Unleashing the rocker soul
Guitarist Mike McLaughlin has supported Taiwan’s hottest pop acts for the past 20 years, but tomorrow he’s going to rock out, playing his first festival under his own name at the Tiger Mountain Ramble
By Han Cheung / Staff reporter
It was a musician’s worst nightmare: Mike McLaughlin blew his rig hours before pop queen A-mei’s (張惠妹) took the stage in Hong Kong. Having only previously played in Taiwan and the US, he had no idea that the voltage standard was different.
“It was my first time ever playing with A-mei. I’m pretty psyched and I really wanted to do a good job,” the session guitarist says. “Then I plug the rack in and blow it up the day of the show. I was like, ‘Oh my god, what am I going to do?’”