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Malcolm Dome dies
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 2 November 2021
Rock and metal journalist Malcolm Dome has died, aged 66. Numerous tributes have been paid to a writer whose career began in the late 1970s, with spells at magazines including Kerrang, Metal Hammer and Classic Rock, as well as the TotalRock radio station.
Paying tribute, Kerrang Editor-In-Chief Phil Alexander writes: “In a journalistic career that spanned over 40 years, he wore his knowledge lightly, and championed an endless stream of artists – both established and emerging – that benefitted from his relentless enthusiasm. Similarly, he connected with several generations of readers, writing with the same feverish zeal with which they consumed his work”.
“To those of us that had the pleasure of working with Malcolm, his sudden passing has left us stunned”, he goes on. “In all honesty, it is hard to find the words to describe a man who was so complex and so deeply loved – a maddeningly funny, eccentric individual who cared little for the material things in life”.
Editor of Prog, Jerry Ewing, who worked with Dome at the magazine and on a number of books, adds: “Malcolm was a great friend to me from the very first time I met him as a writer just starting out, as he was for many other writers as well. The word legend gets bandied around far too often these days but Malcolm most certainly was. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge about music and was one of the most genuinely widely loved and respected men I know. I will miss him terribly”.
Writing on the Machine Head website, the band’s frontman Robb Flynn says: “Malcolm was a huge champion of Machine Head from the get-go and always had some thing funny and witty to say. But my favourite memory of him, is hanging out at an insanely packed night at London’s infamous Crobar (which is one of the very best dive bars in the entire world). We were just sitting crammed in a corner by the front door talking about all the artists from the 70s and 80s that he had a chance to meet, drink, chat with”.
“He had gotten many opportunities to hang out with Bon Scott from AC/DC, and I just sat there mesmerised listening to him tell a story after story”, he continues. “He said Bon could ‘drink any man under the table, and get any woman that he wanted. His charms were irresistible’. I don’t know what it is about the story that stays with me, but Malcolm was genuinely one of a kind. As a religious reader of Kerrang magazine in my teenage years, so much of the early thrash bands that he championed would lead me to the path where I stand today”.
Dome began his career at the Record Mirror in the late 70s, then joining Kerrang at its launch in 1981, a magazine he returned to several times – including as News Editor in 1994. He was also involved in the launch of Raw magazine in 1988, and later became the editor of Metal Forces in the early 90s, and was heavily involved with Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Prog.
He joined TotalRock when it launched in 1997 – then called the Rock Radio Network – and presented numerous shows over the years. Founder Tony Wilson says in a statement: “Malcolm was a key part of TotalRock, joining us before we were even called TotalRock. He was part of our DNA and his absence among us will leave a void that no other can fill”.
