{"id":62399,"date":"2010-04-11T18:25:13","date_gmt":"2010-04-11T17:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/?p=8280"},"modified":"2010-04-11T18:25:13","modified_gmt":"2010-04-11T17:25:13","slug":"malcolm-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/luxsure.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/11\/malcolm-mclaren\/","title":{"rendered":"Malcolm McLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"
Many paid tribute to the godfather of punk, from his ex-partner Vivienne Westwood to former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones who called him \u201cthe Brian Epstein of punk\u201d. When he reached 18, McLaren went to Harrow Art School where he met Vivienne Westwood and lost his virginity to her. She was a school teacher at the time and soon became his girlfriend – and pregnant with their son Joseph, now the owner of the glamorous lingerie brand Agent Provocateur.<\/p>\n Between the late sixties and the beginning of the seventies, where he opened his first shop with Vivienne Westwood, McLaren attended several art colleges where things went\u00a0generally quite bad. The Croydon art college even tried to transfer him to a mental institution.<\/p>\n At the time, he was fascinated by the writings of the Situationists International, a French revolutionary movement founded in 1957, deeply rooted into Marxism and whose main influential essay is the famous The Society of Spectacle by Guy Debord. The movement, characterised by a Marxist and surrealist take on art and politics, aimed to reply to the fake models advertised by mass media with alternative life experiences. It also played a great role in the May 68 events in Paris.<\/p>\n It must certainly have struck a chord in McLaren, who tried and fought the establishment during his whole life, in his own way. \u00a0His son Joseph Corre reported that his last words on his death bed were \u201cFree Leonard Peltier\u201d, an Indian-American who is serving life for the murder of two FBI agents in 1975 and considered a political prisoner by many. It also makes sense that McLaren’s last will was to be buried in Highgate Cemetery, North London, close to where he grew up but also renowned as being the final resting place of Karl Marx.<\/p>\n McLaren and Vivienne Westwood opened their first shop in 1971 on the Kings Road and named it Let It Rock<\/em>. The shop sold Teddy Boy clothes and crepe-soled shoes. When asked in an interview with Vice Magazine why he got into this whole teddy-boy thing in the seventies, he answered he did it as an act of revolt against the hippies: \u201cThat part of Kings Road was known internationally as the taste making, rock and roll capital of the world (…) It was the era of kaftans and beads so I put a jukebox in there that blared out rock and roll constantly.\u201d This shop changed names several times, renamed Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die<\/em>, then SEX, when McLaren came back to London after his trip to New York. At that time, it was selling S&M garments, rubber t-shirts or knickers but also tit clamps and cock rings. Better than your local sex-shop, a pure product of the underground culture.<\/p>\n More than that, Malcolm McLaren is an icon of the punk movement and his contribution to British music is invaluable.\u00a0 Alan McGee, music industry boss and musician, declared in a tribute that \u201cMalcolm shaped the face of British Music. Without him, we would never have had Primal Scream or Oasis or so many iconic British bands that followed in the tracks of the Sex Pistols\u201d.<\/p>\n It all started when McLaren went to a boutique fair in New-York in 1972. He was already making stage wear for the New York Dolls, an American protopunk band who has influenced a whole generation of musicians such as The Clash, Ramones, Guns \u2018n\u2019 Roses but also the Sex Pistols themselves.\u00a0McLaren quickly became their manager and designed a whole new look for them, using red patent leather and Soviet symbols, putting the Dolls into Maoist Red Guard outfits. The idea was for McLaren, who was fascinated with the Situationists International theories, to \u201cput a certain social and political commentary back into pop culture.\u201d<\/em> It was a failure and the band separated soon afterwards.<\/p>\n McLaren then chose the most sensible option and came back to London where he renamed the shop SEX but kept in mind the idea of creating a band. He actually recruited the members directly among the denizens of Sex, Glenn Matlock (replaced by Sid Vicious in early 1977), Steve Jones and soon John Lydon, quickly rechristened Johnny Rotten because of his never-brushed teeth. John Lydon impressed McLaren with his attitude and style, and after he joined the band as new lead singer, the Sex Pistols were born.<\/p>\n<\/a>Malcolm McLaren, best-know as the legendary manager of the Sex Pistols, died on Thursday 8th<\/sup> April from a rare form of cancer, age 64.<\/p>\n
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Malcolm McLaren was born in 1946 in Stoke Newington, North London, where he was raised by his eccentric maternal grandmother Rose. He later reported that she would say to him \u201cto be bad is good…\u00a0 to be good is simply boring<\/em>\u201d, plunging him into a bath of\u00a0subversive spirit from a very young age.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n