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Laing's gramophone.
19 August 2003
Comox, British Columbia, Canada

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In addition to Laing's skill as a painter, he was also quite musical. Laing's neighbours while he lived in "Shakesides", the Stubbs family, report having heard him often playing the violin on his back porch before he went deaf. In his adolescent years, Laing could sing, read music, and played three instruments. Both Mack and his wife Ethel Laing were keen appreciators of classical music; they kept an excellent collection of recordings for their gramophone. Letters to and from P.A. Taverner suggest that Laing was something of an authority on good classical recordings among his peers.