The Life & Times Of Malcolm McLaren
Portrait of the artist as the ultimate maverick.
After all the superficial stabs-andswindle stereotyping, McLaren finally gets the sensitively balanced biography he deserves; portrayed as fearless artist, autistic tornado and shape-shifting visionary, crucially countered by childhood trauma birthing the self-centred opportunist driven by artistic impulse with little regard for consequences.
McLaren’s seismic remodelling of 1970s pop culture with the Sex Pistols’ fleeting supernova becomes part of a much bigger story as Paul Gorman charts his life from extraordinary Stoke Newington childhood; abandoned by his tycoon-dating mother, raised by fearsomely doting grandmother Rose (who weaves ribbons into his pubes to protect his chastity), home-schooled in classic literature after (briefly) attending school (unusually long hair pinned up).
Rose’s advice “To be bad is good, because to be good is to be boring” becomes his life mantra as, driven by trailblazing art and rock’n’roll’s arrival, he gets thrown out of London’s art schools, embraces Soho nightlife, early Stones, Situationist confrontation, art galleries, Carnaby Street, protest demos, Warhol, and clicks with suburban housewife Vivienne Westwood.
Finding fertile turf in 1971 Chelsea, McLaren takes over 430 King’s Road, selling retro-50s clobber to Teddy boys as Let It Rock and edgier Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, before scary SEX in ’74. Driven by trying to rescue the disintegrating New York Dolls in 1975 New York, he returns to invent punk with the Sex Pistols as an art project, ripping apart the music industry before splits, death and court.
Finding inspiration in New York’s ‘black punk’ hip-hop, he embarks on his world music/sampling-predicting solo career, igniting new romanticism while giving Adam Ant a pirate makeover and forming Bow Wow Wow before evolving into the wizened raconteur and incorrigible dilettante who ran for London mayor in 2000.
In 2009, McLaren was diagnosed with cancer, attributed to inhaling asbestos while remodelling his shop. Ironically, he was killed by the edifice where he forged master plans that changed the world, and his own reckless disregard for ‘normal’ behaviour.
Gorman serves him well, with frequently jaw-dropping forensic eloquence. ■■■■■■■■■■