malcolm maclaren

It was quite a shock to hear of Malcolm Maclarens death. He was always so rude I imagined that rudeness to extend to his health. As they say. I never knew him of course. Just his public face. That was not exactly loveable He was pretty brilliant as a character. And in the story of the Sex Pistols, that was an amazing cast of characters. Resonant and powerful and capable of bending and twisting time and its perception so old things became new and new became old. The Sex Pistols made everything seem old all of a  sudden but at the same time brought out adjectives like “Dickensian” in regard to the look and deportment of the main players . There you had the 19th and 20th centuries in harmony all of a  sudden. Before them it was all just a bit sad and faded denim- like as rock music started to slow down to check itself out in the shop windows all the time. The first seasons of nostalgia. Maclaren was there when the brilliant flash of punk happened.

His greatest role as an irritant was what gave punk its mad spark which still carries a  charge today. 
To all the cries of “its a   scam!” and “its a  fake” he rudely agreed and put more kero on the kindling. No one could ever get teary and sad about punk while he was standing near the grave site, selling t shirts. He stamped it with that great duality that it was probably all a  load of bullshit and flammery as well as being an amazing moment of illumination. Thats what made it so great! Punk Dies!

He kept saying he made the band up and hinted he wrote some of the songs. He seemed to try to claim Sid - up to the point of the MURDER and SUICIDE. Parts of the story were all too real and uncontrollable. He tried to control some of the story. it all got so out of hand though. 

The other players in the story rebelled and walked out of the theatre. Their story was told thrillingly in the Julien Temple film “The filth and the fury”. Malcolms presence in that story was a figure in a  complete body and head bondage gimp outfit. 

Julien Temple had also, with Malcolm, painted his very different side of the story in the earlier film , “the great rock’n’roll swindle”. 

So many contradictions. 

Others have pointed out the effect on Johnny of an intelligent, cultured older mans attention and the encouragement he must have given them all. Young, inarticulate, poor, thieving, skiving, powerless dudes. Perhaps he resonated them first? I mean he was the first audient? The believer? And then he turned from Johnny to his friend Sid and tried to work a new smudged area into the picture himself! And claim it all as his own work! The story will go on forever. 

I have a  dvd of  a “rock n roll revival “ concert from London in the early 70s. In the crowd scenes you see Malcolm and Vivienne selling t shirts outside the arena. 

He practiced his dark arts on the New York Dolls. And fumbled it (Red leather with hammer and sickle flags) and ruined them. 

Some say he saw Richard Hell in a  torn t shirt and stole a generation. 

He crushed Adam Ant and took his band to make Bow Wow Wow. They were great too. So was Adam when he picked himself up again. 

Later he tried Opera and hip hop and square dancing and a film about the great shops along Oxford street. 

What could you compare him to? Suge Knight? L Ron Hubbard? Gourdjieff? Ouspensky , Master P? Franz Mesmer? Colonel Tom Parker? Dick Clark? John Dee? Alan Freed? Lee Gordon? Don Lane? Graham Kennedy?

Like I said, I did not know the man and I am no expert. 

He is to be buried in Highgate cemetary, near where he was apparently born. Thats real.