Margaret Fiedler McGinnis (née Fiedler) is a London-based American

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...

and noted

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

. She is best known as a founding member of UK indie groups

Moonshake Moonshake were a British-based experimental rock/post-rock band, existing between 1991 and 1997. The only consistent member was singer/sampler player/occasional guitarist David Callahan, who initially co-led the project with Margaret Fiedler ( ...

and

Laika Laika (russian: link=no, Лайка; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecra ...

and as live guitarist with

PJ Harvey Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined loca ...

and

Wire Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm A wire is a flexible strand of metal. Wire is c ...

Early life

She was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, United States, and grew up in Winnetka, Illinois and later in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. She was educated at

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

and at Trinity College in Dublin. She had attended grade school in Winnetka and played the cello growing up. McGinnis formed Child's Play with

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

as a high school band.

Musical career

After a move to London, England, McGinnis formed

in 1991 with David Callahan, formerly of

The Wolfhounds The Wolfhounds are an English noise pop band formed in Romford, Essex, in 1985 by Dave Callahan, Paul Clark, Andy Golding, Andy Bolton and Frank Stebbing, and originally active until 1990. The band reformed in 2005 and continues to write, recor ...

. She and Callahan shared vocals, guitar, sampling and songwriting duties, and the band was augmented by

John Frenett John Frenett is an English bassist, best known for his slippery dub-style playing in the bands Moonshake and Laika in the 1990s. He had formed The Hangovers with former The Raincoats member Gina Birch, and played bass and guitar on their debut a ...

(bass) and Mig Morland (drums, percussion). Moonshake were signed to Alan McGee's

Creation Records Creation Records Ltd. was a British independent record label founded in 1983 by Alan McGee, Dick Green, and Joe Foster. Its name came from the 1960s band The Creation, whom McGee greatly admired. The label ceased operations in 1999, although ...

for their debut ''First'' EP released in Spring 1991. The group then moved to Too Pure Records, and released the ''Secondhand Clothes'' EP and the ''Eva Luna'' LP in 1992, and the mini-album ''Big Good Angel'' in 1993. In 1993, McGinnis formed

with

, Guy Fixsen, flautist

Louise Elliott Louise Elliott (born 1969, in Ashington) is a Welsh broadcaster and journalist. Biography Born in Ashington, Northumberland, her father Dave Elliott was a professional football player at Sunderland and Newcastle United. At the age of five, her ...

and drummers

Lou Ciccotelli Lou Ciccotelli is an American musician from Chicago who served as a drummer for multiple British bands, including God, Ice and Laika. Biography Lou Ciccotelli was a founding member of the noise rock group Drunk Tank, but parted with them after r ...

and Rob Ellis. The band produced four albums and five singles for Too Pure between 1994 and 2003, however after Fixsen and McGinnis broke up, the band took a break. In 2000, she joined

to play lead guitar, cello, keyboards and percussion on the band's "Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea" world tour. In 2008, McGinnis joined post-punk pioneers

replacing

Bruce Gilbert Bruce Clifford Gilbert (born 18 May 1946) is an English musician. One of the founding members of the influential and experimental art punk band Wire (band), Wire,Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 180-182 ...

on guitar for an ongoing world-wide tour.

Personal life

Following Laika's last album in 2003, McGinnis studied at the

College of Law A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

where she received a post-graduate law qualification. After graduation, she went to work at the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Early life

Musical career

Personal life

References

External links