91Èȱ¬

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" is a phrase that I love to quote, even though I realise that it undermines anything and everything that has appeared in this blog. But I will revive it for the coverage of the death of Malcolm McLaren. He died in Switzerland, not New York as I said on Thursday night's After Midnight. Sorry about that. The information was still coming in as the show went out. I love the Sex Pistols, I thought Malcolm was great (never met him, nor any Sex Pistol) but got very tired very quickly of reading about him. I know that much of the newspaper and TV coverage was aimed at people who didn't really care about Malcolm McLaren, so what I was really looking for was what John Lydon would say.
I didn't think he would be too caustic about the man, despite his bile from their dealings in the past.
In the end , Johnny said "For me, Malc was always entertaining and I hope you remember that. Above all else he was an entertainer and I will miss him, and so should you." Not exactly a deathbed reconciliation (too late for that, obviously) but neither did he inject any fake showbiz sincerity. As I said, I didn't know Malcolm but I knew a bit of his work. He brought together the Sex Pistols but he was responsible for the swindle, not the songs.
He made the manager as entertaining as the singer. Johnny Rotten, the name Lydon used for the statement about McLaren's death was right. Malcolm was an entertainer. And we should miss him.Ìý