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Artist:

Malcolm McLaren

Malcolm McLaren

Born:
Jan 22, 1946

Representative Songs:

"Buffalo Gals," "Soweto," "Deep in Vogue"

Representative Albums:

Duck Rock, Waltz Darling, World Famous Supreme Team Show

Similar Artists:

Sinéad O'Connor, Yello, Yellow Magic Orchestra, X-Ray Spex, Iggy Pop

Influences:

Elvis Presley, David Bowie

Followers:

The East Village Opera Company, Army of Lovers, Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Performed Songs By:

Lee Gorman, Didier Makaga, Trevor Horn, Anne Dudley
  • Genre: Rock
  • Active: '80s, '90s
  • Instrument: Vocals

Biography

Malcolm McLaren first came to prominence as the notorious manager of the Sex Pistols, the premier punk rock band of the late '70s. In the 1980s, McLaren turned performing artist himself, assembling eclectic recordings that were especially popular in Great Britain.

The son of Peter and Emily Isaacs McLaren, McLaren was actually raised by his grandmother, Rose Corre, who gave him home instruction until 1955. Like many who later entered the music business, he was educated in England's art colleges, lots of them. He attended St. Martin's College of Art (1963) and Harrow Art College (1964); was expelled from South East Essex (1965) and Chiswick Polytechnic (1966); and went to Croyden College of Art (1968) and finally Goldsmith's College (1969-1971). Meanwhile, he became especially interested in the obscure French Situationist international movement, which advocated provocative, even absurd actions both as political statement and performance art. The movement was founded in the 1950s and gained its greatest attention during political upheavals in France in 1968 before dissolving. McLaren, who tried unsuccessfully to get to Paris during the May 1968 riots, would apply Situationist ideas to the field of pop promotion. (A good source for information on the Situationists and McLaren's adaptation of their teachings can be found in Greil Marcus' book Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century [1989].) While attending Goldsmith's, McLaren began designing clothes, and after leaving college without a degree he opened his first London boutique in 1972. He and partner Vivienne Westwood were also employed designing costumes for such films as Mahler and That'll Be the Day (both 1974). While in New York at a boutique fair, McLaren met the members of the proto-punk group the New York Dolls, and in late 1974, he took over their management, dressing them in red leather and using the Soviet Union's hammer-and-sickle symbol in their stage set and publicity photographs. The concept was not well suited to America, where Communism remained anathema, but it had no great impact on the career of the Dolls, who were on their last legs at that point, anyway. McLaren returned to the London clothing business in May 1975 and used what he'd learned with the Dolls in helping to assemble the Sex Pistols.

The extent to which McLaren instigated the Sex Pistols' brief, flamboyant career has been much debated. From their first record release in November 1976 to their breakup in January 1978, they were regularly found on both the record charts and the front pages of Britain's tabloids, renowned by fans for songs like "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen" and condemned by detractors as examples of moral turpitude. In 1979, the documentary film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle suggested that McLaren had planned it all; he made his recording debut on the soundtrack album singing "You Need Hands."

His reputation as a manager established, McLaren began looking for other British talent to handle, briefly settling on the then-unknown Adam Ant before spiriting away Ant's backing band and using it to support a 14-year-old Burmese singer he had discovered, Annabella Lwin, in a band called Bow Wow Wow. McLaren's involvement extended to writing their debut single, "C'30, C'60, C'90, Go," a British Top 40 hit in 1980. "Go Wild in the Country" (lyrics by McLaren) and a remake of the Strangeloves hit "I Want Candy" hit the British Top Ten in 1982, but the band broke up in 1983, though not before McLaren tried adding a second singer, George O'Dowd, dubbed Lieutenant Lush. (O'Dowd, later known as Boy George, went on to form Culture Club.)

In the meantime, McLaren began making his own records, beginning with the single "Buffalo Gals," which combined traditional folk music with hip-hop. Credited to Malcolm McLaren and the World's Famous Supreme Team, it became a Top Ten hit in the U.K., paving the way for the late 1982 album Duck Rock, which reached the Top 20 and produced a Top 40 hit in "Soweto" and a Top Five hit in "Double Dutch." Both "Buffalo Gals" and "Double Dutch" made the U.S. dance charts in 1983, and the remix mini-LP D'Ya Like Scratchin' gave McLaren his first American album chart entry in February 1984. McLaren next turned to opera, recording an adaptation of "Madame Butterfly" that made the British Top 20 in 1984; it introduced his second full-length album, Fans. 1985's Swamp Thing was a contractual obligation collection of outtakes issued while its creator had moved to Hollywood to try to make his mark in the film business. He returned to music in 1989, signing to Epic Records for Waltz Darling, which produced Top 40 U.K. hits in the title track and "Something's Jumpin' in Your Shirt." The album featured guest vocalists as well as star instrumentalists Jeff Beck and Bootsy Collins. Paris, released in Europe in 1994, marked its creator's move to France. In October 1998, a rerecording of "Buffalo Gals," "Buffalo Gals Stampede," credited to Malcolm McLaren and the World Famous Supreme Team Versus Rakim and Roger Sanchez, reached the British charts. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
 
 
Quotes By: Malcolm Mclaren

Quotes:

"Stealing things is a glorious occupation, particularly in the art world."

"Rock and roll doesn't necessarily mean a band. It doesn't mean a singer, and it doesn't mean a lyric, really. It's that question of trying to be immortal."

"Our culture has become something that is completely and utterly in love with its parent. It's become a notion of boredom that is bought and sold, where nothing will happen except that people will become more and more terrified of tomorrow, because the new continues to look old, and the old will always look cute."

 
Wikipedia: Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Replace_this_image_male.svg
Background information
Birth name Malcolm Robert Andrew Edwards
Born January 22 1946 (1946--) (age 61)
Origin London, England
Genre(s) Punk rock
Occupation(s) Band manager
Associated
acts		 New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Bow Wow Wow

Malcolm McLaren (born Malcolm Robert Andrew Edwards, 22 January 1946, in London) is an English impresario, musician and self-publicist who is best known as being the manager of the punk rock band Sex Pistols.

Early years

McLaren was born to Pete McLaren and Emmy Isaacs in the suburbs of postwar London.

His father left when he was two, so he was raised by his grandmother, Rose Corre Isaacs, in Stoke Newington, London. She was a charismatic, formerly wealthy daughter of Portuguese Sephardic Jews who were former diamond dealers. When Malcolm was six, Emmy Isaac married Martin Levi, a man working in London's rag trade. McLaren’s stepfather and his mother owned a shmatte factory in London’s East End, 'Eve Edwards London Limited', and Malcolm lived in a fine suburban house. Unfortunately, Malcolm and his stepfather never got along, and by the time he hit his teens, Malcolm couldn’t wait to leave home. After a series of jobs (including one as a wine taster), he went on to attend several Art Colleges through the 1960s, being expelled from several before leaving school entirely in 1971. It was during this time that he began to design clothing, a talent he would later utilise when he became a boutique owner.

He had been attracted to the Situationist International movement, which promoted absurdist and provocative actions as a way of enacting social change. In 1968 McLaren had tried unsuccessfully to travel to Paris to take part in the demonstrations there. McLaren would later adopt Situationist ideas into his promotion for the various pop and rock groups he was soon to become involved with.

The New York Dolls and SEX

In 1971 McLaren and his partner, the designer Vivienne Westwood, opened a London clothing shop called Let It Rock on the Kings Road. The shop sold Teddy Boy clothes and McLaren and Westwood also designed clothing for theatrical and cinematic productions such as That'll Be The Day and Mahler. Let It Rock proved a success but McLaren grew to become disillusioned with the style of shop due to problems with the Teddy Boys who were the shop's main customers.

McLaren travelled to New York City for a boutique fair in 1974 and it was there that he first saw the New York Dolls. He convinced the band that he could do a better job of managing and promoting them. Johnny Thunders has publicly stated that McLaren only 'hung around' for the last couple of weeks of their existence. McLaren designed red leather costumes for the group and utilized a Soviet style hammer and sickle motif for their stage show as a provocative feature in promoting them. This ploy was not successful and the Dolls soon broke up. However, it was while he was managing the Dolls that he first saw the Neon Boys perform. The Neon Boys included Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, who were later to form Television. In May 1975 McLaren returned to Britain after the Dolls' breakup and took what he had seen and experienced in New York with him.

McLaren had been greatly impressed with Hell's torn clothing, studded dog collars and leather jackets, and with Hell's dissolute attitude. According to Hell, McLaren approached him and Verlaine about being their manager, but they were not interested.

McLaren decided to change Let It Rock from a shop which sold Rockabilly/Teddy Boy style clothes to one which sold bondage and fetish clothing, including clothing designed by Westwood using the new 'punk' look McLaren had seen in New York. Let It Rock was renamed SEX and began to attract many of London's disenfranchised youth who were attracted by the rebellious nature of the shop.

The Sex Pistols

By 1975 McLaren had started to manage The Strand, the band who would later become the Sex Pistols. During this year the band changed direction and McLaren saw his chance to bring the 'punk' scene to London.

After finding a new lead singer in Johnny Rotten after an audition in SEX, the band was renamed The Sex Pistols (McLaren stating he wanted them to sound like "sexy young assassins") and the line-up consisted of Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and SEX employee Glen Matlock. The band played a few small gigs before eventually becoming sought after by record companies and were eventually signed (with a large advance) by EMI in 1976.

However after a notorious appearance on Bill Grundy's Today programme in December 1976 the band made themselves nationally known across the UK. The Pistols had been booked to be a last minute replacement on the Grundy show, and their appearance ended in a shower of obscenities which gave them (and Punk) a reputation for causing trouble. The band were fired by EMI in January 1977 and were signed to A&M Records for another large advance on 10 March, 1977. After signing the contract outside Buckingham Palace the band returned to A&M's offices for a party which ended in the band causing chaos. The Sex Pistols were sacked from A&M on 16 March, 1977.

The picture cover of McLaren's 1979 single: You Need Hands - taken from the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Enlarge
The picture cover of McLaren's 1979 single: You Need Hands - taken from the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle

After this the band signed their last deal with Virgin Records in May 1977. Through Virgin the band released God Save the Queen during the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. At the time the UK was still respectful of the Royal Family and releasing what was seen as an attack of the Queen was seen as an attack upon the establishment. McLaren organised a boat trip down the Thames where the Sex Pistols would perform their music outside Houses of Parliament. This ended up with the boat being raided by the police. McLaren himself was arrested and the event saw more national publicity for McLaren and the band.

The band released their album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols in October 1977 and played their last UK gig before embarking upon an American tour in January 1978. This tour saw the band split up after a series of arguments within the band. During his time managing the band McLaren was accused by band members (most notably by John Lydon) of mismanaging them and refusing to pay them when asked for money. However McLaren has stated that he had planned out the entire path of the Sex Pistols and in the film, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle he set this plan out. The film was criticised for being too skewed towards McLaren and for being a launchpad for McLaren's future career in music as a performer (he performs the Max Bygraves song You Need Hands in the film) as well as a manager.

McLaren kept the rights for the Sex Pistols until Lydon took him to court in the 1980s to win the rights from McLaren. Lydon won and gained complete control from McLaren in 1987. McLaren and Lydon have refused to speak to each other since the band split and in the 2000 film, The Filth and the Fury, the surviving members of the Sex Pistols put their version of events on film.

Post Pistols management

After the Pistols breakup McLaren managed Adam & the Ants, sacking Adam after a few weeks, recruiting a new singer and turning them from bleak post-punk into the colourful and percussive Bow Wow Wow. Bow Wow Wow owed much of their unique sound to their use of Burundi style drumming. This use of African rhythms prefigured the world music boom by some years. Ironically, Adam Ant, after being sacked from his own band, recruited new musicians and followed much the same development, but with markedly more commercial success. Bow Wow Wow were fronted by the 14 year old Annabella Lwin who was controversially pictured nude on the cover of the band's See Jungle!... album.

Solo musical career

His solo career has been highly innovative and conceptual, with each album representing a new idea or musical novelty.

In 1983 McLaren released Duck Rock, an album which mixed up influences from Africa and America, including hip-hop. The album proved to be highly influential in bringing hip-hop to a wider audience in the UK. Two of the singles from the album ("Buffalo Gals" and "Double Dutch") became major chart hits on both sides of the Atlantic.

He then turned his eyes to electronic music and opera in the 1984 single, Madame Butterfly, based on the opera. The track is arranged with drum machines, atmospheric synthesizers and spoken verses. It was an unlikely hit, reaching #13 in the UK and #16 in Australia. The producer of the single, Stephen Hague, became a much sought after producer in the techno pop genre following his work with McLaren on the following full length LP Fans.

In 1989, he returned with the album Waltz Darling, a funk/disco/vogueing inspired album. Waltz Darling incorporated elements of his former albums, ie spoken verses, string arrangements and eclectic mix of genres but featured such prominent musicians like Bootsy Collins or Jeff Beck with a glitzy, LA-style production aimed at the US market. The singles, Waltz Darling, Something's Jumpin' in Your Shirt became top-20 radio hits in Europe. While for once McLaren's instincts failed him (there was no sudden interest in waltz music) it still helped to spread the news about the previously underground practice of vogueing.

Later career

McLaren attempted to make a film called Fashion Beast which was scripted by comic book writer Alan Moore during the 1980s. The film was never made, but McLaren has been involved with other film and television projects. One such project was The Ghosts of Oxford Street, made for Channel 4 in 1991. This musical history of London's Oxford Street was directed and narrated by McLaren and included musical numbers by The Happy Mondays, Tom Jones, Rebel MC, Kirsty McColl, John Altman, and Sinead O'Connor.[1]

In 1992, McLaren co-wrote the song "Carry on Columbus" for the feature film of the same name. The song plays over the end credits of the film.

In 1994 McLaren recorded the concept album Paris, with French artists such as Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Hardy.

In 1998 he created a band called Jungk. This project was not a commercial success.

Also in 1997/1998, he released a track called "The Bell Song". Various remixes were released on 12" single.

During 2000, there was speculation that he might stand to be elected as Mayor of London [2], although ultimately he did not run. He had an exhibition of some autobiographical work at the German Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie [3] called "Casino of Authenticity and Karaoke" about which he gave an interview [4][5].

In 2002, Eminem released a track called "Without Me", which sampled McLaren's song, 'Buffalo Gals'.

In 2003 he wrote the article "8-Bit Punk" championing 8-bit music [6].

His song "About Her", based on "She's Not There" by The Zombies, rose to prominence when used by director Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill Vol. 2. He was accused of plagiarism for this song in 2005 for allegedly copying the work of a French musician, but was cleared of the charges in November 2005 when the court in Angers, France threw out the case[7].

McLaren is one of the producers for the film adaptation of Fast Food Nation, which premiered on May 19, 2006 at the Cannes Film Festival. It was released in late 2006.

In 2007 McLaren's song "World's Famous" was sampled by R&B singer Amerie on the song titled "Some Like It" from her album Because I Love It.

British Airways adverts

In 1989 McLaren and composer Yanni arranged The Flower Duet into a work called Aria. The 'Flower Duet' theme, taken from the French opera Lakme by Léo Delibes, had already been used by composer Howard Blake[8] to accompany British Airways commercials since 1984. However, from 1989 McLaren and Yanni further arranged the 'Flower Duet' and it featured in BA's 'World's favourite Airline' global campaign of the 1980s and 1990s.

Discography

  • Duck Rock (1983)
  • D'ya Like Scratchin' (EP) (1984)
  • Madam Butterfly (1984)
  • Fans (1985)
  • Swamp Thing (1985)
  • Waltz Darling (1989)
  • Round the Outside, Round the Outside (with the World Famous Supreme Team Show) (1990)
  • Paris (1994)
  • Buffalo Gals Back to Skool (1998)
  • Tranquilize (2005) (only available from Habitat stores)

See also

References

  1. ^ Channel 4 - 100 Greatest Christmas Moments, accessed 9 July, 2007
  2. ^ http://www.musicinsight.com/node/view/6
  3. ^ http://www.zkm.de
  4. ^ http://artcast.twoday.net/stories/843894/
  5. ^ http://www.archive.org/download/Interview_with_Malcolm_McLaren/ac2005718.mp3
  6. ^ http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.11/mclaren.html
  7. ^ http://www.adetocqueville.com/cgi-binloc/searchTTC.cgi?displayZop+27486/
  8. ^ http://www.howardblake.com/music/Commercials/567/British-Airways-Theme-Tune-Lakme.htm British Airways Theme Tune

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  • [1] McLaren's homepage
  • [2] McLaren Vh1 Biography
  • [3] SEX & SEDITIONARIES, website showcasing the work of Malcolm McLaren & Vivienne Westwood circa 1975 to 1979
  • [4] a WORLDS END website dedicated to the collaboration between Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood on their PIRATE collection launched in 1981
  • [5] Malcolm McLaren interviewed by Ginny Dougary (2006)
  • [6] Malcolm McLaren interviewed in the design magazine ROGER (2007)
  • [7] Malcolm McLaren interviewed in SWINDLE magazine (2006)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

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Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Quotes By. Copyright © 2008 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Malcolm McLaren".  Read more

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