//Malcolm McLaren with New York scenester Eileen Polk at New York nightclub Hurrah, October 1978. Photo: © Joe Stevens. No reproduction without permission//

Today marks eight years since the death of visual artist, designer and cultural provocateur Malcolm McLaren.

His friend Joe Stevens sent me this photo a couple of years back. It was taken during the period when McLaren – wearing one of the tartan bondage suits he designed with Vivienne Westwood – was mounting the defence of Sid Vicious, then on the murder charge for having killed Nancy Spungen.

This extraordinary episode from an extraordinary life – during which time McLaren encountered the likes of Donald Trump’s vile mentor Roy Cohn, the legendary radical lawyer William Kunstler and criminal defence attorney F. Lee Bailey (the latter by way of an introduction by Allen Ginsberg) – will of course be covered in my book Malcolm McLaren: The Biography, which is to be published by Constable & Robinson next year.

Tags: Allen Ginsberg, Constable & Robinson, Donald Trump, F. Lee Bailey, Hurrah, Roy Cohn, Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious, Vivienne Westwood, William Kunstler

Psychedelics – in the form of art, design, drugs, literature, music and the counter-culture – dominate the latest catalogue from BeatBooks.

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Tags: Alan Aldridge, Allen Ginsberg, BeatBooks, Bob Dylan, Gene Sculatti, Grateful Dead, Hapshash & The Coloured Coat, Isle Of Wight Festival, Jimi Hendrix, Ken Kesey, Merry Pranksters, Monterey Pop, Richard Alpert, Rick Griffin, Robert Crumb, Timothy Leary