Sid Vicious

For the professional wrestler, see Sid Eudy.

Sid Vicious

Sid Vicious (born John Simon Ritchie 10 May 1957 - 2 February 1979) was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols. In 2006 he was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Sex Pistols.

Early life

Sid Vicious was born John Simon Ritchie in Lewisham South East London to John and Anne Ritchie (née McDonald). His mother dropped out of school early due to a lack of academic success and went on to join the RAF, where she met her husband-to-be, Ritchie's father. His father was a guardsman at Buckingham Palace and a semi-professional trombone player on the London Jazz scene. Shortly after Simon's birth, he and his mother moved to the island of Ibiza, where they expected to be joined by Simon's father, who was supposed to support the family financially until he joined them; however, after the first few pay cheques never arrived, Anne realised that he would not be coming. Anne later married Christopher Beverley, a middle-class man in 1965, before setting up a family home back in Kent. John had taken his stepfather's surname and was known as John Beverley.

Simon's stepfather died six months later from cancer; and, by 1968 John and his mother were living in a rented flat in Tunbridge Wells, where he attended Sandown Court School. In 1971, the pair moved to Hackney in East London. He also spent some time living in Somerset, where he was a pupil at Clevedon Secondary Modern.

Simon was given the nickname "Sid Vicious" by John Lydon (known as Johnny Rotten), after Lydon's pet hamster, Sid. The hamster had bitten Ritchie, who said that "Sid is really vicious!" The animal was described by Lydon as "the softest, furriest, weediest thing on earth." At the time, Ritchie was squatting with Lydon, Jah Wobble, and John Gray, and the four were colloquially known as "The Four Johns".

According to John Lydon, the two of them would often busk for money with Sid playing the tambourine. They would play Alice Cooper covers, and people gave them money to be quiet. Once a man gave them "three bob" (three shillings, i.e. 15p in decimal currency) and they all danced.

According to the band's photographer, Dennis Morris, John was "deep down, a shy person." However, he did assault NME journalist Nick Kent with a motorcycle chain with help from John Joseph Wardle (Jah Wobble). On another occasion, at The Speakeasy (a London nightclub popular with rock stars of the day) he threatened BBC DJ and Old Grey Whistle Test presenter Bob Harris.

Music career

The Flowers of Romance and The Banshees

Vicious began his musical career in 1976 as a member of The Flowers of Romance along with former co-founding member of The Clash Keith Levene (who later co-founded John Lydon's post-Pistols project Public Image Limited) and Palmolive and Viv Albertine, who would later form The Slits. He appeared with Siouxsie and the Banshees, playing drums at their notorious first gig at the 100 Club Punk Festival in London's Oxford Street. According to members of The Damned, Vicious, along with Dave Vanian, was considered for the position of lead singer for The Damned but failed to show up for the audition.

Sex Pistols

Before joining the band, Vicious had associations with The Bromley Contingent, the fashion avant garde that followed the Sex Pistols. According to various publications (such as the biography England's Dreaming by John Savage) and films (namely The Filth and the Fury) Ritchie was asked to join the group after Glen Matlock's departure in February 1977 due to his being present at every gig. Manager Malcolm McLaren once claimed "if Johnny Rotten is the voice of punk, then Vicious is the attitude."

McLaren also said in person and in a documentary that if he'd met Vicious before he had hired Rotten to be the singer, Vicious would have been the Sex Pistols front man, because he had the most charisma of anyone on that stage. Alan Jones described Vicious as "[having] the iconic punk look (...) Sid, on image alone, is what all punk rests on." His nails would be painted in a sloppy manner with purple nail polish. Vicious played his first gig with the Pistols on 3 April 1977 at the The Screen On The Green in London. His debut was filmed by Don Letts and appears in Punk Rock Movie. In November 1977, Ritchie met American groupie Nancy Spungen. Both the group and Ritchie visibly deteriorated during their 1978 American tour. The Pistols broke up in San Francisco after their concert at the Winterland Ballroom on 14 January 1978. With Spungen acting as his "manager", Ritchie embarked on a solo career during which he performed with musicians including Mick Jones of The Clash, original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, Rat Scabies of The Damned and the New York Dolls' Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan, and Johnny Thunders. Ritchie performed the majority of his performances at Max's Kansas City and drew large crowds. His final performances as a solo musician took place at Max's.

Musicianship

Vicious was not recognised as a competent bass player. During an interview for Guitar Hero III, when Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones was asked why he, instead of Vicious, recorded the bass parts of Never Mind the Bollocks, Jones responded, "Sid was in a hospital with yellow jaundice and he couldn't really play, not that he could play anyway." Sid asked Lemmy, the bassist of Motörhead, to teach him how to play bass with the words, "I can't play bass," to which Lemmy replied "I know." In another interview Lemmy stated, "Yeah. It was all uphill. And he still couldn't play bass when he died."

According to Paul Cook, in the few months between joining the band and meeting Nancy, Vicious was a dedicated worker and tried his hardest to learn to play; indeed, this period was Cook's favourite in the band. Viv Albertine went further in defence of his ability, saying that one night she "went to bed, and Sid stayed up with a Ramones album and a bass guitar, and when I got up in the morning, he could play. He'd taken a load of speed and taught himself. He was so quick." Keith Levene, a member of The Flowers of Romance with Vicious and later a member of The Clash and then Public Image Ltd, also recounts a similar story: "Could Sid play bass? I don't know, but one thing I do know was that Sid did things quickly. One night, he played the first Ramones album nonstop, all night, then next morning, Sid could play the bass. That was it; he was ready! I told you Sid did things quickly!" By the time of the last Sex Pistols gig at the Winterland in San Francisco Sid was a reasonably competent bass player which is evident in the footage of this gig.

Nancy Spungen's death

On the morning of 12 October 1978, Vicious claimed to have awoken from a drugged stupor to find Nancy Spungen dead on the bathroom floor of their room in the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan, New York. She had suffered a single stab wound to her abdomen and appeared to have bled to death. The knife used had been bought by Vicious on 42nd Street and was identical to a collector's knife given to punk rock vocalist Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys by Dee Dee Ramone. According to Dee Dee's wife at the time, Vera King Ramone, Sid had bought the knife after seeing Stiv's.

File:Sid Vicious NY Mug Shot.png

Booking photograph, December 8, 1978

Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder. He said they had fought that night but gave conflicting versions of what happened next, saying, "I stabbed her, but I didn't mean to kill her. I loved her, but she treated me like shit", then saying that he did not remember and at one point arguing Spungen had fallen onto the knife.

On October 22, ten days after Spungen's death, Vicious attempted suicide by slitting his wrist and subsequently became a patient at Bellevue Hospital. He was charged with assault after an altercation with Todd Smith (singer Patti Smith's brother) at a Skafish concert. Vicious was arrested December 9, 1978 and sent to Rikers Island prison for 55 days. He was released on bail on February 1, 1979.

Bail was originally set at $50,000. However, after court hearings and work from his lawyer, it was lowered. Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols' manager, worked to raise money, and the bond was eventually covered by Virgin Records.

One theory regarding the murder is that Spungen was killed in a robbery or drug deal gone wrong, in which one of those involved was Rockets Redglare, later to become known as a stand-up comedian and actor. Redglare, who died in 2001, always denied any part in her death. He stated that the other dealer known to have been there that evening had left before him to obtain more heroin, and was due back after he had left the building. He said he believed that the other dealer returned, found Vicious out cold, and attempted to steal the remaining drugs, leading to a confrontation with Spungen.

Death

On the evening of 1 February 1979, a small gathering to celebrate Sid's having made bail was held at the 63 Bank St. New York Apartment of his new girlfriend, Michele Robinson, with whom he had started dating the day he got out of Bellevue Hospital the previous October. Vicious was clean, having been on a detoxification methadone program detoxed from heroin during his time at Rikers Island . However, at the dinner gathering, his mother (who was once a registered addict herself) had some heroin delivered, against the wishes of Sid's girlfriend. The person who delivered it, Peter Kodick, came and stayed for a while. Vicious overdosed at midnight that night but everyone who was there that night worked together to get him up and walking around in order to revive him. At 3am Sid and Michelle Robinson went to bed together. Vicious was discovered dead late the next morning. An autopsy confirmed that Vicious died from an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that was consistent with heroin overdose. A syringe, spoon, and heroin residue were discovered near the body. It was theorised that he had taken too much of the nearly 80%-pure heroin to shoot up the third dose himself. After his recent overdose, he should have been unconscious all night.

A few days after Vicious' cremation, his mother found a suicide note in the pocket of his jacket:

We had a death pact, and I have to keep my half of the bargain. Please bury me next to my baby in my leather jacket, jeans and motorcycle boots. Goodbye.

Nancy was buried in a Jewish cemetery and Vicious, who was not Jewish, could not be buried with her. According to the book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Vicious' mother scattered his ashes over Nancy's grave.

Discography

Singles

• "My Way" (30 June 1978) - (B-side Chatterbox)
• "Something Else" (9 February 1979)
• "C'mon Everybody" (22 June 1979)

Albums

• Sid Sings (15 December 1979)

Films that include Sid Vicious

1. Sex Pistols Number One (1976, dir. Derek Jarman)
2. Will Your Son Turn into Sid Vicious? (1978)
3. Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979, dir. Michael O'Donoghue)
4. The Punk Rock Movie (1979, dir. Don Letts)
5. The Great Rock N' Roll Swindle (1979, directed by Julien Temple; Julien Temple's The Great Rock N' Roll Swindle features famous Sid Vicious footage, such as his videos for "My Way" and "Something Else," along with various live Sex Pistols footage. There is also a video for "C'mon Everybody," of which only snippets are shown in the film; VHS/DVD)
6. DOA (1981, directed by Lech Kowalski)
7. Sid and Nancy (1986, directed by Alex Cox, DVD)
8. Buried Alive (1991, Sex Pistols)
9. Decade (1991, Sex Pistols)
10. Bollocks to Every (1995, Sex Pistols)
11. Filth to Fury (1995, Sex Pistols)
12. Classic Chaotic (1996, Sex Pistols)
13. Kill the Hippies (1996, Sex Pistols, VHS)
14. The Filth and the Fury (2000, directed by Julien Temple, VHS/NTSC/DVD)
15. Live at the Longhorn (2001, Sex Pistols)
16. Live at Winterland (2001, Sex Pistols, DVD)
17. Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols (2002, Sex Pistols, VHS/DVD)
18. Punk Rockers (2003, Sex Pistols, DVD)
19. Blood on the Turntable: The Sex Pistols (2004, directed by Steve Crabtree)
20. Music Box Biographical Collection (2005, Sex Pistols, DVD)
21. Punk Icons (2006, Sex Pistols, DVD)
22. American Hardcore (2007, DVD)
23. Chaos! Ex Pistols Secret History: The Dave Goodman Story (2007, Sex Pistols, DVD)
24. Pirates of Destiny (2007, directed by Tõnu Trubetsky, DVD)
25. Rock Case Studies (2007, Sex Pistols, DVD)
26. Who Killed Nancy? (2009, directed by Alan G. Parker)

In popular culture

• A fictionalised film about the relationship between Vicious and Spungen, Sid and Nancy, was made by director Alex Cox in 1986, starring Gary Oldman as Vicious.
• The end credits of Goodfellas roll to his version of "My Way".
• Adrian Edmondson played Vicious in The Comic Strip Presents: Demonella. He is shown in Hell, accompanied by Oscar Wilde, Genghis Khan, Marie Antoinette, and Adolf Hitler.
• Ben Garant portrayed Vicious in a skit on the MTV sketch comedy series The State.
• In the 2009 stage play Kurt and Sid, Sid Vicious appears before Kurt Cobain as a vision, on the day of his suicide.
• The season 2 episode of Gilmore Girls entitled "Nick and Nora/Sid and Nancy" references his relationship with Spungen.
• Season 19 episode 12 of The Simpsons entitled "Love, Springfieldian Style" includes a story about Sid and Nancy with Nelson and Lisa playing the parts.
• In an episode of Mission Hill, Andy tells Gwen, voiced by The Go-Go's member Jane Wiedlin, in order to impress her, "You know, there's a rumor that Sid Vicious once threw up in our bathroom." Andy's brother Kevin wakes up the next morning with his first hangover and is told, "Hey, it's not everyone who can out-do Sid Vicious."
• In the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the antihero vampire Spike sings along to Sid's "My Way" in the episode "Lovers Walk".In fact the couple Spike and Drusilla were modeled on Sid and Nancy.
• In the Series Primeval, characters Connor Temple and Abby Maitland are nicknamed "Sid and Nancy" due to their odd style of dress. The two later take in a pair of Diictodons named Sid and Nancy.
• In the 2009 film (500) Days of Summer, Summer breaks up with Tom saying, "We've been like Sid and Nancy for months now." In promotion of the film, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tom) and Zooey Deschanel (Summer) starred in the debut episode of Microsoft Zune and Mean Magazine's "Cinemash", in which they recreated a scene from Sid And Nancy with Gordon-Levitt playing Nancy and Deschanel playing Sid.
• Professional skier Seth Morrison has had many of his K2 pro models named in Sid's honour including the Seth Pistol and Seth Vicious. There was also a woman's version called the Nancy.
• In the Japanese manga NANA Sid and Nancy are referred to several times, with Sex Pistols being Nana Osaki's favourite band and an inspiration. With two of the manga's main characters, Nana Osaki and Ren Honjo resembling them. Ren especially, who looks similar in appearance to Sid and plays the bass as he does.The two characters even making a similar "death pact".
• In the Japanese manga and anime Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad Sid appears, along with musicians like Freddie Mercury, John Lennon and Kurt Cobain, in the dreams of the protagonists before their first big concert to tell who will succeed.

Further reading

• Anne Beverley, The Sid Vicious Family album (1980, Virgin Books) ISBN 978-0907080022
• Gerald Cole, Sid And Nancy (1986, Methuen)
• Alex Cox & Abbe Wool, Sid And Nancy (1986, Faber and Faber)
• Keith Bateson and Alan Parker, Sid’s Way (1991, Omnibus Press)
• Tom Stockdale, Sid Vicious. They Died Too Young (1995, Parragon)
• Malcolm Butt, Sid Vicious. Rock‘n’Roll Star (1997, Plexus) ISBN 978-0859653732
• David Dalton, El Sid (1998, St. Martin’s Griffin)
• Sid Vicious, Too Fast To Live...Too Young to Die (1999, Retro Publishing)
• Alan Parker, Vicious. Too Fast To Live... (2004, Creation Books)
• Spungen's mother, Deborah, wrote a book about her daughter and her involvement with Vicious in And I Don't Want to Live This Life.
• Ed Hamilton, "Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York's Rebel Mecca" (2007, DeCapo Press)

External links

• Sid Vicious at MySpace
• Vicious' confession to the NYPD and other documents
• Site with pictures of the murder scene
• Sid Vicious day-by-day timeline
• Sid Vicious at Find a Grave