra Hoor Khuit". In 1992 he joined Roadhouse and played five nights a week, five forty-five-minute sets a night for five years. During this time he played with

D.H. Peligro DH, Dh, dh, or dH may refer to: Places * DH postcode area, in the United Kingdom for the area of Durham and surrounding towns * Diamond Head, Hawaii, a volcanic tuff cone on Oʻahu Organisations * D+H, a Canadian financial services company * Dep ...

from

Dead Kennedys Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run. Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing p ...

and appeared on the albums "Peligro", "Welcome to America" and "The Virus that Would Not Die" . He appeared on many other albums including Taylor Dayne's "Naked Without You" and Pure Sugar's eponymous debut album.

1990s and 2000s

In 2000 Else joined Bay City Rollers and then in 2007 began touring with them as "The Original Idols" along with

Leif Garrett Leif Garrett (born Leif Per Nervik; November 8, 1961) is an American singer, actor, and television personality. He worked as a child actor, then in the 1970s became famous as a teen idol in music. He later received much publicity for his dru ...

, Barry Williams,

The Cowsills The Cowsills are an American singing group from Newport, Rhode Island, six siblings noted for performing professionally and singing harmonies at an early age, later with their mother. The band was formed in early 1965 by brothers Bill, Bob, and ...

, and Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. They also appeared with the Family Stone, the Guess Who, and

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

. Craig played with Leif Garrett for some shows and recorded

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...

's "Old Man" with him. He left the Bay City Rollers in 2008. Craig is currently working on solo projects and continues to produce music for a variety of projects.

Equipment

Craig is the owner/operator of Or Else Productions and is a live sound engineer for

Fox Television The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations and ...

in Los Angeles. Craig uses about ten guitars of varying types, notably a 7-string Ibanez uv777bk, a Veillette electric 12 string, a Gibson Les Paul, and a

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

Billy Sheehan William Sheehan (born March 19, 1953) is an American musician. He is best known for playing the bass guitar with acts such as Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, Niacin, and The Winery Dogs. He is also known for his "lead bass" playing ...

"Attitude" bass, a gift from

Discography

* ''Petit Cheval "Once in a Lifetime" * ''Petit Cheval "The Voice of Reason" '' * ''Petit Cheval "A Perfect Gift" '' * ''Petit Cheval "Young Lions"'' * ''Petit Cheval "Sharp Cuts"'' * ''Petit Cheval "Concert in the Park"'' * ''Petit Cheval "Rocking Against the System"'' * ''Petit Cheval "Best of SA Pop"'' * ''Petit Cheval "Campus Classics"'' * ''Petit Cheval "My Bleeding Heart"'' * ''Taylor Dayne "Naked Without You"'' * ''Sheila Nichols "Wake"'' * ''Tribe After Tribe "Enchanted Entrance"'' * ''Pure Sugar "Pure Sugar"'' * ''Journey w/ Steve Farmer (Ted Nugent)'' * ''Steve Olson "What About the Kids" Skateboarder Sessions '' * ''Amritakripa "Dancing Lotus"'' * ''Robbi Robb "Ra Hoor Khuit"'' * ''Ian Mitchell (Bay City Rollers) "The Gift"'' * ''Sex With Lurch "The Good, the Bad and the Lurchy"'' * ''Sex With Lurch "Sex With Lurch"'' * ''Sex With Lurch "Sex With Lurch 2"'' * ''Sex With Lurch "Best of Sex With Lurch"'' * ''Sex With Lurch "Sex With Lurch and the Barbarellatones"'' * ''DH Peligro (Dead Kennedys) "Peligro"'' * ''DH Peligro (Dead Kennedys) "Welcome to America"'' * ''DH Peligro (Dead Kennedys) "The Virus that Would Not Die"'' (1984) * ''Jeannie Ortega "No Place Like Brooklyn" '' (1990) * ''Ivy and the Creepers "Ivy and the Creepers"'' (1993) * ''"Jesse McCartney"'' (1995)

Awards and nominations

* Sarie "Best Contemporary Pop Artist, Petit Cheval" * Emmy "Laker's Riot" * Golden Mic

External links

Craig Else's homepage

Craig Else's Official MySpace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Else, Craig 1964 births Living people American rock guitarists American male guitarists Musicians from Victoria, British Columbia Seven-string guitarists 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians