Milo Johnson was a founding member of Bristol’s bass-heavy, multiracial Wild Bunch sound system in the 1980s, along with Grantley ‘Daddy G’ Marshall, Nellee Hooper and MCs Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja and Claude Williams. Stray is the enthralling autobiography of an artist also known as DJ Milo. 

His Bristolian upbringing was traumatic to say the least: from a broken home to an uncaring care home, football hooliganism to prison, some pages will make the reader flinch, shed a tear or want to jump in a time machine to get him the hell out of there, It was music and fashion which became Johnson’s saviour, though, catalysts for a journey from Bristol to London, Japan, New York and beyond.

Readers familiar with Bristol’s musical history will enjoy appearances by certain pre-fame faces. A teenage Johnson, taken under the wing of a family, was visited by Adrian Thaws – later known as Tricky, and full of questions about the music being played in the house. A DJ gig at city centre clothes shop Paradise Garage led to him meeting Marshall and Del Naja, who would later found Massive Attack after the Wild Bunch dissolved. Later, a cultural exchange of sorts between Bristol and London saw original Buffalo Gal Neneh Cherry asking Johnson to come to Japan to DJ.

Stray documents Johnson’s extraordinary rollercoaster of a life: against a backdrop of social unrest and racial tension, a punky reggae hip-hop soundtrack empowered Johnson to fix his broken wings and become a gamechanger himself. In turn, this helped set the wheels in motion for Bristol to become a musical and cultural force to be reckoned with.