1980: Don't Tell Me from the album Tied to the Tracks
It's a remarkably hard album to track down in New Zealand, but Tied to the Tracks and the single Don't Tell Me are a true mark of Laing's success in Britain. "It was the most professional time for me really, because I had a publishing deal and was being paid to write songs. It was a really good time. And I was playing a 12-string, so they all had slightly different harmonics to the songs before, you know, a high G springs out ... and it gave me a whole lot of new tunes."
The change to 12-string was made after she got a bit angry with her six-string Maton one night. "I murdered it, so I needed a new guitar and my manager gave me 80 quid to go and get another one. I found this old 12-string and fell in love with it."
Despite only having played a 12-string once before, she quickly picked it up sitting at home in her Camden flat, working things out as she went.
"I'd hear all sorts of these different chords in my head but I had to find out how to play them and learn them."