McLaren reads riot act over show censorship

Published on Saturday 22 August 2009 19:52

MALCOLM McLaren, the original enfant terrible of popular culture, pulled out of an appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last night, in a spat over artistic differences.

He had been due to perform with the New York-based storytelling society Moth, but branded them a "pain in the arse" who wanted to make his turn "anodyne and inoffensive".

The punk impresario and former partner of designer Vivienne Westwood had planned to tell a story about his job as a 16-year-old wine taster, where he was taught to use sexual descriptions to describe wine. When asked him to cut back an alternative story, he decided to withdraw from the event.

But the book festival denied there had been a disagreement, saying McLaren had simply not had enough time to prepare his story.

He is due to appear at the Pleasance today for his solo show, History Is For Pissing On. He will talk about the death of Sex Pistols singer Sid Vicious from a heroin overdose

, setting up a London boutique with Westwood, managing the New York Dolls and his own music career.

McLaren said he would never work with Moth again. He said: "I will not have my stories pigeonholed by the PC New York intellectual toffs."