Dave Kendall, 28 April 1963 – 10 July 2026, RIP

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand expresses its deepest condolences to the family, colleagues, friends and many fans of Dave Kendall, an FCCT journalist member who served on the club’s board during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

In another incarnation some 35 years ago, Kendall was an immensely influential VJ with MTV credited with launching countless alternative and underground musicians and bands on the seminal ‘120 Minutes’, which he hosted from 1989 to 1992. Many of his guests remain household names to this day.

Kendall was originally from Liverpool in England and early in his career was a journalist on Melody Maker, a leading UK music paper, and New York’s East Village Eye. He is believed to have died in Bali, Indonesia, where he divided his time with Chiang Mai in northern Thailand for much of the 2020s. Beyond its date, details of his death have not been shared.

“Dave always considered himself more of a New Yorker and moved there in the 1980s when he was employed by MTV at the peak of its power,” said Todd Ruiz, a former journalist who now runs Arcadia Live, a popular Bangkok music bar. 

“Despite little to no experience, he wove together a show unlike anything the network had run before, a large tent of genres from indie to New Wave acts that were simply his personal preferences.

“Launched in 1986, 120 Minutes seemed to precipitate the rise of what became known as ‘alternative music’ and you didn't have to be a goth, punk or industrial gear-head to tune in when it ran for two hours late Sunday night,” said Ruiz.

Kendall left the programme in 1992 when, as he told Newsday, he had become “too old and ugly”, and moved to Los Angeles. On his watch with spiky hair, black leather jacket and an earring, the show hosted Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Morrissey and Johnny Marr of The Smiths, Robert Smith of The Cure, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Debbie Harry of Blondie -- the list is endless.

“All the while, he hid his natural blonde coif under a black wig to match the ‘alternative  look,’ said Ruiz. “Born into a Christian Scientist family, Dave had a lifelong struggle with mental health. He left Los Angeles behind and moved to Thailand around 2004 in pursuit of a peaceful life.

“Over time his media background reasserted itself, and he began producing segments on everything from motorcycles to teaching.”

Among other things, Kendall taught English and worked on a weekly travel programme, ‘Destination Thailand’, from 2011 to 2017 with the same team running the Bangkok Post newspaper’s new video channel. He toured Thailand for the travel show, and particularly loved the North and Northeast, traipsing through old temples and ancient ruins.

“He loved big bikes, and travelled to less-explored destinations with the camera team in pursuit,” recalled Raine Grady. “He was always ready to cover anything to do with music, he loved tech and innovation and he was passionate about learning Thai.”

“Destination Thailand co-founder Les Nyerges and I – and the whole team – loved working with Dave,” said Grady. “He was funny, witty, intense, quirky, a great conversationalist, had a really enquiring mind and was curious about people and places – all the hallmarks of a great journalist.”

“Being a fellow Gen-Xer, I usually ended up talking with him about music, our favourite bands from the 80s and 90s and some of the wild experiences he had along the way,” said Grady. “He had his demons and there were days when he simply couldn’t join a TV shoot because he needed to be alone. We respected his need for space. When he was on, he burned and he was electric to be around.”

Kendall worked for the Bangkok Post from 2017 to 2025, first as a subeditor and latterly as an online reporter/producer. In its obituary, the Post credited him with playing “a key role in the newsroom as a subeditor, helping shape the newspaper’s editorial standards and mentoring younger journalists.”

Kendall first rocked up at the FCCT in 2017, regularly attending programmes and sometimes filing live reports to camera from the clubhouse. “Instead of returning power to the people, the March 24 election has perpetuated the cycle of division – and the future of Thai politics is murkier than ever,” he reported in 2019.

Kendall dropped out of the prestigious London School of Economics to pursue his musical interests in the US, but later acquired a bachelor’s degree in business from National University in San Diego. In June 2021, he was awarded a master’s degree with distinction by Edinburgh Napier University after completing a course in international journalism for media professionals.

Kendall often tapped fellow board members for advice on interview topics and career advice, but the headwinds were strong. “I’m doing an online master’s in journalism but given the grim outlook I’m thinking I’d be better off looking at a communications position at an NGO or, failing that, some kind of teaching or lecturing,” he wrote to a former FCCT president, Dominic Faulder.

He was unfailingly modest about his celebrity exploits. “When he joined the board at the FCCT, I Googled him, and discovered that he had this fascinating past life as an MTV programme host – one of the world's first ‘veejays’ and a promoter of the new music of the 1980s – my music!” said Paul Risley, a United Nations and World Bank media adviser when they first met. “I never asked Dave about his music career and life, and now I wish I had.” 

More recently, Kendall was best known for his in-depth ‘Deeper Dive’ podcasts on major topics of the day, including regional scamming, cannabis liberalization, immigration policies, veganism and environmental destruction. He loved animals. 

Dave never fully gave up the rock 'n roll life, and over the past decade recorded a weekly show, ‘Party 360 with Dave Kendall,’ for Sirius XM, featuring throwbacks to the 1980s and 1990s.

“In recent years, he took a keen interest in the topic of meat production's outsize role in climate change,” said Ruiz. “In the weeks before his death, he was dedicating his time to developing a site devoted to the topic at livestockclimatefacts.org.”

“So influential, so beloved, in a different time, in a different place that would never exist today,” DJ John Richards posted in an online eulogy.

A wake will be held for Dave Kendall at the FCCT on Friday 7 August from 6.30pm.