HOWZAT

“But it got a bit weird writing that kind of stuff at my age, which is why I am trying to move away from it. You have to be business-minded to write songs for the German version of Popstars, and I have to say I’m quite unusually motivated.”

Simon Cowell had been at the head of the queue to sign McLaughlin’s crowning achievement Busted, the teenage rock group that was the first in Britain to combine boy-band looks with rock group theatrics, but there were fears that the impresario would neuter the band’s spiky, kindergarten-punk approach. The band went elsewhere.

Their eventual implosion came after their success had been soured by the £10m court action of two former members, claiming the band had been signed by McLaughlin to restrictive and financially disadvantageous contracts (the case was settled in McLaughlin’s favour in June) and the persistent accusation that Busted had been a fraud from the outset, a confection assembled cynically by its puppet master.

“The simple fact is that some musicians are geniuses, but they don’t know how to use their talent,” says McLaughlin. “David Bowie spent years faffing about until his management put him together with the right musicians and the right image. It’s my job to put things together. And if some acts weren’t put together by people like me the world would never hear of them.”

Pop has bought McLaughlin a house in the showbusiness quadrant of the West End, and a bar, the Metropolitan, in the Merchant City. The Fountain, the album he produced for Echo and the Bunnymen, will be released later this year and is one of their strongest efforts in decades, hallmarked by the bright, highly powered sound McLaughlin has always favoured. He has also produced charity records for John Smeaton and in honour of the late Celtic winger Jimmy Johnstone. He is now clearly in the whimsical, dilettante stage of a career that’s been prodigiously rewarding.

McLaughlin, however, is deathlessly a mover and shaker. His industry is in convulsion, though, with the golden days of filthy lucre long behind it and an uncertain digital future stretching ahead.

McLaughlin will not be slow to adapt. “I’m not downhearted, there’s just more opportunities to get paid from different directions. Songs for adverts, songs for films, ringtones, music pre-loaded on to mobile phones; I wrote the theme tune for Ministry of Mayhem, a kids’ television show. Even from that I got paid, got paid, got paid. So if there’s any sort of train I’m getting on it.”

Explore Music

• CD Reviews

• Live Reviews

• Classical

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010