Murray Lachlan Young

Murray Lachlan Young was born the youngest of two boys in Washington DC, to a Scottish father and an English mother.

He was brought up in Sevenoaks, Kent, where he attended Wildernesse School, graduating from Salford University with a degree in media performance.

In 1998, he married singer Zoë Pollock and after moving to a smallholding near St Leonards-on-Sea, they had two children.[1] They moved to St Levan, Cornwall later in 2004, but separated in 2009.

In 2014, he married singer-songwriter Elizabeth Cavendish and set up home in Dalston, London, before separating in 2016.

Young lives in London.[1]

Since Young's early shows supporting such acts as Julian Cope, the Pretenders and Dita von Teese on the music and cabaret circuit in London, live stand-up poetry has been a key part of his career.

Tom Hodgkinson, editor of The Idler magazine, writes "Murray is both an actor and a wit, a poet who can perform and a performer who can write poetry, rolled into one."

Live solo shows include:

• UK solo headline tours (2014 & 2016)
• Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts (1996–present, except 2015)
• MTV Music Awards, US (1997)
• T in the Park Festival (1998 & 2001)
• Port Elliot Festival (2005–present)
• Latitude Festival (2006, ’13 & ’15)
• Goodlife Festival (2013, ’14 & ’15)
• Brighton Festival (2014)
• The Wilderness Festival (2014)
• 6 Music Festival (2014–present)
• Festival No 6 (2015–present)
• Poet in residence at The Union Club, Soho, London (1997–present)
• Poet in residence at The Arts Club, Mayfair, London (2014–16)

• Vice & Verse (1997)
• Casual Sex and Other Verse (1997)
• How Freakin' Zeitgeist Are You? (2017)
• The Nine Dead Williams (2014)
• The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps (2018) [2]

Stage

• A Captive Audience (1992)
• The Fabulous Twister Brothers (1993)
• Modern Cautionary Tales for Children (2005)
• The Incomers (2013)
• Rehab (2016)

Film

Features:

• Under Milk Wood (co-written, 2015)
• God’s Work (in development)
• The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps
• Summerset (writing)

Shorts:

• Desideratum (1992)
• Little Sucker Thumb (adapted, 1993)
• Plunkett and McClean (Gallows poem, 1997)
• Annie McClue (2011)
• The Story of Martin (animation, in production)
• Lycra Dad (in production)

Dance

• Enjoy Your Stay (2010)
• Taste (2015)

Audio recordings

• Live at Ronnie Scotts (1995)
• The Lost Album (1995)
• Simply Everyone’s Taking Cocaine (1997)
• Vice & Verse (1997)
• Casual Sex (1998)
• Murray Lachlan Young - Live (2011)
• The Alien Balladeer (2013)

Radio

• Poet in residence, The Breakfast Show, LBC (1996)
• Poet in residence, BBC 6 Music (2011–present day)
• Poet in residence, Saturday Live, BBC Radio 4 (2006–14)
• Regular contributor to Loose Ends, BBC Radio 4 (1995–present day)
• Regular contributor to Kaleidescope, BBC Radio 4 (1995)
• Regular contributor to The Arts Show, BBC Radio 2 (2014–present day)
• Regular contributor to BBC Radio 5 Live, including special commissions for Test Match Special, Cheltenham Gold Cup and City v United (2012–15)
• Scotland meet Murray Lachlan Young, BBC Radio 4 (2013)
• Alien Balladeer, BBC Radio 4 series (2014)
• The Symphony of Medinah, Narrator, BBC Radio 5 Live (2014)
• Cern, BBC World Service (2015)

Television

• Murray Lachlan Young, MTV USA, series (1996)
• Vice Versa, BBC 2 television special (1997)
• Regular contributor, The Wright Stuff, Channel (2014–present)
• Contributor, Newsnight, BBC 2, (2014)

In 2021, Murray Lachlan Young teamed up with Orbital's Paul Hartnoll for a lockdown inspired album called The Virus Diaries under the name Hartnoll & Young.[3][4][5] In June 2021, the pair released a single from the album called "Garden Centre (Push the Trolley)"[6][7] as a follow-up to "I Need a Haircut".

• Official website
• Media related to Murray Lachlan Young at Wikimedia Commons