Jaunty: Barry Plummer’s striking photos of Malcolm McLaren + Vivienne Westwood in the Wild West End spring 1979
//McLaren specifically requested Plummer photograph him outside 7 Denmark Street, London WC1; Tin Pan Alley Club was one of the centres of Britain’s music business dating back to the 30s: “Some lads came along and Malcolm was pulling up his kilt in good-natured fun.” Photo: © Barry Plummer//
These jaunty photographs were taken by Barry Plummer in the spring of 1979 for a Melody Maker interview with Malcolm McLaren about the just-released soundtrack for the Sex Pistols’ biopic The Great Rock N Roll Swindle (beset by financial and creative difficulties, the film wasn’t released for another year).
McLaren was accompanied by Vivienne Westwood; they made a striking pair in mixed and matched one-off and traditional pieces with a selection of clothing from their King’s Road shop Seditionaries. By now the transition away from punk – left behind when the Sex Pistols split a year earlier – was becoming evident.
//Westwood and McLaren looking the bomb at the entrance to 98 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1, home to McLaren’s management company Glitterbest. Photo © Barry Plummer//
//McLaren with the billboard outside a Shaftesbury Ave ticket agency. It is arguable that two of the bands – Buzzcocks and Siouxsie & The Banshees – would not have existed without him. Photo: © Barry Plummer//
“Malcolm had a few set ideas about where he wanted to be photographed,” says Plummer. The sites he specified included the entrance doorway to McLaren’s management company Glitterbest’s offices in Shaftesbury Avenue (as Plummer points out this is unchanged apart a paint job more than 35 years later), next to billboards for music gigs outside the adjacent ticket agency, in front of the brutalist Centre Point office tower and with the historic Tin Pan Alley Club sign in Denmark Street.
//Westwood and McLaren take tea at the Cafe Royal in The Strand, London, W1. Photo © Barry Plummer//
The photos taken, Plummer, McLaren and Westwood adjourned for afternoon tea at the Cafe Royal, where the Melody Maker interview took place.
In an oversubscribed field, Barry Plummer stands out as one Britain’s greatest rock photographers. Visit his site here.