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 Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art

f. pop art F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distributi ...

or mass art, sometimes contraste ...

than traditional

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

, which led to him to a recording contract with

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

, making him the first, and only poet to secure a deal worth £1million.

Personal life

Young graduated from the

University of Salford The University of Salford is a Public university, public research university in Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford, Greater Manchester, England, west of Manchester city centre. The Royal Technical Institute, Salford, which opened in 1896, be ...

with a degree in Media Performance. In 1998, he married singer Zoë Pollock and moved to Cornwall with their two children. 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 The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

in 1996, to

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

USA,

EMI records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a British multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company EMI in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succes ...

and 6 Music Radio as well as television programmes such as

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' is the BBC's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. It is broadcast weeknights at 10:30 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel; it is also avail ...

and

The Wright Stuff ''The Wright Stuff'' is a British television chat show which was hosted by former tabloid journalist Matthew Wright from 2000 until 2018. It aired on Channel 5 on weekday mornings from 9:15 to 11:15am. The series characterised itself as "Br ...

, 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 Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

Shakespeare’s Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse first built in 1599 for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays. Like the original, it is located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Southwark, Lon ...

, The Idler Magazine and The Erotic Review amongst others and has acted in films including

Plunkett & MacLeane ''Plunkett & Macleane'' is a 1999 British historical action comedy film directed by Jake Scott, and starring Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Liv Tyler. Gary Oldman was executive producer. The story was co-written by Neal Purvis and Robert ...

(1999), Vatel (2000) and About A Boy (2002). He co-founded The Crap Surfer movement in 2004, in 2012

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...

presented

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership wi ...

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 Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

Solo Live Performance Highlights

Authored Books

Stage Playwright * and Playwright & Performer **

Film Screenplays

Audio Releases

Broadcast Performance Highlights

References

External links

Official website

Fifteen Questions Literature Interview with Murray Lachlan Young
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Murray Lachlan Living people Alumni of the University of Salford British children's writers British male poets 1969 births People from Sevenoaks Writers from Kent