Colin Larkin | |
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Born | 1949 (age 74–75) |
Occupations |
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Website |
colinlarkin |
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. [1] Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book All Time Top 1000 Albums, [2] and edited the Guinness Who's Who of Jazz, [3] the Guinness Who's Who of Blues, [4] and the Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock. [5] He has over 650,000 copies in print. [6]
Larkin was born in Dagenham, Essex. [7] He spent much of his early childhood attending the travelling fair where his father, who worked by day as a plumber for the council, moonlighted on the waltzers to make ends meet. It was in the fairground, against a background of Little Richard on the wind-up 78 rpm turntables, that Larkin acquired his passion for the world of popular music. [8]
Larkin studied at the South East Essex County Technical High School and at the London College of Printing, where he took typography and graphic design. [7]
Larkin's company Scorpion Publishing published John Gorman's trilogy of Labour history, Banner Bright, [9] To Build Jerusalem and Images of Labour. [10] Music books at this time included Johnny Rogan's Timeless Flight: The Definitive Story of the Byrds [11] and Bob Dylan, His Unreleased Recordings. [12] [7]
In 1989, Larkin formed Square One Books to create a multi-volume Encyclopedia of Popular Music, and to publish music-related books. He published additional music biographies including those on Graham Bond, R.E.M., Eric Clapton, the Byrds and Frank Zappa. [13]
In a pre-internet age, the work required to create an encyclopedia of popular music was considerable. Aided by a team of contributors, a fast-growing library of music magazines, books and the music itself, an eventual 3000 vinyl singles, 3500 vinyl albums, 4500 music biographies and 38,000 CDs, [14] Larkin began compiling the Encyclopedia.
In 1992, the first edition of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music went into print. [15] Rolling Stone described the work as "musical history in the making",[ citation needed] and The Times called it "a work of almost frightening completeness".[ citation needed] Musician Jools Holland called it "without question the most useful reference work on popular music".[ citation needed]
Square One developed their own in-house software using 4th Dimension. [16]
Over 50 separate titles followed the creation of the Encyclopedia's database, and in 1997 Larkin sold Square One Books to American data company Muze. [16] Larkin became full-time editor-in-chief and ran the encyclopedia as a cottage industry, with a team of fewer than ten contributors, who in terms of wordcount were "producing an Agatha Christie novel a month". [14]
From September 2008, Larkin ceased all involvement with Muze Inc. or any of its related companies following the closure of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music as a stand-alone product and his subsequent redundancy.[ citation needed] On 15 April 2009, it was announced that most of the assets of Muze Inc. were purchased by Macrovision. [17]
In 2008, Larkin launched a new website whose original inspiration had come from the All Time Top 1000 Albums, initially called 1000Greatest.com. This would later change its name to become the multi-media rating site and iPhone app, btoe.com (Best Things On Earth).[ citation needed] Larkin closed down this website in August 2018 and re-directed the content to Musopedia.com. He is CEO and editor-in-chief of Musopedia Ltd.
Larkin wrote the liner notes for the Rolling Stones' curated project Confessin' the Blues. [18]
In November 2020, Larkin released his latest book, Cover Me – The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965. His first non-music book, it was a celebration of the classic Pan Books paperbacks, incorporating full-colour reproductions of over 300 of the original cover artworks. [19] The book was nominated for the H. R. F. Keating Award in 2021 and reached the shortlist final eight. [20] A paperback edition was published in May 2022. [21]
Colin Larkin | |
---|---|
Born | 1949 (age 74–75) |
Occupations |
|
Website |
colinlarkin |
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. [1] Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book All Time Top 1000 Albums, [2] and edited the Guinness Who's Who of Jazz, [3] the Guinness Who's Who of Blues, [4] and the Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock. [5] He has over 650,000 copies in print. [6]
Larkin was born in Dagenham, Essex. [7] He spent much of his early childhood attending the travelling fair where his father, who worked by day as a plumber for the council, moonlighted on the waltzers to make ends meet. It was in the fairground, against a background of Little Richard on the wind-up 78 rpm turntables, that Larkin acquired his passion for the world of popular music. [8]
Larkin studied at the South East Essex County Technical High School and at the London College of Printing, where he took typography and graphic design. [7]
Larkin's company Scorpion Publishing published John Gorman's trilogy of Labour history, Banner Bright, [9] To Build Jerusalem and Images of Labour. [10] Music books at this time included Johnny Rogan's Timeless Flight: The Definitive Story of the Byrds [11] and Bob Dylan, His Unreleased Recordings. [12] [7]
In 1989, Larkin formed Square One Books to create a multi-volume Encyclopedia of Popular Music, and to publish music-related books. He published additional music biographies including those on Graham Bond, R.E.M., Eric Clapton, the Byrds and Frank Zappa. [13]
In a pre-internet age, the work required to create an encyclopedia of popular music was considerable. Aided by a team of contributors, a fast-growing library of music magazines, books and the music itself, an eventual 3000 vinyl singles, 3500 vinyl albums, 4500 music biographies and 38,000 CDs, [14] Larkin began compiling the Encyclopedia.
In 1992, the first edition of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music went into print. [15] Rolling Stone described the work as "musical history in the making",[ citation needed] and The Times called it "a work of almost frightening completeness".[ citation needed] Musician Jools Holland called it "without question the most useful reference work on popular music".[ citation needed]
Square One developed their own in-house software using 4th Dimension. [16]
Over 50 separate titles followed the creation of the Encyclopedia's database, and in 1997 Larkin sold Square One Books to American data company Muze. [16] Larkin became full-time editor-in-chief and ran the encyclopedia as a cottage industry, with a team of fewer than ten contributors, who in terms of wordcount were "producing an Agatha Christie novel a month". [14]
From September 2008, Larkin ceased all involvement with Muze Inc. or any of its related companies following the closure of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music as a stand-alone product and his subsequent redundancy.[ citation needed] On 15 April 2009, it was announced that most of the assets of Muze Inc. were purchased by Macrovision. [17]
In 2008, Larkin launched a new website whose original inspiration had come from the All Time Top 1000 Albums, initially called 1000Greatest.com. This would later change its name to become the multi-media rating site and iPhone app, btoe.com (Best Things On Earth).[ citation needed] Larkin closed down this website in August 2018 and re-directed the content to Musopedia.com. He is CEO and editor-in-chief of Musopedia Ltd.
Larkin wrote the liner notes for the Rolling Stones' curated project Confessin' the Blues. [18]
In November 2020, Larkin released his latest book, Cover Me – The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965. His first non-music book, it was a celebration of the classic Pan Books paperbacks, incorporating full-colour reproductions of over 300 of the original cover artworks. [19] The book was nominated for the H. R. F. Keating Award in 2021 and reached the shortlist final eight. [20] A paperback edition was published in May 2022. [21]