Former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren dead at 64

Former Sex Pistols manager McLaren dead at 64


(CNN) -- Malcolm McLaren, the London boutique owner who unleashed punk-rock pioneers the Sex Pistols on an unsuspecting world, has died of cancer at age 64, his girlfriend said Thursday.

Young Kim, McLaren's girlfriend, told CNN he died Thursday in Switzerland after a battle with mesothelioma. Kim, McLaren's son Joe Corre and Corre's half-brother, Ben Westwood, were with him when he died, she said. Both men are the sons of McLaren's onetime partner and lover, designer Vivienne Westwood.

"When we were young and I fell in love with Malcolm, I thought he was beautiful and I still do," Vivienne Westwood said in a written statement. "I thought he is a very charismatic, special and talented person. The thought of him dead is really something very sad."

The rakish McLaren opened a boutique with Westwood called "Let it Rock" in 1971. By the mid-'70s, he had renamed the boutique Sex and taken on a band called the Strand. McLaren drafted a new lead singer, John Lydon, who had been spotted wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt with the words "I hate" added to it. And he renamed the group the Sex Pistols, while Lydon became better known as Johnny Rotten.

The Sex Pistols' raucous public appearances and raging lyrics on songs like "Anarchy in the U.K." and the sneering "God Save the Queen" -- which became a hit despite the BBC's refusal to play it -- made the band notorious on both sides of the Atlantic by 1977.

The Sex Pistols broke up in 1978 after one studio album, in large part because of a feud between McLaren and Rotten, who walked off stage at the end of the band's last show declaring, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" The band re-formed for a tour in 1996, but its official Web site still refers to McLaren as its "(mis)manager."

After the Sex Pistols' disintegration, McLaren went on to assemble the pop act Bow Wow Wow and record several albums of his own in the 1980s and '90s.

[cjayb]

A complete game changer. He never stopped shaking it up.

He will be missed!!






...by someone.






Maybe?

[cjayb]

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Well put.

[The Godfather]

My favorite from him ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DeTR8n7eTU

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FUCKING CLASSIC!

dawn of the b-boy hip-hop era... love it

[Bong O. Boi]

A true out of the box thinker. I loved and hated him. Human beings were a commodity to him, and he turned their weaknessnes into marketing ploys. It's sad what he did to Sid. On the other hand, Sid was a big boy who made his own choices. Which is why John Lydon is alive today to mourn them both. If he saw a line in the sand, he crossed it. If he could offend, he would. Especially if he could make some coin from it.

I think those around him, who knew the man, will miss him. But I also think that his influence will continue to be felt for a long long time.

[MillyMc]

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cliff notes version?

" Let's just say that if Malcolm breathes, it's too much for me to stomach."
~~~Johnny Rotten

[Bong O. Boi]

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I don't remember the exact quote, but Johnny pretty much said this is a sad day for him.

You have to remember it was 30 years ago the Pistols broke up, and there was a lot of anger afterwards. Johnny hated everyone. But when talking about Sid's death in Filthy Lucre, he teared up and it seemed pretty sincere.