Malcolm Richard Laycock (1 November 1938 – 8 November 2009)Peter Vache
Obituary
''The Guardian'', 10 November 2009 was an English radio presenter who hosted jazz, big band, and dance band programmes for

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

and the

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Early life

Malcolm Laycock was born in

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of Bi ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

where his parents owned a grocer's shop. He attended

Bradford Grammar School Bradford Grammar School (BGS) is a co-educational independent day school located in Frizinghall, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Entrance is by examination, except for the sixth form, where admission is based on GCSE results. The school ...

after gaining a scholarship, and was a contemporary and friend of the artist

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

. He trained as a teacher at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

in London, and in 1962 was elected President of the student union. After graduating he taught at schools in south London, including the William Penn School in

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of ...

, where he established a radio station for excluded pupils. He eventually rose to become deputy head of

Peckham Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon p ...

School, but his work with radio brought him to the attention of Radio London and he joined 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. ...

...

Broadcasting career

BBC Radio London BBC Radio London is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater London and its surrounding areas. The station broadcasts across the area and beyond, on the 94.9 FM broadcasting, FM frequency, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, ...

He also helped to establish the former London-based radio station 102.2 Jazz FM, where he became the programme controller. His other credits included documentaries on performers such as

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...

Ted Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...

Joe Loss Sir Joshua Alexander "Joe" Loss (22 June 1909 – 6 June 1990) was a British dance band leader and musician who founded his own eponymous orchestra. Life Loss was born in Spitalfields, London, the youngest of four children. His parents, Israe ...

and

Gilbert Becaud Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters * Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (Sout ...

(whom Laycock interviewed on the singer's yacht in the south of France). He also presented a documentary about

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...

, ''Billie Holiday in Her Own Words'' (for which he won a

Sony Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

). In 1992, along with fellow broadcaster

Dave Gelly Dave Gelly MBE (born 28 January 1938) is a British jazz critic. A long-standing contributor to ''The Observer'', he was named Jazz Writer of the Year in the 1999 British Jazz Awards. Gelly is also a jazz saxophonist and broadcaster, presenting a ...

, Laycock established a production company devoted to making programmes about vintage jazz and

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

. Encore Radio was one of the first companies to take advantage of restructuring at the BBC which opened its radio networks to independent producers, and it operated for six years. He began presenting on Radio 2 in 1994, when he started filling in for the ill Alan Dell on his '' Dance Band Days'' show, and following Dell's death in 1995, he took over the Sunday afternoon slot on the network. In 1998, ''Dance Band Days'' was subsumed into a Sunday evening programme and became '' Sunday Night at 10''. Laycock's presenting style and vast musical knowledge quickly made him popular with listeners, and the programme would regularly draw a weekly listening audience of 360,000. For many years, the show featured a mixture of music from

British dance band British dance band is a genre of popular jazz and dance music that developed in British dance halls and hotel ballrooms during the 1920s and 1930s, often called a Golden Age of British music, prior to the Second World War. Thousands of miles aw ...

s of the 1920s and '30s and from the

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

era. However, in November 2008 its format was altered to focus mainly on swing bands from the late 1930s and early 1940s to the present day. The decision led to complaints from the programme's listeners, who believed that Radio 2 was no longer catering for its older listeners. Laycock himself later said that he had been ordered to drop the British dance bands part of his show. Following a dispute with BBC management over his salary, Laycock announced his departure from the station at the end of July 2009. He had been due to take a four-week holiday, but instead decided to leave after failing to negotiate a new contract. He later claimed in a newspaper interview to have been constructively dismissed by Radio 2. The BBC denied this was the case, and said his departure had occurred because they were unable to meet his demand for a pay rise (from a salary of £24,000) of 60%. He presented his final edition of ''Sunday Night at 10'' on 26 July 2009, announcing his departure on air, a move that took his bosses by surprise.

Clare Teal Clare Teal (born 14 May 1973) is an English singer and broadcaster who has become famous not only for her singing, but also for having signed the biggest recording contract by a British jazz singer. Biography Teal was brought up in the Kildwic ...

took over the show from the following Sunday, 2 August. Laycock's departure prompted outraged listeners to write to Radio 2 controller

Bob Shennan Robert Duncan James "Bob" Shennan (born 18 March 1962, Wirral, Cheshire) is a British media executive and current Director of Audio at BBC Studios. He was appointed to the role in April 2022, having previously held the positions of director, BBC ...

, and even their local MPs, in an attempt to bring him back. It was also lamented by the magazine ''

The Oldie ''The Oldie'' is a British monthly magazine written for older people "as a light-hearted alternative to a press obsessed with youth and celebrity", according to its website. The magazine was launched in 1992 by Richard Ingrams, who was its edi ...

''. Shennan later said that he had tried to persuade Laycock not to resign, but without success.

Other work

Away from broadcasting, Laycock was President of the Frank Sinatra Society, and the Big Bands Windsor Appreciation Society. He was also vice-president of the Syd Lawrence Society and regularly travelled with the

Syd Lawrence Orchestra Syd Lawrence (26 June 1923 – 5 May 1998) was a British people, British bandleader, who became famous in the United Kingdom, UK for his orchestra's Big Band sound, which drew on the 1940s style of music of Glenn Miller and Count Basie amongst ...

to compère their concerts. He compiled many CD reissues and wrote essays for the sleeve notes. In addition he wrote a column for the magazine ''Big Bands International'', and was briefly editor of the short-lived 1990s publication ''Jazz Magazine International''.

Personal life and death

Laycock's wife Liz died of cancer in July 2009. They had two sons, Dominic and Andrew. Andrew (Andy) Laycock is a member of the

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

vocal group

The Flying Pickets The Flying Pickets is a British '' a cappella'' vocal group which had a Christmas number one hit in 1983 on the UK Singles Chart with their cover version of Yazoo's track " Only You". History The band of six was founded by Brian Hibbard in 19 ...

. Malcolm Laycock died on 8 November 2009, aged 71, after having been ill with

emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...

and

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

. Radio 2 controller Bob Shennan said that former colleagues were "shocked and saddened" to hear the news of his death, and paying tribute to him, Shennan said, "Malcolm was a much-loved and highly respected broadcaster, renowned for his skill as a presenter and producer, and his passion for music and radio." As part of a tribute programme to him, on Sunday 15 November BBC Radio 2 repeated an edition of ''Sunday Night at 10'' from April 2009, in which Laycock had celebrated his 700th programme in the series by playing some of his favourite tracks from the big band era.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laycock, Malcolm 1938 births 2009 deaths Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London BBC Radio 2 presenters British radio DJs British radio personalities Deaths from emphysema Deaths from pneumonia in England English radio producers People educated at Bradford Grammar School People from Keighley