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Greg Shaw (January 1949 – October 19, 2004) was an American writer, publisher, magazine editor, music historian and record executive.<ref name=NYT>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
BiographyEdit
Shaw was born in San Francisco, California.<ref name=NYT/> He began writing about rock and roll music as a young teenager. His first zines were Tolkien-related,<ref name="NYT" /> but among them was also a mimeographed sheet called Mojo Navigator (full title, "Mojo-Navigator Rock and Roll News") which he founded in 1966 with David Harris.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mojo Navigator is said to have been an early inspiration for Rolling Stone magazine, as its co-founder Jann Wenner befriended Shaw and learned how to produce a rock magazine.<ref name="Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref>
In the 1970s Shaw moved to Los Angeles with wife and partner Suzy Shaw and started the fanzine called Who Put the Bomp, popularly known as simply Bomp!, or Bomp magazine.<ref name="Talevski">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Bomp">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was hired by United Artists as assistant head of creative services.<ref name="Guardian" /> Shaw's writing appeared in Bomp!, of which he was editor and publisher, as well as in Creem, Phonograph Record (where he again served as editor) and occasionally Rolling Stone.<ref name="NYT" /><ref name="Independent">Template:Cite news</ref> During this time, he pursued a long-time project The Encyclopedia Of British Rock. He also later wrote a book about Elton John.<ref name="Talevski" /> Bomp featured many writers who would later become prominent, including Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Richard Meltzer, and Ken Barnes.<ref name="Bomp" />
During the 1970s, Shaw worked for Sire Records, and was instrumental in the signing of Flamin' Groovies, a band that he also managed for a couple of years.<ref name="Talevski" /> In 1974, Bomp! became a record label, and Shaw released records by Devo, the Weirdos and Iggy Pop, and worked with several artists including Stiv Bators and the Dead Boys.<ref name="Kaleta">Template:Cite news</ref> He signed, and distributed, power pop and new wave acts such as Shoes, the Nerves, the Plimsouls and the Romantics.<ref name="Kaleta" /> Bomp! Records was an LA record store for a couple of years, as well as one of the first independent distributors in the U.S.<ref name="Kaleta" />
In the 1980s, Shaw helped launch the garage revival scene with bands such as the Miracle Workers and the Pandoras.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also released music by Spacemen 3 and the Brian Jonestown Massacre in the mid to late-1990s, and appears in the Sundance award-winning documentary Dig!.<ref name="Independent" /> In 1994, he associated with Patrick Boissel's Alive Records, a label with music by the Black Keys, Two Gallants, the Bobby Lees, Radio Moscow, Swamp Dogg and many other artists.
In addition, he was known as a record collector, and historian, and started the Pebbles collection album series in the early 1980s.<ref name="Guardian" /><ref name="Independent" />
Greg Shaw died of heart failure in Los Angeles at the age of 55.<ref name=NYT/>