Never Mind The Bollocks...

Having just heard about the very sad death of Malclm Maclaren the ex manager of the Sex Pistols, at the age of 64. I thought i'd get my own obituary in early.

Now, i know that Malcolm Maclaren was not universally liked & for a number of reasons. But, it has to said that without him, the world of music would most likely be a very different place.

Ok, so he didn't write any of the music of the Sex Pistols. But, he did effectively put the band together & certainly guided them during their early days. Without him, the Sex Pistols would not have been the force in British music that they turned out to be.
It is generally accepted that he was the driving force behind many of the bands publicity stunts, their dress, style & much of their confrontational manner. And if not, he certainly encouraged it & got the maximum amount of publicity out of it. That publicity helped to get the Sex Pistols music & the whole Punk idea out into the open & into the media.

The Sex Pistols were a focal point for the whole Punk & New Waxe movement, especially here in the UK. Yes, they stole bits of it from the USA. But, it was only when the Sex Pistols exploded onto the music scene that the whole Punk idea really kicked off. The Sex Pistols showed that Punk Rock was more than just a small youth movement of angry young kids.

The Punk ethos changed the whole world of music & art generally & those changes are still being felt today. The whole Punk movement helped encourage thousands of young kids to try & express themselves. Something a lot of them had never thought possible before. Suddenly anything seemed possible & the whole world was starting to take notice.

Out of that movement came so many bands, writers, artists, film makers, magazines etc etc & a whole new do it yourself culture & way of thinking. As i said earlier, the ripples of that explosion of talent are still being felt today. You only have to listen to the influences quoted by so many of todays movers & shakers, to hear the influence that the Punk movement had on them.

Speaking as somebody who was aged 19 in 1977 & who bought the original 45 of "Anarchy In The UK", i don't think it's stretching things too far to say that without the Punk movement of the late 1970's, the world would be a very different place today.
Whilst Malcolm Maclaren might not have responsible for all of that. He certainly played a very big part in bringing about those changes & for that i am very grateful.

Never mind the bollocks....that's the truth.

R.I.P Malcolm Maclaren.