Sketching Lines On The Pavement A Tribute to Malcolm McLaren

Event information

Sketching Lines On The Pavement

A Tribute To Malcolm McLaren

Croydon will always be remembered as a rite of passage of my life – one night layovers, in the arms of

someone, the constant roaming at night through its market streets and thereafter navigating those deep leafy

suburbs into the countryside beyond, spending hours looking out of Croydon’s art school windows, observing

and then struggling to come to terms with these giant triffids of buildings that rise up and spread themselves

all along East Croydon’s path, using charcoal pencil and anything close to hand. I drew and drew and drew.”

Croydon was for a while muse and catalyst to cultural agitator and pop svengali Malcolm McLaren

who alongside Punk artist Jamie Reid studied at Croydon Art School. Malcolm, who died earlier this

year, is probably best remembered for his orchestration of the Sex Pistols, but he was always a cultural

magpie of the first degree. Particularly with his plucking of Hip Hop from the streets of New York and

his part in helping create a worldwide phenomena from this archetypal urban art form.

In partnership with Croydon College, Clocktower Arts will celebrate McLarens’ mammoth impact

on 20th century popular culture by putting on a totally unique event.



DJ Yoda is an internationally renowned DJ who fuses music and film in a live audio visual scratching and mixing extravaganza In this specially commissioned one off piece, DJ Yoda

will be exploring the career and influence of Malcolm

Mclaren in a truly un-missable live video mash up.

Yoda’s set will be projected live on the buildings of central Croydon, the

‘triffids’ that inspired the young Mclaren to draw, in what promise to be a

fitting tribute to such a legendary figure.

Hosting the party will be BBC 6 music’s ‘Back To The Phuture’ formed by

Mark Jones, the head honcho of record label Wall Of Sound. Back To The

Phuture is joining up the dots between the synth pioneers of the 80s and

today’s electropop artists, it will be celebrating the rich history of the NYC

inspired electro and Hip Hop that blasted out from every soundsystem in

every block party throughout the early part of that decade.

The event will also feature an epic display of skipping throughout the evening –

the culmination of two months of workshops between local schools, Croydon

College and ‘Skip Hop’ – a company set up to bring skipping to the masses.

This is a tribute to The Supreme Team’s seminal 12” record – Double Dutch.

Brought to the UK by Malcolm McLaren, this skipping craze was born on

the streets of New York in an explosive mix of traditional PE and expressive

street-dance moves.