Malcolm McLaren 22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010

It was with great, great sadness that I learned today of the passing of Malcolm McLaren.

Malcolm was behind, involved with or created much of the music that formed my early youth in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

I will be honest and say that I didn’t always have good words to say about him. As a fiercely loyal Adam Ant fan, the fact that he stole the original Ants so blatantly to form Bow Wow Wow made me hate him with a passion, but the fact that he introduced Adam to Burundi drumming made me love him. For it was that inspiration to Adam that then inspired me to take up the drums.

A few years later, his seminal album, Duck Rock, changed the music we all listened to forever. We in the UK had barely heard of Hip Hop & Rap or the music from the townships of Soweto. Yet this piece of sublime yet extreme fusion, constructed by Trevor Horn under Malcolm’s guidance and using the Fairlight for a lot of it, was to open our ears to some of the finest world music has to offer. And in classic McLaren style, he then went on to influence the Hip Hop scene himself, after having plagiarised it so obviously.

His sheer and utter belligerence in getting the Pistols out there was instrumental in inspiring the rest of the new wave scene. With Vivienne Westwood, he took fashion in the 70’s and set it alight, influencing, if not creating the whole image of the punk movement. The clientèle in SEX on the Kings Road read like the who’s who of punk.

His influence in the music industry has been nothing short of legendary. He may have never received the full credit for his impact but we sure haven’t seen his like since and I fear we never will.

Put simply, he mattered.

Rest In Peace, Malcolm.