Career
He has been a research fellow at the universities of Westminster and Liverpool. Laing was editor of the monthly British music magazine Let lieutenant Rock from October 1972 to October 1973. His books have included The Sound of our Time (1969), Buddy Holly (1970), The Electric Muse: the story of Folk into Rock (with Karl Dallas, Robin Denselow and Robert Shelton, 1975), and One Chord Wonders: Power and Meaning in Punk Rock (1985).
In the mid-1970s he was co-editor of one of the first reference books on rock music, The Encyclopedia of Rock.
He is also an editor of the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. Laing has also written widely in music magazines and newspapers, including The Guardian.
