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THE LOOK OF MUSIC, THE SOUND OF FASHION: MALCOLM MCLAREN IN HIS OWN WORDS (320kbs-m4a/129mb/56mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 8th February 2023
Another chance to hear Malcolm McLaren, who died in 2010, looking back on his life in fashion and music.
Impresario, entrepreneur, agent provocateur, fashion designer, manager of The Sex Pistols, raconteur and maker of myths. Malcolm McLaren was all this and much more.
In December 2008 he spent several days in a BBC studio looking back on his extraordinary life and work while making a three-hour New Year's Day show for 6 Music. This programme contains the highlights of these unique recordings and includes anecdotes about his childhood, his career and includes Malcom's thoughts on the state of the music business and popular culture.
His anecdotes cover an early infatuation with 1950s rock 'n' roll and his precocious eye for fashion (he remembers calling out "Pierre Cardin" when he saw The Beatles first appearance in collarless suits in a Piccadilly club and, a decade later, giving a drunken John Lennon the handmade silk suit off his own back in a New York club).
He also recalls seeing legends such as Screamin' Jay Hawkins and John Lee Hooker performing live; attempting to manage the New York Dolls; his travels in the USA; the shop he ran in London's Kings Road with his partner Vivienne Westwood; The Sex Pistols and the recordings he made in his own right.
There is also the chance to hear an extract of the final piece of music he ever worked on. This piece was the first step Malcolm took in making a series for Radio 2, which, sadly, he was never able to complete. Apparently he was still brimming with ideas for this series as his life ebbed away in a Swiss clinic where he was undergoing treatment for a rare form of cancer.
MALCOLM MCLAREN: SPECTACULAR FAILURE (320kbs-m4a/130mb/57mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 25th April 2020
Malcolm McLaren's reputation was shaped by his mis-management of the Sex Pistols. But he was much more than the Svengali of punk. Cultural commentator Paul Gorman, who worked with Malcolm, gives a new spin on his achievement.
He roots him in the art school movement of the 1960s when, less concerned with selling records, McLaren wanted to shake things up - the grip of authority , the power of the corporations, the risk aversion of the record companies, the complacency and dreariness of English life.
Paul Gorman tells the punk story rather differently before launching into the years in which Malcolm, as a solo performer and music collaborator, stole a march on many in the industry. He scored a first with introducing the UK to what became known as world music, and on to hip hop, to scratching and to Voguing. He had a serious crack at becoming Speilberg's ideas man in Hollywood, at becoming London Mayor, and at staging a musical about Christain Dior.
Not everything worked - but as Malcolm suggested - better to be a spectacular failure than a benign success.
Presented by Paul Gorman
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4
MALCOLM MCLAREN: FROM THE FORTIES TO THE NOUGHTIES (320kbs-m4a/395mb/2hrs52mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 2nd to 10th January 2020
At the end of 2009, just a few months before he died, Malcolm McLaren put his musical life into context, in a programme first broadcast on 6 Music marking the end of the decade.
MALCOLM MCLAREN: FROM THE FORTIES TO THE NOUGHTIES- 1. EPISODE 1 (320kbs-m4a/68mb/30mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 2nd January 2020
In From the Forties to the Noughties, Malcolm remembers dropping out of art school and setting up Live Fast Die Young on the Kings Road with Vivienne Westwood - the shop which eventually became SEX. Arriving in New York in his favourite black rubber coat and selling red PVC clothing to Debbie Harry and the New York Dolls. Meeting Johnny Rotten in SEX for the first time, getting him to audition an Alice Cooper track, and the Sex Pistols becoming the biggest-selling band at the time of the Queen's Jubilee. He also covers the origins of 40s music - organised crime and the cultural subversion of boogie swing bands.
Chuck Berry - Let It Rock [Music Club]
Lucky Millinder - Apollo Jump
Elvis Presley - Good Rockin' Tonight [RCA]
Link Wray - Rumble
The Impalas - Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home) [Debutante]
Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation [Debutante]
Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen [Warner]
Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen
Screaming Lord Sutch - 'Til The Following Night [Castle]
The Tornados - Telstar [Rialto]
Billy Lee Riley - Flyin' Saucers Rock 'N' Roll [Charly]
Charlie Feathers - Tongue Tied Jill [El Toro]
MALCOLM MCLAREN: FROM THE FORTIES TO THE NOUGHTIES- 2. EPISODE 2 (320kbs-m4a/63mb/27mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 3rd January 2020
New York Dolls - Personality Crisis [Mercury]
The Velvet Underground - Venus In Furs
New York Dolls - Jet Boy [Debutante]
Fats Domino - Walking To New Orleans [Liberty]
Lee Dorsey - Ride Your Pony [Sony/BMG]
Aaron Neville - Tell It Like It Is [Ace]
Big Joe Turner - My Gal's A Jockey [Proper]
Wynonie Harris - All She Wants To Do Is Rock [Reader's Digest]
Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls Of Fire [Polydor]
MALCOLM MCLAREN: FROM THE FORTIES TO THE NOUGHTIES- 3. EPISODE 3 (320kbs-m4a/68mb/29mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 7th January 2020
He talks about the origins of Rock n Roll - in particular the early blues - John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. The look of music and the sound of fashion. Sid Vicious dressing like Eddie Cochran and losing his virginity to Nancy Spungen.
The first record Malcolm bought - Twist and Shout, the Pierre Cardin Beatles suits and being obliged to give John Lennon one of his own silk suits.
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You [Edsel]
The Rolling Stones - Little Red Rooster [K-Tel]
Howlin’ Wolf - Little Red Rooster [Charly]
John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom [Musidisc]
Robert Johnson - Cross Road Blues [Sony]
Ali Farka Touré & Bassekou Kouyaté & Mama Sissoko - Erdi [World Circuit]
Bonnie “Prince” Billy - I See A Darkness [Domino]
Alex St Clair Snouffer & Captain Beefheart & Jerry Handley & John French - Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do [Buddha]
MALCOLM MCLAREN: FROM THE FORTIES TO THE NOUGHTIES- 4. EPISODE 4 (320kbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 8th January 2020
The Clash - London's Burning
Suicide - Ghost Rider
Eddie Cochran - Pink Peg Slacks
Sex Pistols - Something Else
Joe Bennett & The Sparkletones - Black Slacks
The Royal Teens - Short Shorts
Gerry Granahan - No Chemise Please
The Isley Brothers - Twist And Shout
The Beatles - Please Please Me
John Lennon - Imagine
MALCOLM MCLAREN: FROM THE FORTIES TO THE NOUGHTIES- 5. EPISODE 5 (320kbs-m4a/68mb/30mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 9th January 2020
The Death of punk and moving forward to the start of the New Romantics with Bow Wow Wow and Adam & The Ants. The start of Hip Hop which he describes as 'Black Punk'. Meeting Afrika Bambaata and cutting the Buffalo Girls track. The invention of cds and cd compilations. The growth in technology leading to Club Culture, Chip Music, Video games and the abuse of the internet. Looking like your straight counterpart - referencing Madonna and 'Vogue-ing'. 'Authenticity and Karaoke'. How it turns out that the bankers in the UK were the biggest punks of them all. 2008 was the end of the culture of desires.
Adam & The Ants - Unknown
Bow Wow Wow - C30 C60 C90 Go
The Drummers Of Burundi - The Burundi Drum
The Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight
Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock
Malcolm McLaren - Buffalo Gals
Public Enemy - Rebel Without A Pause
S'Express - Theme From S'Express
Tobiah - I Love Your Music
Malcolm McLaren - Ride A Fashion Horse
MALCOLM MCLAREN: FROM THE FORTIES TO THE NOUGHTIES- 6. EPISODE 6 (320kbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 10th January 2020
Alexandra Burke - Hallelujah
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah
Madonna - Vogue
Malcolm McLaren & The Bootzilla Orchestra - Deep In Vogue
Merle Travis - Sixteen Tons
Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls Of Fire
Laurie London - He's Got The Whole World In His Hands
Go Home Productions - Franz Buffalo
Nova Nova - Love... (Malcolm McLaren Tribute)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 23rd September 2016
As Don Letts choses Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock as his "Crucial Vinyl" of the week, there's another chance to hear the impresario and former Sex Pistols manager telling the extraordinary story of its creation.
Malcolm McLaren's influential first album was released in 1983, and was a unique blend of hip-hop and ethnic music. It did much to introduce hip-hop, world music and sampling technology to the UK.
Tired of managing groups, Malcolm felt the urge to become a performer himself. With producer Trevor Horn and engineer Gary Langan he then embarked on a bizarre, adventure-packed tour of the world recording with local musicians and collecting material.
First stop was New York, where he recorded with Cubans and Dominicans and stumbled on rappers and DJs the World's Famous Supreme Team, as well as all-girl skipping troupes. Next were the mountains around Kingsport, Tennessee, where he met hillbilly square dance band The Hilltoppers. Later McLaren and his team travelled to Africa and spent time in Soweto and Kwazulu land, recording with local musicians and singers.
"It was just like Livingstone and Stanley - out in the wilderness recording this mad stuff, with no hope of re-couping money or understanding what has this got to do with Top of the Pops?"
Somehow on their return to the UK, with the help of new sampling technology, Trevor Horn was able to combine all these elements into the hit single Buffalo Gals. This was the first that many in the UK had heard of hip-hop and the rich mix of music and fashion was a revelation.
The album followed in 1983 and seemed to inspire many, including Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock and Paul Simon. The sampling and piratical mix-and-match techniques pioneered on Duck Rock continue to influence music to this day.