Flamboyant send-off for McLaren

Apr 22 2010

Punk legend Malcolm McLaren was given a suitably flamboyant send-off in a horse-drawn coffin emblazoned with the words "too fast to live too young to die".

The slogan was the name of McLaren's shop on King's Road - London's centre of punk fashion in the 1970s - before it was renamed "Sex".

A green double decker bus, with "Nowhere" as the destination, was also parked outside the church, St Mary Magdalene's in central London. On the side of the bus was written "Cash from Chaos" - one of McLaren's favourite slogans.

Mourners included Dame Vivienne Westwood and Sir Bob Geldof.

Dame Vivienne, McLaren's former partner, was joined for the funeral by the couple's son - Joseph Corre - and his stepson Ben Westwood. Other mourners included 80s pop star Adam Ant, artist Dinos Chapman and McLaren's partner Young Kim.

McLaren died earlier this month in a Swiss hospital at the age of 64 after losing a battle with cancer.

A few postcard punks awaited the arrival of the cortege in Camden.

One, sporting a fluorescent green Mohican, swigged liberally from a can and posed for media pictures. He held aloft a sign reading: "Beer please." Others had less imaginative slogans and appeared to be more interested in advertising local tattoo parlours and clothing stores.

Carlo Battaglir, originally from Sicily, was amongst the "punks" employed to hold an advertising sign. Asked for his opinion of the punk godfather, the orange-haired gentleman replied in broken English: "I work."

But after a moment's thought he had more to say on McLaren: "For me he is a big b****** - he created the punk style for business, not for way of life."