Malcolm McLaren and the World of Punk

This week marked the passing of Malcolm McLaren, the boutique owner/band manager who is by turns credited or blamed for the formation of the world's most infamous punk band, the Sex Pistols. Through McLaren's knack for promotional stunts -- including 1977's "God Save the Queen" boat trip down the Thames during the Queen's Silver Jubilee -- the fame of the Sex Pistols and its manager grew, culminating in a movie (The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle) and a brief tour in America (lead singer Johnny Rotten quit the band less than two weeks into the tour). McLaren would go on to manage Adam and the Ants and new wave band Bow Wow Wow, enjoy brief success with his own musical career (charting with songs "Buffalo Gals" and "Double Dutch" in the early '80s), and later work on projects in tv and film (he was a producer for the film Fast Food Nation). In 2006, the Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Click here to reserve the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks... cd .  Also, check out our collection of books on punk rock history here.

(A little local trivia: the Sex Pistols first show in the States was in Atlanta at small club called the Great Southeast Music Hall, located next to a Winn Dixie in the Broadview Plaza shopping center on Piedmont Road. (Broadview would eventually be renamed Lindberg Plaza.) Among the attendees for the historic concert: record store employee Peter Buck, who within two years would be performing Sex Pistols covers with a new band, R.E.M.)