Malcolm McLaren: "History is for pissing on"

Malcolm McLaren was educated at Goldsmith’s College in the late 1960s, where he failed to graduate. He managed a series of clothes shops based on the King’s Road in Chelsea, the most famous of which was SEX, which he ran along with his then partner, Vivienne Westwood. SEX specialized in rubber fetishism, which was then a genuine subterranean human activity which had never before been openly promoted.

This would not be the last time McLaren would help thrust a previously alien concept into the public consciousness. Aside from being a rag merchant, McLaren fancied himself as a music impresario; he spent time managing the talented but fatally flawed glam-rockers the New York Dolls, before deciding he needed to find a band he could mould in his own image. He found one in late 1975: a young London-based covers band with attitude and aplomb aplenty. Deciding they needed livening up, McLaren encouraged the group to start writing their own songs and to get a new front man. He then gave them a new name, the Sex Pistols.

In case of any confusion, that’s the Sex Pistols – the band that went on to create a firestorm in the popular music industry which, 30 years later, is still burning. For that one achievement alone McLaren’s place in history is assured. But as the man himself will tell you, history is for pissing on. Which, coincidently, is also the title of the one-man show he's bringing to this year's Fringe, where he'll be talking about the subject he knows best: himself.

What can we expect from the solo show? And will it be suitably controversial?

“This is the story that changed my life, albeit intentionally and unintentionally, as fate would have it. Controversial? I don’t know what that means. If you are suggesting 'will the audience be fucking in the aisle?', maybe. History is for pissing on!”

A great deal of you life has been conducted extremely publicly. Indeed, during the Sex Pistols days you admitted publicity was your sole aim on several occasions. Will you be telling any stories audiences might not have heard before?

“My humble beginnings were savaged from me as I became willing prey at the age of 16 to certain ex-Army captains.

"London appeared strewn with such figures after the Empire crumbled. They taught me what sex was about through the tasting of wine. Yes, I was a trainee wine taster for George Sandeman’s in Piccadilly at the age of 16. And my mind is still rattled with their commands: ‘This wine’s got too much fat under the arm. This one tastes like an army’s been through it. This is virginal. It needs to open up a bit so we can drink it as God appointed us.'"

What persuaded you to perform a one-man show?

“Crazy people who work with me thought it an excellent idea to tell my stories--no matter how hardcore or shockingly provocative--at the Edinburgh Festival, and David Johnson [the producer known for putting Michael Moore on the road] madly agreed over drinks in London a few weeks ago.

"Surrounded by Lucien Freud, his daughter Bella, Alan Rickman and his fans, Justin Timberlake, and other American record producers from my not so distant past, I suddenly realised fate was playing me a card and I decided, that’s what I am going to do – both with the Moth and indeed the following day solo at the Pleasance."

Why have you decided upon Edinburgh to perform?

“Because the Festival attracts a range of folk the world over and I would be more than happy to immerse myself in the bath of the crowd.

"I always heard through the grapevine great things happen in Edinburgh during this Festival. Inspired, I decided to become a part of it, to surprise myself. I have to say, my last visit to Scotland ended abruptly when I had my clothes torn off my back as I was stoned and driven out of a Christian fundamentalist enclave near Culloden whilst campaigning to be their Baron. Probably these folk were transplants from the other side of the border, initiated by the English to subordinate the real Scots—what was left of them—a long time ago, I don’t know."