Malcolm McLaren Highgate Cemetery

The Story

Malcolm McLaren died in April 2010, aged 64, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery, in the eastern section, a hundred meters from Karl Marx's tomb. His funeral procession stopped traffic in Camden Town, with the coffin displaying the phrase "Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die" and the soundtrack of "My Way" sung by Sid Vicious playing through the streets. The gravestone, installed in secret a few years later, features a bronze death mask made by sculptor Nick Reynolds and the epitaph "Better a spectacular failure, than a benign success," a phrase McLaren said was the best advice he ever received. The tomb continues to be a pilgrimage site for punk fans visiting the cemetery.

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