Malcolm McLaren, the entrepreneur best known as the founder and ex-manager of the Sex Pistols died Thursday morning. Losing a battle with mesothelioma, a rare type of cancer. He was 64. Due to a world wind of conflicting information, it’s not entirely sure where he actually died. His girlfriend, Young Kim, and his son Joe Corre have told various news outlets, including the New York Times, that he passed away in a Switzerland hospital. His spokesman Les Molloy told The Independent that he died in New York City.
McLaren, an art school dropout, was first known for his fashion, and the controversial clothes shop he opened on London’s King’s Road with his girlfriend Vivienne Westwood in 1971. McLaren gave the name The Sex Pistols to the group of young men hanging out at his store, helped pick out front man John Lydon (soon known as “Johnny Rotten.”) and signed the group with EMI. The Sex Pistol first single, “Anarchy in the UK” came out in 1976. The Sex Pistols, whose antiestablishment antics, violence, and swearing shocked Britain and revolutionized the music scene. “Without Malcolm McLaren there would not have been any British punk,” said music journalist Jon Savage, who wrote “England’s Dreaming” – which chronicles the history of the group. The band’s career owed much to their manager’s talent for self-promotion.
McLaren managed other artists as well like Adam and the Ants, Bow Wow Wow and Jimmy The Hoover. McLaren’s solo musical work has been a source of inspiration for many artists as well. Particularly from the Duck Rock period. Some of the artists that have borrowed from him: Eminem, Mariah Carey, Amerie and the Dope Smugglaz. This self-publicist once boasted of inventing punk music. Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren(22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010).
