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From avant-garde fashion with Vivienne Westwood to the Sex Pistols to hip-hop … Paul Gorman pins down the talents of a disruptive visionary
“To be bad is good, because to be good is simply boring,” the formidable Rose Corré Isaacs would tell her grandson, Malcolm McLaren, a mantra that he would live by. As Paul Gorman’s mammoth biography illustrates, McLaren was never boring, but he could be a dreadful pain in the arse.
The Life and Times of Malcolm McLaren details the wild existence of the late artist, fashion impresario, music manager and film-maker, who is variously described here as a “psychotic visionary”, a “genius”, a “conman” and, according to Sex Pistol John Lydon, “the most evil man on earth”. His story spans art school in the 1960s, punk in the 70s, hip-hop and a spell in Los Angeles in the 80s, a failed 2000 bid to become mayor of London and his final years giving theatrical public lectures and exhibiting his art. In his author’s note, Gorman explains his approach, which involved going through a previously unseen cache of papers left by McLaren’s father, Peter, along with talking to anyone who ever crossed Malcolm’s path, barring his ex-partner Vivienne Westwood and their son, Joe Corré, both of whom, he notes crisply, “have had their say about him multiple times”. Continue reading...