Impresario, rock-artist, clothes designer and boutique owner
McLaren managed the punk rock band, the Sex Pistols, at the height of their success in 1976-7. The clothing shop 'Sex', which he ran with his then girlfriend Vivienne Westwood, was where they met. It was an influential source for the punk rock movement in the mid-70s.
McLaren said, 'I have been called many things: a charlatan, a con man, or, most flatteringly, the culprit responsible for turning British popular culture into nothing more than a cheap marketing gimmick. This is my chance to prove that these accusations are true.'
The inscription on his grave is a paraphrase of advice McLarenn claimed was the best he had been given, by an art teacher at school: 'It is better to be a flamboyant failure than any kind of benign success.'