LONDON – The architect of punk, Malcolm McLaren, remained a rebel to the last as mourners said farewell yesterday to the soundtrack of Sid Vicious's My Way.
Hundreds of people lined the streets of north London in tribute as McLaren was carried by horse-drawn carriage in a spray-painted coffin bearing the words “Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die”.
Family, friends, musicians, fashionistas and punk legends saw off the Sex Pistols manager, who was laid to rest in Highgate Cemetery – the scene of an infamous performance by him in punk movie The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle.
McLaren, who died from cancer earlier this month aged 64, was buried close to other important cultural figures at the historic cemetery such as Karl Marx and sculptor Henry Moore.
Mourners – including McLaren's former partner Vivienne Westwood, Adam Ant, Bob Geldof and Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook – sang along to McLaren's recording of the Max Bygraves song You Need Hands, which featured in the film.
Members of the 200-strong funeral party at a deconsecrated church, One Marylebone, were encouraged to dance around and throw up their hands, which many of them did – as well as shedding tears. The coffin was carried from the church to the strains of Vicious's raucous version of Frank Sinatra's My Way.
The slogan on McLaren’s coffin was the original name of the influential clothes shop he and fashion designer Westwood ran on King’s Road – later renamed Sex.
Westwood paid tribute to her former partner’s spirit of rebellion and urged others to keep it alive.
“I am very, very sad that unbelievably Malcolm is dead and I just wanted to say on this cruel, cruel day, get a life, do something with it,” she said.
Westwood and McLaren’s son, Joseph Corre, read out tributes to his father from those who could not attend, including one from Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones.
Joking about McLaren’s fallout with the band over royalties, the letter said: “Dear Malcolm, did you take the money with you? Is it in the coffin? Do you mind if I come back tomorrow and dig you up?
“I always had a soft spot for you. You showed me a lot when I was 17 . . . and I owe you a lot for showing me a different side to life.”
Artists Dinos Chapman and Tracy Emin also paid their respects. – (PA)