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Sid Vicious

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Sid Vicious in 1978
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Sid Vicious in 1978

John Simon Ritchie-Beverly (May 10, 1957 – February 2, 1979), better known as Sid Vicious, was an English punk rock musician and member of the band the Sex Pistols. He died of a drug overdose at the age of 21.

Contents

Life

Early years

Ritchie was born in London to parents John (a former grenadier guard) and Anne Ritchie. His father left shortly afterwards, and, during his early years, he moved with his mother to the Spanish island of Ibiza, where she allegedly made a living selling drugs. The pair later moved back to England, where Anne married Christopher Beverly in 1965 before setting up a family home in Kent, England.

His stepfather died six months later, and by 1968 Ritchie 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 where in 1974 Ritchie asked John Lydon, a fellow student at Hackney Technical College, if he could use the name Sid Vicious, to which he said "sure, im sick of that name." Lydon then changed his name to Johnny Rotten.

By 1974 he had already begun using drugs intravenously with his mother, particularly amphetamines. By 1975, he had started to self harm and exhibited antisocial tendencies; some accounts of his life relate that he strangled a cat and assaulted a pensioner around this time.

Sid Vicious

Described by peers as 'slender and likable', Ritchie took the stage name "Sid Vicious," which reportedly came from an ironic joke involving the name of Lydon's pet hamster "Sid," which had apparently bitten Lydon's father and subsequently been dubbed "Vicious" by him. The new name may have been helpful because both his co-squatters, Lydon and John Wardle (later known as Jah Wobble), were also named John, with a fourth close friend being named John as well. (The four were sometimes referred to as The Four Johns). He reportedly made a deliberate effort to match the media myths that grew up around him and his name, although John Lydon reportedly commented, "Sid couldn't punch his way out of a bag of crisps!" .

The Bromley Contingent, Flowers of Romance and the Banshees

Vicious hung around with the Bromley Contingent, a group of followers and fans of the Sex Pistols that instigated the fashion avant-garde of the early UK punk rock movement. He began his musical career as a member of The Flowers of Romance along with Keith Levene (who later co-founded John Lydon's post-Pistols project Public Image Limited). He soon joined Siouxsie & the Banshees, playing drums at their notorious first gig at the 100 Club Punk Festival in London's Oxford Street.

According to the band's photographer Dennis Morris, Vicious was "deep down, a shy person," but he was renowned for a violent streak. At the 100 Club punk festival, a beer glass thrown at a pillar shattered and hit a young girl, who subsequently lost her sight in one eye. Ritchie is widely believed to have been responsible, but this was never proven. At the same event, he assaulted NME journalist Nick Kent with a bicycle chain and on another occasion, threatened BBC DJ and Old Grey Whistle Test presenter Bob Harris at a London nightclub.

Sex Pistols

Already known as "the ultimate Sex Pistols fan," and a close friend of vocalist Johnny Rotten, Vicious was asked to join the group after Glen Matlock's departure in February 1977. Manager Malcolm McLaren once claimed: If Rotten is the voice of punk, then Vicious is the look. His punk character was considered far more helpful than any knack for playing, as he was not renowned for his playing skills, though he did have some ability, as was later shown when he composed the track "Belsen Was A Gas" entirely by himself. Jon Savage's biography of the Sex Pistols, England's Dreaming, recounts that most of the bass parts on the band's later recordings were played by guitarist Steve Jones and at later live performances Sid's amplifier was sometimes switched off. Sid is said to have asked Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead to teach him how to play bass with the words, "I can't play bass." Kilmister's reply was (according to Kilmister himself) "I know.". In his autobiography No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, Lydon writes, "he wasn't too bad at all for three-chord songs." Sid played his first gig with the Pistols on April 3, 1977, at the Screen on the Green in London. His debut was filmed by Don Letts and appears in Punk Rock Movie.

Nancy Spungen and the end of the Pistols

In November 1977 Sid met American groupie Nancy Laura Spungen and they immediately began a relationship (Spungen had come to London looking for Jerry Nolan of The Heartbreakers). She was a heroin addict, and inevitably Sid, who already believed in his own "live fast, die young" image, soon shared the dependence. Although deeply in love, their often violent and rocky relationship had a disastrous effect on the Sex Pistols. Both the group and Sid visibly deteriorated during their 1978 American tour. The Pistols broke up in San Francisco after their concert at the Winterland Ballroom on January 14, 1978. With Spungen acting as his "manager" he 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 and Jerry Nolan.

The Deaths of Sid and Nancy

Meanwhile Ritchie and Spungen had become locked in their own world of drug addiction and self-destruction. Interview footage shows the couple attempting to answer questions from their bed: Spungen is barely coherent while Ritchie lapses in and out of consciousness. He also came very close to death following a heroin overdose and was hospitalized for a time.
Sid Vicious in a 1978 mugshot related to his arrest for the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.
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Sid Vicious in a 1978 mugshot related to his arrest for the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.

On the morning of October 12 1978 Ritchie allegedly awoke from a drugged stupor to find Spungen crumpled dead on the bathroom floor of their room (room 100) in the Hotel Chelsea in New York. She had received a single stab wound to her abdomen and apparently bled to death. Ritchie was arrested and charged with her murder although he said he had no memory of having done so. However, he later claimed to have "killed her because I'm a dirty dog." There are several theories that Spungen was murdered by someone else, usually said to be one of the two drug dealers who visited the apartment that night, and involving a possible robbery as certain items (including a substantial bankroll) were claimed to be missing from the room.

After appearing in court over Spungen's death, a television journalist briefly interviewed Ritchie (the footage appears in The Filth and the Fury). Ritchie was shaking slightly and appeared sober, morose, and withdrawn:

Interviewer: Are you having fun at the moment?
Ritchie: Are you kidding? No, I am not having fun at all.
(long pause)
Interviewer: Where would you like to be?
Ritchie: Under the ground.
Interviewer: Are you serious?
Ritchie: (quietly, and sad) Yeah.
Bail of $50,000 was put up by Virgin Records at McLaren's request. The plan was for Vicious to record an album with fellow pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook in order to raise funds for his defense. This was to be a collection of standards including (according to McLaren) White Christmas and Mac the Knife. Although more likely, and according to Paul Cook, the album was to be a selection of Sid's favourite songs and would no doubt have included tracks from The Stooges, The Ramones, The New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers. In February 1979, a party to celebrate his release was held at the home of his new girlfriend Michelle Robinson. During his time at Rikers Island prison, Ritchie had undergone drug rehabilitation therapy and was supposedly clean. However at the party he obtained some heroin from his mother, and was discovered dead the following morning, having taken a large overdose. Speculation has persisted that Ritchie, unable to live without his beloved Nancy, took his own life. He wrote the following poem about her:

You were my little baby girl,
And I shared all your fears.
Such joy to hold you in my arms
and kiss away your tears.
But now you're gone, there's only pain
and nothing I can do.
And I don't want to live this life,
If I can't live for you.
To my beautiful baby girl.
Our love will never die...
After Ritchie's death, his mother phoned Deborah Spungen, Nancy's mother, to request that he be buried next to her, but Deborah Spungen declined. There are several myths about what happened to Ritchie's remains but one of the most persistent is that late one night, "Sid's mother jumped the graveyard fence where Nancy was buried and scattered his ashes over his beloved for them to be together for all time."

According to The Guardian, "It's more likely that Ma Vicious arrived back at Heathrow with his remains. Malcolm McLaren claims she knocked them over in the arrivals lounge; hence the fanciful myth that Sid's essence still circulates, wafting through the air vents and moving among the travellers." [link]

Sid Sings was released posthumously by Virgin Records. This was a collection of mostly cover versions recorded live at his gigs at Max's Kansas City in September 1978. Tracks included "C'mon Everybody" and "Something Else" by Eddie Cochran along with material by Iggy Pop and Johnny Thunders and a rendition of the Paul Anka / Frank Sinatra standard "My Way". Striking footage of Vicious performing this song in Paris provides the closing sequence for Julien Temple's film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. Also included on Sid Sings was a cover of the The Heartbreakers' "Born to Lose", which was recorded at the Sex Pistols last British gig at Ivanhoe's in Huddersfield on Christmas Day 1977, with Sid on vocals.

Discography

Charted releases

Singles Album

Various pressings and bootlegs

Sid Vicious & Friends Sid Vicious/Eddie Cochran Sid Vicious/Elvis Presley

Films that include Sid Vicious

A somewhat fictionalised film about the relationship between Vicious and Spungen, Sid and Nancy, was made by director Alex Cox in 1986, starring Gary Oldman as Sid.

Further reading

Sid Vicious in pop culture

External links

 

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