MALCOLM MCLAREN DIES AT 64

Malcolm McLaren

Music mourns another godfather of punk Malcolm McLaren, impresario who made the Sex Pistols infamous died in Switzerland yesterday at the age of 64 after a long battle with cancer

By Tom Peck (full story)

Friday, 9 April 2010

He died in hospital in Switzerland with his partner, 37-year-old Korean- American Young Kim by his bedside, along with his son Joe Corre. Ms Kim told The Independent: "We were there with him when he passed away. He was diagnosed with cancer in October. He was very active until the end of February when his tumor became very aggressive. He just went very quickly. He said he wanted to be buried at Highgate cemetery. We are now taking steps to try to make that happen."

McLaren had kept his illness quiet. In February he had traveled to New York in February for the launch of an art book before returning to Switzerland to be treated at a clinic.

Best-known as the manager of the punk band the Sex Pistols, he achieved the notoriety he sought – and which never left him – when the band's anti-establishment single "God Save The Queen", released during the Queen's Silver Jubilee, was banned from the airwaves by the BBC and the Independent Broadcasting Authority.

He was raised by his grandmother in Newington Green, north London, after his war-deserter father left home when he was two. After having been expelled from several art colleges, he opened a clothes shop on the King's Road, with his then girlfriend Vivienne Westwood in 1971. The couple's son, Joe Corre, went on found the lingerie company Agent Provocateur.

Last night Miss Westwood said: "When we were young and I fell in love with Malcolm, I thought he was beautiful and I still do. I thought he was a very charismatic, special and talented person. We hadn't been in touch for a long time. The thought of him dead is really something very sad."

Malcolm McLaren, who made a name for himself managing and creating the Sex Pistols persona, has died at the age of 64 and Rob Zombie and Johnny Rotten remember.

Ivan Kral recalls Malcolm McLaren:

“I remember going to his clothes store SEX on one of our first tours. Jay D and I heard rockers shopped there, so I was expecting Keith Richards’ kinda stuff like snakeskin and velvet scarves.



Wrong. Bondage pants, rubber clothes, dirty t-shirts with anarchy statements – with real stains. I got an eyeful of hard-core punkers….green mohawks, safety pinned faces, even a straitjacket walked in. Almost like Halloween.


Another time I met Malcolm at the Portobello Hotel in London. Johnny Thunders warned me he was a manipulator, but I just remember a pale arrogant guy rambling on and on about how he was gonna do this and that. You know, conquer-the-world type stuff. But, his Bow Wow Wow band were great -- the whole tribal thing was something new".

Mark Childress

From Mark Childress Lead Singer of THE DEAD CITY PROPHETS

I worked with Malcolm, I assisted on his "Waltz Darling" album in 1988 at Pearl Sound. He was an odd little dude, he always wore a white button down shirt and never buttoned the cuffs or rolled up the sleeves.

Whenever I wear a button down for a performance I never button the cuffs or roll up the sleeves because of that. The studio was located in Canton Michigan near a Meijers store, Malcolm loved Meijer's for some reason. The day before I met him he was in town for the sessions and I spotted this odd little curly red headed man wandering down Ford road, white shirt sleeves flapping.

Mc Laren Sleeves

It turned out that he was walking to Meijer's, I often thought that no matter how hip anybody was to Malcolm and who he was, they would have never in a million years believed that the little red headed man browsing fruit of the looms up the aisle was the same one who helped start a musical revolution.

"Get us a tea boy" Earl Grey with just a splash of cream, he was one of a kind.

Mark Childress
Dead City Prophets

Rip Malcolm and thank you Ivan and Mark for the guest posts!