The memoir of Milo Johnson (Aka Dj Milo) is both a fascinating insight into the life of one of the pioneers of what became known as the Bristol Sound and a harrowing personal story.

Milo was one of the founder members of Wild Bunch, the Bristol multi genre sound system that spawned Massive Attack, Tricky and super-producer Nellee Hooper. It’s a no holds-barred account of Milo’s personal life – a story of abuse and abandonment and how that journey helped redefine the musical landscape.

His childhood and adolescence, was one of extremes and opposites. He was born and raised in Bristol’s West Indian community in the Sixties but attended school in the affluent white neighbourhood of Cotham. Fatherless and abandoned by his mother at the age of 12, he was forced into the care-to-prison pipeline.

Music, which had always been an important part of Milo’s life, turned out to be his salvation, enabling him to escape a dark destiny that seemed already mapped out and taking him from Bristol to a life-changing time in Japan. Later, Milo moved permanently to New York City, eventually living in Harlem for 25 years, where his appetite for consciousness was fed.

In his foreword Milo explains his motive for writing such a revealing account of his life…

“This book started as a letter to you, my children.

“I love you all very much, but the things I experienced early in my life have been an obstacle to my growth and my fathering. As I reached my fifties it became a priority to explain who I am to you. Not just the hard times, but the positives of my past too – including the things that I did not understand the significance of when I was in the moment and took for granted.”