To mark Malcolm McLaren’s funeral in London today, his family are asking fans to observe “a minute of mayhem” at twelve noon.
“Put on your favourite records and LET RIP!” urges his son Joseph.
We’ve got our copy of Duck Rock cued up and ready to roar.
In the current issue of Hot Press, Stuart Clark recalls the first time he encountered Malcolm and his courtiers in his King’s Road clothes shop, and then revisits a 1994 interview with the great rock ‘n’ roll swindler who admitted that, “It’s a game, a huge great big bloody scam and I’m playing to win!”
Among the topics discussed were his former partner Vivienne Westwood, supermodels, the New York Dolls, Led Zeppelin, the Royal Family, Kurt Cobain and, natch, the Sex Pistols.
“A lot of people felt cheated when the Sex Pistols broke up and as the so-called ‘authority’ figure connected to the band, it was inevitable that I copped most the blame.” Malcolm told us with typical élan. “Whilst accepting that I could have handled the situation better, you must remember that the Pistols’ growth as a commodity was so frenzied that not even a team of the City of London’s finest businessmen could have prevented that final implosion. I created the group to compete with the Bay City Rollers and sell bondage-trousers. Along the way, I threw in a couple of good ideas I’d borrowed from the ’60s and they turned out to be bigger than anything I’d ever imagined.”
Read the whole interview in the current issue of Hot Press, out now.