On June 26, 1998, during the opening day of the Glastonbury Festival, journalist Craig McLean was assaulted by the musician Tricky, an event that has remained a notable moment in British music history. The confrontation took place inside the backstage tent run by music magazine Select, a designated area for industry professionals including artists, managers, and journalists.

The festival, already challenged by heavy rain and muddy conditions reminiscent of the previous year's event, was reaching its full capacity of 100,500 attendees. Within this environment, tensions escalated when Tricky, the Bristol-based rapper known for his influential role in the trip-hop genre, entered the tent and reportedly confronted McLean aggressively. According to McLean, Tricky approached him, accompanied by an entourage, and began to verbally attack him. The situation quickly turned physical when a fist, allegedly thrown by one of Tricky’s uncles, struck McLean in the jaw, causing him to fall to the ground. Tricky then reportedly delivered a kick to McLean’s face as he lay on the damp grass.

McLean later described his surprise and shock, noting that an ecstasy pill he had taken earlier contributed to his body’s unexpected resilience during the assault. The incident erupted amid a crowd of music industry personnel, and while the assailants either fled or were removed from the scene by security, no charges were filed. Security personnel reportedly offered to serve as witnesses if legal action were pursued, but McLean declined.

The assault followed a period of tension between the two, rooted in McLean’s critical coverage of Tricky. Earlier that year, McLean had written a story related to Tricky’s third album, Angels With Dirty Faces, which had provoked dissatisfaction from the musician, including an angry voicemail left on McLean’s office phone. Despite this, McLean maintained he was a longtime admirer of Tricky’s work dating back to the 1995 release of Maxinquaye, as well as subsequent projects Nearly God and Pre-Millennium Tension.

The music press covered the incident extensively at the time, highlighting Tricky’s reportedly aggressive demeanor and the calls from industry figures for the musician to be reprimanded by his label, Island Records. John Harris, then editor of Select magazine, publicly urged Island to censure Tricky. However, the artist’s stance on the incident remained mixed. In a 1999 interview, Tricky admitted some regret but also suggested that violence was, in his view, sometimes necessary to communicate effectively with journalists.

Nearly three decades on, the episode resurfaced when Alan McGee, former head of Creation Records and now manager of several 1990s and 2000s artists including Tricky, approached McLean to write a biography for Tricky’s 14th album, Different When It’s Silent. The album, released after the 2019 suicide of Tricky’s daughter Mina Mazy Topley-Bird, explores themes of loss and grief. Following McLean’s disclosure of their past, McGee arranged for Tricky to offer a formal apology. This gesture ultimately led McLean to agree to contribute to the biography, marking a significant moment of reconciliation years after the violent incident at Glastonbury.