Grave and headstone of Malcolm McLaren, Sex Pistols manager, Highgate Cemetery, east side, North London, England, UK, N6 6PJ
Image details
Contributor:
Tony Smith / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
2RA238DFile size:
54 MB (3.1 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
5172 x 3648 px | 43.8 x 30.9 cm | 17.2 x 12.2 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
19 May 2023Location:
Highgate Cemetery, Swain's Lane, London, England, UK, N6 6PJMore information:
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English impresario, visual artist, singer, songwriter, musician, clothes designer and boutique owner, who combined these activities in an inventive and provocative way. He promoted and managed the bands New York Dolls, the Sex Pistols, and Bow Wow Wow, and recorded music in his own name. McLaren was brought up by his grandmother after his father, Peter, left the family home, and attended a number of British art colleges and adopted the stance of the social rebel in the style of French revolutionaries the Situationists. McLaren realised that a new protest style was needed for the 1970s, [citation needed] and involved himself in the punk movement, for which he supplied fashions from the Chelsea boutique SEX, which he operated with girlfriend Vivienne Westwood. After a period advising the New York Dolls in the U.S., McLaren managed the Sex Pistols, for which he recruited the nihilistic frontman Johnny Rotten. The issue of a controversial record, "God Save the Queen", satirising the Queen's Jubilee in 1977, was typical of McLaren's shock tactics, and he gained publicity by being arrested after a promotional boat trip outside the Houses of Parliament. From 1974, McLaren had advised SEX customers Paul Cook and Steve Jones on their musical aspirations, having proposed that one of his shop assistants, Glen Matlock, join them as the bass-player in a group McLaren named Kutie Jones and his Sex Pistols. In the summer of 1975, McLaren ejected the bespectacled guitarist/singer Wally Nightingale from the line-up because he lacked visual appeal. McLaren's one-time associate Bernie Rhodes (later manager of the Clash) has claimed he spotted a new frontman in another customer, John Lydon, then sporting green hair and torn clothes with the words "I hate" scribbled on his Pink Floyd T-shirt. Lydon, dubbed "Johnny Rotten", joined and McLaren shortened the name to Sex Pistols