David William Laing (9 January 1947 – 7 January 2019)
was an English writer, editor, and broadcaster, specialising in the history and development of
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' (G ...
and
rock music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States and ...
. He was a research fellow at the universities of
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buck ...
and
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
.
Biography
Laing was born in
Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, and attended
King's College School
King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London and ...
in
Wimbledon, where he joined his first band. He began studies at
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Cam ...
, but left in 1967 without graduating and moved to London. He started writing music articles and his first book, ''The Sound of Our Time'' (1970), while working in clerical jobs. He then took a degree in English and sociology at the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
, where he met fellow writer
Phil Hardy. Laing also worked with
Val Wilmer
Valerie Sybil Wilmer (born 7 December 1941) is a British photographer and writer specialising in jazz, gospel, blues, and British African-Caribbean music and culture. Her notable books include ''Jazz People'' (1970) and ''As Serious As Your Lif ...
on an unpublished history of
coal mining
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
communities.
In 1971 he published one of the first extended analyses of a pop musician's recordings, ''Buddy Holly''. At the suggestion of writer
Charlie Gillett
Charles Thomas Gillett (; 20 February 1942 – 17 March 2010) was a British radio presenter, musicologist, and writer, mainly on rock and roll and other forms of popular music. He was particularly noted for his influential book ''The Sound of t ...
,
Laing became editor of the monthly British music magazine ''
Let It Rock'', from October 1972 to October 1973. His other books include ''The Electric Muse: the story of Folk into Rock'' (with
,
Robin Denselow
Robin Denselow is a British writer, journalist, and broadcaster.
Education
Denselow was educated at Leighton Park School, a boys' Quaker boarding independent school (now co-educational) in Reading, Berkshire, followed by New College, Oxford, whe ...
and
Robert Shelton, 1975), and ''One Chord Wonders: Power and Meaning in Punk Rock'' (1985). In the mid-1970s Laing was co-editor of one of the first reference books on rock music, ''The Encyclopedia of Rock''. In 1978 he published ''The Marxist Theory of Art'', written after moving to
Hebden Bridge
Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, England. It is west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden Water. The town is the largest ...
in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
.
Laing co-authored, with Phil Hardy, ''The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music'' (1995), and co-wrote, with Sarah Davis, ''The Guerrilla Guide to the Music Business'' (2001). Laing was an editor of the ''Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World''. He also wrote widely in music magazines and newspapers, including ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
''. As of 2016, he was the managing editor of the journal ''Popular Music History'' and co-editor of the ''Icons of Pop Music'' book series.
Laing died of cancer on 7 January 2019, at the age of 71.
References
1947 births
2019 deaths
English male journalists
English music historians
English writers about music
Place of birth missing
{{England-writer-stub