Malcolm McLaren, the man who - if his own outlandish publicity is to be believed - birthed punk as a cultural force during his tenure as the manager of the Sex Pistols has died at the age of 64. The punk svengali had been diagnosed with cancer which finally claimed his life on Thursday April 8, 2010, in New York.
Born in Stoke Newington in North London on January 22, 1946, McLaren enjoyed a middle class education and eventually attended art college in the '60s before embarking on a life in fashion and music as the '70s dawned.
Influenced by teddy boy culture and retro American rock'n'roll - most notably the likes of Gene Vincent and Elvis Presley- he and his partner Vivienne Westwood opened Let It Rock, a shop on the King's Road, in 1971. A year later he headed to New York to buy stock for the shop when he encountered the New York Dolls and, intrigued by their trashy aesthetic, he began managing them.
Renaming his shop Too Fast To Live, To Young To Die, McLaren was clearly influenced by the Dolls' nihilistic attitude but both parties went their separate ways after a three year struggle. By then he'd developed his shop further and, now called Sex, it became the epicentre for what would become the UK punk scene which was centred around another band he was managing. That band would eventually become the Sex Pistols.
McLaren was largely credited with engineering the Pistols' controversial career - much to singer John Lydon's eternal annoyance who later sued him for unpaid royalties and won in 1987. In hindsight, however, McLaren's ability to create controversy also ended up destroying the band itself after their one and only proper studio album Never Mind The Bollocks, claiming the life of bass player Sid Vicious along the way.
Post-Pistols, McLaren managed Bow Wow Wow fronted by the teenage Annabella Lwin before launching his own musical career drawing on everything from hip hop (Buffalo Gals) opera (Madame Butterfly) to Franco-pop (Paris Paris) along the way.
Ever an outspoken figure, McLaren's endeavours and sloganeering contributed hugely to punk's cultural resonance and will outlive a man who enjoyed nothing more than self-mythology.
A full tribute to McLaren will appear in the next issue of MOJO magazine.
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