The Stage

Malcolm Laycock

Published Tuesday 8 December 2009 at 11:50 by Michael Quinn

Malcolm Laycock was a radio presenter of the old school - informed, enthusiastic and with a rare understanding that the star of his shows was the music and not himself.

His abrupt departure from Radio 2’s Sunday night big band music show earlier this year, after almost a decade and a half, when the BBC refused his request for an increase in his £24,000 salary, caused outrage among his 350,000 regular listeners and underlined the popularity his distinctively understated style had won him.

In the early seventies, while still a deputy head teacher in Peckham, Laycock began producing education and arts programmes for Radio London, staying with the station for 20 years, before moving to the World Service. There he hosted the request show Jazz for the Asking and a number of programmes exploring the swing era and popular music of the past.

In 1990 he was a co-founder and programme controller of Jazz FM, before forming Encore Radio later in the decade with one time teaching colleague turned jazz presenter Dave Gelly. He contributed regularly to Radio 2, winning a Sony Award for Billie Holiday In Her Own Words. For a period he edited Jazz Magazine International before it folded in 1995.

Born in Keighley, West Yorkshire on November 1, 1938, he died suddenly on November 8, two months after his wife’s death and a week after his 71st birthday. He is survived by two sons.