Despite early reports that he had died in New York, McLaren’s girlfriend of many years, Young Kim, 37, confirmed the impresario died of mesothelioma at a hospital in Switzerland
It is a rare form of cancer that develops from the protective lining that covers many of the body's internal organs, the mesothelium and is usually caused by exposure to asbestos. His body is expected to be brought home to be buried in Highgate cemetery, north London.
His spokesman Les Molloy told
The Independent: “He had been suffering from cancer for some time, but recently had been full of health, which then rapidly deteroriated. He died in New York this morning. We are expecting his body to be brought back to London and buried in Highgate Cemetery.”
McLaren was best known as manager of the iconic UK punk band The Sex Pistols. He achieved the notoriety that never left him in 1977 when The Sex Pistols’ anti-establishment single God Save The Queen, released during the Queen's silver jubilee was banned from the airwaves by both the BBC and the Independent Broadcasting Authority. It still managed to reach the number 2 spot.
Born in 1946 in north London, the son of war deserter Pete McLaren, who left home when Malcolm was was two, he was raised by his grandmother in Stoke Newington. He left home in his teens, attending and being expelled from several art colleges before leaving education altogether in 1971.
That year he opened a clothes shop on the King’s Road , Let It Rock, with Vivienne Westwood.
The boutique sold primarily Teddy Boy-style clothes, before McLaren became disillusioned by the actions of the shop’s patrons. The couple’s son, Joseph Corre, went on to found the lingerie brand Agent Provocateur.
By 1975 McLaren had renamed the store SEX. It was now selling S&M clothes.
Also in 1975 he began to manage the fledgling punk band The Strand. After his assistant Bernie Rhodes had brought in John Lydon, whom he had encountered hanging around outside sporting green hair and a Pink Floyd T-shirt with the words “I Hate” daubed across it, Lydon became Johnny Rotten and the band The Sex Pistols.
Controversy was always high on the band’s agenda, and it was McLaren, primarily, who ensured they achieved it. In May 1977, during the week of the Queen’s silver jubilee, McLaren booked a boat trip down the Thames where the band were to perform their single “God Save The Queen” outside the Houses of Parliament. The boat was raided by police. McLaren was arrested.
Whatever resentment the establishment had for him after this, it was soon to be magnified by the band themselves. The following year The Sex Pistols embarked on a tour of the US. They would return on separate flights. The band split up after a series of arguments, with members accusing McLaren of mismanaging them and withholding money.
A solo career, with mixed success, followed. His 1983 album Duck Rock scored two top 10 hits, and is regularly cited as being a significant influences in bringing hip-hop to a wider audience in the UK. More recently, Mariah Carey and Eminem have sampled his work.
More recently he stood for the then newly created London mayoralty in 2000. Amongst his policies was the serving of alcohol in libraries.
In 2007 he was slated to take part in the ITV show I’m A Celebrity Get ME Out of Here, as Lydon had before him. In the end he never took part, arriving in Australia, dismissing the show as “fake” and promptly flying home again.
Godfather of punk and hip hop
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