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Former Sex Pistols and New York Dolls manager Malcolm McLaren died in New York this morning aged 64 following a long battle with cancer.
McLaren was a controversial but notorious fixture on the London punk scene of the early 70’s, opening clothes shop Let It Rock with Vivienne Westwood on Kings Road – initially selling teddy boy style apparel – before rebranding it as the infamous store SEX, selling S&M outfits which became a heavy influence on the punk aesthetics of the time.
McLaren managed struggling punk band The Strand, and after getting a young and rebellious John Lydon involved, the group quickly became The Sex Pistols, and under his management he ensured they were never too far from controversy.
It was McLaren’s innovative idea to book a boat trip down the Thames for the band during the Queen’s Silver Jubilee to perform their single ‘God Save The Queen’, after which the boat was raided and McLaren was subsequently arrested.
In the following year The Sex Pistols were to experience later problems which would see them returning back from their US tour on separate flights, with members accusing McLaren of mismanaging them and their earnings and subsequently breaking up.
A solo career followed, most notably the album Duck Rock, which is regularly cited as encouraging the spread of hip-hop to a wider UK audience, with his work being sampled more recently by Eminem and Marah Carey.
McLaren also managed and created the band Bow Wow Wow in the 1980’s, initially devising the group to promote his and Westwood’s New Romantic fashion lines.
Malcolm McLaren
January 22 1946 – April 8 2010