Murray Lachlan Young
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{BLP sources|date=May 2025}}
{{Short description|British poet and performer}}
{{Infobox writer
|name = Murray Lachlan Young
|image = Murray Lachlan Young - Glastonbury Festival 2019 02 crop.jpg
|caption = Murray Lachlan Young, Glastonbury Festival, 2019
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1969|03|14|df=yes}}
|birth_place = United States
|death_date =
|death_place =
|occupation = Poet
|nationality = British
|website = {{URL|http://www.murraylachlanyoung.co.uk/}}
}}
Murray Lachlan Young (born 14 March 1969) is British poet, playwright, author and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the mid-1990s with his unique performances, more aligned to popular culture than traditional poetry, which led to him to a recording contract with EMI, making him the first, and only poet to secure a deal worth £1million.{{Cite web |date=2024-04-23 |title=An Evening with Murray Lachlan Young {{!}} LASALLE College of the Arts |url=https://www.lasalle.edu.sg/events/evening-murray-lachlan-young |access-date=2025-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240423084520/https://www.lasalle.edu.sg/events/evening-murray-lachlan-young |archive-date=23 April 2024 }}
Personal life
Young graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Media Performance.{{Cite web |last=Walters |first=Sarah |date=2016-09-07 |title=Murray Lachlan Young on giving two fingers to the zeitgeist |url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/comedy-news/murray-lachlan-young-tour-manchester-11851600 |access-date=2025-05-02 |website=Manchester Evening News |language=en}} In 1998, he married singer Zoë Pollock and moved to Cornwall with their two children.{{Cite news |date=2006-01-13 |title=Life after million pound poetry |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4606658.stm |access-date=2025-05-01 |language=en-GB}} He has since returned to live and work in London.
Careers
Since his early UK shows supporting music and cabaret acts such as the Pretenders, Julian Cope and Dita von Teese, Murray has used the language and rhythm of poetry in his writing and performance, using popular culture platforms to present his work to a wider audience.
Encompassing everything from live performances at music and arts festivals, including the main stage at the Glastonbury Festival in 1996,{{Cite web |title=Murray Lachlan Young Concert & Tour History {{!}} Concert Archives |url=https://www.concertarchives.org/bands/murray-lachlan-young |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=www.concertarchives.org}} to MTV USA, EMI records and 6 Music Radio as well as television programmes such as Newsnight{{Cite web |title=BBC - Newsnight: From the web team: Credit crunch - from bad to verse |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2008/11/credit_crunch_from_bad_to_vers.html |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en}} and The Wright Stuff,{{Cite web |title=Wright Stuff – Tastic! |url=https://mikscarlet.com/wright-stuff-tastic/ |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=mikscarlet.com}} introducing poetry and verse into non-traditional situations has been key to his career.
He is the author of five published books, ten produced stage productions and two full length feature films, with a number of projects – stage, books and film – currently in development.
Murray has also written for The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Shakespeare’s Globe, The Idler Magazine and The Erotic Review amongst others and has acted in films including Plunkett & MacLeane (1999), Vatel (2000) and About A Boy (2002).
He co-founded The Crap Surfer movement in 2004, in 2012 Mick Jagger presented Keith Richards with a CD of Murray's poem that marked the anniversary of Keith falling out of a coconut tree and in 2017 The Cornishman newspaper voted him the 34th Sexiest Person in Cornwall.
Solo Live Performance Highlights
| class="wikitable"
|+ |Glastonbury Festival{{Cite web |date=2015-07-01 |title=Glastonbury 2015 review |url=https://blog.richersounds.com/glastonbury-2015-review/ |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=Richer Sounds Blog |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=1997-06-28 |title=Murray Lachlan Young |url=https://www.vam.ac.uk/performing-glastonbury/performance/e156608-murray-lachlan-young/?type=Performance&srsltid=AfmBOopU5paF4oMSo2Wq12SR4Amm1CgFM5R6BXkmgoblfK4lFFpDUb0G |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=www.vam.ac.uk |language=en}} |1996 - Present |
| MTV Music Awards, USA
|1997 |
| The Union Club, London - Poet in residence
|1997 - Present |
| T in the Park Festival
|1998 - 2001 |
| Port Elliot Festival
|2005 - 2020 |
| Latitude Festival
|2006 - 2015 |
| Goodlife Festival
|2013 - 2015 |
| UK Headline Tour
|2014 |
| The Wilderness Festival
|2014 |
| Brighton Festival
|2014 |
| BBC Radio 6 Music Festival
|2014 - Present |
| Festival No 6
|2015 - 2019 |
| The Arts Club, London - Poet in residence
|2014 - 2016 |
| UK Headline Tour
|2016 |
Authored Books
Stage Playwright * and Playwright & Performer **
Film Screenplays
Audio Releases
Broadcast Performance Highlights
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.murraylachlanyoung.co.uk/ Official website]
- [https://www.15questions.net/interview/fifteen-questions-literature-interview-murray-lachlan-young/page-1/ Fifteen Questions Literature Interview with Murray Lachlan Young]
- {{Commons category-inline|Murray Lachlan Young}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:Alumni of the University of Salford
Category:British children's writers