Working in a shop in Camden provides no end of entertainment. From street punch-ups, cross dressers and eccentric homeless people, to the crazy man who sits outside my shop every Thursday afternoon blaring out reggae from a ghetto blaster on his shoulder, there is never a dull moment.

Last week proved particularly eventful as the people of Camden got to witness the funeral procession of Malcolm McLaren, former manager of the Sex Pistols, who died from cancer earlier this month, aged 64.

McLaren is somewhat of a legend in the UK, having been one of the pioneers of the punk scene in the 70’s. He set up the shop ‘Let It Rock’ with girlfriend and future wife Vivienne Westwood, from which he masterminded the beginnings of anarchy and chaos, putting together four council estate dossers to form the Sex Pistols and staging a string of outrageous publicity stunts around the release of the single ‘God Save The Queen’ which sold 200,000 copies overnight and was promptly banned by the authorities. McLaren went on to manage bands such as the New York Dolls, The Slits, Adam Ant and Bow Wow Wow, blazing the trail against the establishment and bringing elements of the underground punk scene in New York to London.

On the day of his funeral, fans and mourners were encouraged to ‘let RIP’ and instead of engaging in the traditional minute of silence, were instructed to cause a minute of mayhem by blasting out their favourite punk songs wherever they may be at midday.

The procession started on Camden High Street and lead to Highgate Cemetery where a private ceremony took place. Hundreds of punks and misfits lined the streets of Camden and trudged behind an old double decker bus which had a banner on the back saying ‘Malcolm Was Here’ with the destination on the front being ‘Nowhere’. The procession was lead by a horse drawn carriage which pulled Malcolm’s coffin along, on which was spray-painted the words ‘To fast to live, to young to die.’ There was also bondage gear and T-shirts for sale with Malcolm’s famous ‘Cash From Chaos’ saying emblazed across them. Vivienne Westwood, Adam Ant and the surviving members of the Sex Pistols were all present.

All in all, London gave Malcolm a fittingly disruptive send off which he would have been proud to be at the centre of. Malcolm McLaren might be dead, but punk is most obviously not.




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