Malcolm McLaren
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2010
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Malcolm McLaren was the great rock'n'roll swindler, who died in April 2010, aged 64.
'I've been called many things,' McLaren wrote as advance publicity for his one man show, 'a charlatan, a con man, or the culprit responsible for turning popular culture into nothing more than a cheap marketing gimmick. This is my chance to prove these accusations are true.'
The man behind the Sex Pistols and Duck Rock is nominated by public relations expert Mark Borkowski, author of The Fame Formula, and a man who knew him well.
What intrigues Borkowski is not just the success, but the myths that have evolved around this highly manipulative man.
Presenter Matthew Parris is more sceptical.
So is the journalist for NME between 1974-1981, Chris Salewicz who watched McLaren rewrite the rules of management.
He also introduced the Sex Pistols to the man from EMI who then signed them up.
An intriguing programme about fame, the media, and why the truth should not be confused with an easily believable myth.
Producer: Miles Warde
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2010.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
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| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less searching |
| 0:25.7 | and a lot more watching. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.8 | Thank you for downloading this great Lives podcast from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:34.3 | For more information and details of other podcasts, just visit BBC.co. |
| 0:38.8 | UK slash Radio 4. |
| 0:41.3 | Today's Great Life died so recently it's hard to believe he's really gone. |
| 0:46.4 | He was a manager and a musician and so many things besides that categorising Malcolm |
| 0:51.7 | McLaren is not really something I think we should even try to do. |
| 0:55.0 | Instead, I'm going to read a press release used to publicise a one-man show he presented in Edinburgh only last year. |
| 1:03.0 | I've been called many things, McLaren wrote, |
| 1:07.0 | a charlatan, a con man, |
| 1:09.0 | or the culprit responsible for turning popular culture |
| 1:12.0 | into nothing more than a cheap marketing gimmick. |
| 1:14.4 | This is my chance to prove these accusations are true. |
| 1:18.4 | Time now to hear the voice of the man himself. |
| 1:21.6 | I went out to sell Johnny Rotten, |
... |
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