MILO MCLAUGHLN: A BIOGRAPHY
Milo McLaughlin began his musical career aged 13 with the groundbreaking band the E-Jits, based in the wind-swept hell-mouth of Malin Head, in Co.Donegal, Ireland. However the band, which featured his cousin Lucy Monhemius, were never to find mainstream success despite their inspirational cover version of Edelweiss using only a bontempi keyboard and a faulty tape deck.
A bleak 8 year period of alcoholic excess and morbid introspection followed before McLaughlin was discovered by future top TV personality Dougie Anderson (well, they went to the same college). Together they co-wrote the classic tune Columbo & Coffee.
Around the same time McLaughlin was working as a till monkey in HMV and was invited to joined the guerrilla music-making collective Swivel Chair by his subversive colleague Craig Low. The band have since been responsible for a string of cult EPs released in Edinburgh’s Fopp record stores, all of which sold a few copies. However after four gigs the band imploded in drunken violence.
So, a bit like the littlest hobo, McLaughlin decided to go it alone, despite a lack of singing ability and musical talent. He released his ltd edition debut EP in the hope of selling his songs to other artists to record, e.g. the track Need to Know Basis was written with Tom Jones in mind, or failing that Daniel Bedingfield. The Sickie Song would be perfect for that bloke who used to be in Brush Strokes and is now in the Jif/Cif adverts., and You Look Weird was written as a duet for Liza Minelli and David Gest however their marriage was over before he had finished recording the song (and it only took an hour)..
He has also recorded under the name Tantrum Man but would prefer it if you don't tell anyone about that.
PRESS QUOTES
“Milo sings it just right, part Mark E Smith and part Leadbelly, showing me the way that the blues has gotta be here, right here, and in this day and age. He's so frustrated that he can't help but laugh, that he can't help but go home and record a song. And the song: true and awesome.”
Sean Michaels, Said The Gramophone
“The spitting sound of Arab Strap with an even darker sense of the bittersweet ridiculousness of life”
Doug Johnston, The List
“..Part Ballboy, part Ma$e, speak-singing over bedroom beats. I Spiralled Out of Control is the story of being flung into space, cast up and from Edinburgh, then back to earth, abruptly into death. Sci-fi synths that could fuel a chip fryer.”
Sean Michaels, The Skinny
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