Ain't that the truth

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Thursday 2 June 2016

Sid Vicious


Sid Vicious

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Sid Vicious
Vicious.jpg
Vicious performing with the Sex Pistols in San Francisco, January 1978.
Background information
Birth nameJohn Simon Ritchie[1]
Also known asSimon Ferocious
Sid Vicious
Spikey John
John Simon Beverley[2]
The Prince of Punk
Born10 May 1957
Lewisham, London, England
Died2 February 1979 (aged 21)
New York, New York, US
GenresPunk rock
Occupation(s)Musician
InstrumentsBass guitar, vocals, drums
Years active1976–1978
LabelsVirgin, EMI, A&M
Associated actsSex Pistols
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Vicious White Kids
The Flowers Of Romance
Notable instruments
Fender Precision Bass
John Beverly, born John Simon Ritchie,[1] later named Sid Vicious (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), was an English musician, most famous as the bass guitarist of the influential punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and notorious for his arrest for the allegedmurder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.
Vicious joined the Sex Pistols in early 1977 to replace Glen Matlock, who had fallen out of favour with the rest of the group. Due tointravenous drug use, Vicious was hospitalised with hepatitis during the recording of the band's only studio album Never Mind the Bollocks. Accordingly, his bass is only partially featured on one song from the album. Vicious would later appear as a lead vocalist, performing three cover songs, on the soundtrack to The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, a largely fictionalised documentary about the Sex Pistols, produced by the group's former manager Malcolm McLaren and directed by Julien Temple.
During the Sex Pistols' brief, chaotic ascendancy, Vicious met eventual girlfriend and manager Nancy Spungen, and the pair entered a destructive codependent relationship based on drug use. This culminated in Spungen's death from an apparent stab wound while staying in New York City's Hotel Chelsea with Vicious. Under suspicion of having committed Spungen's murder, Vicious was released on bail; he was later arrested again for assaulting Todd Smith, brother of Patti Smith, at a night club, and underwent drug rehabilitation on Rikers Island. In celebration of Vicious' release from prison, his mother hosted a party for him at his girlfriend's residence in Greenwich Village, which was attended notably by the Misfits bassist Jerry Only. Vicious' mother had been supplying him with drugs and paraphernalia since he was young; late that night she assisted him in procuring heroin, and he died in his sleep after overdosing on it.
Less than four weeks after Vicious' death, the soundtrack album of The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle was released. On 15 December of that year, a compilation of live material recorded during his brief solo career was packaged and released as Sid Sings.
In the 1986 feature-film Sid and Nancy, Gary Oldman gave a much-acclaimed performance as Sid.

Contents

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Early life[edit]

Vicious was born John Simon Ritchie on 10 May 1957 in Lewisham, 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, a guardsman at Buckingham Palace and a semi-professional trombone player on the London Jazz scene.[3] Shortly after Ritchie's birth, he and his mother moved to Ibiza, where they expected to be joined by his father who, it was planned, would support them financially in the meantime. However, after the first few cheques failed to arrive, Anne realised he would not be coming. Anne later married Christopher Beverley in 1965, before setting up a family home back in Kent. Ritchie took his stepfather's surname and was known as John Beverley.[4]
Christopher Beverley died six months later from cancer,[4] and by 1968 Ritchie and his mother were living in a rented flat inTunbridge Wells, where he attended Sandown Court School. In 1971 the pair moved to Hackney in east London. He also spent some time living in Clevedon, Somerset.
Ritchie first met John Lydon in 1973, when they were both students at Hackney Technical College. Lydon describes Ritchie at this time as a David Bowie fan and a "clothes hound".[5]
By 17, Ritchie was hanging around London. One favourite spot was Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's then-little-known clothing store, SEX. There he met American expatriate Chrissie Hynde before she formed the Pretenders. Though at least five years older, she tried (but failed) to convince Ritchie to join her in a sham marriage so she could get a work permit. John Lydon nicknamed Ritchie "Sid Vicious" after Lydon's pet hamster Sid, who had bitten Ritchie, eliciting Ritchie's response: "Sid is really vicious!"[6]The animal was described by Lydon as "the softest, furriest, weediest thing on earth."[7] At the time, Ritchie was squatting with Lydon, John Joseph Wardle (Jah Wobble), and John Gray, and the four were familiarly known as "The Four Johns".[citation needed]
According to Lydon, he and Vicious would often busk for money, with Vicious playing the tambourine. They would play Alice Cooper covers, and people gave them money to stop. Once a man gave them "three bob" (three shillings, i.e., 15p in decimal currency) and they all danced.[8] Yet the darker side of Sid's personality emerged when he assaulted NMEjournalist Nick Kent with a motorbike chain, with help from Jah Wobble.[9] 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.[citation needed]

Music career[edit]

The Flowers of Romance and the Banshees and incident with The Damned[edit]

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.[4] 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.[10] According to members of The Damned, Vicious was considered, along with Dave Vanian, for the position of lead singer for the Damned, but Vicious failed to show up for the audition.[11]
Vicious later contended that Vanian and associates had intentionally withheld information regarding the audition as an act of jealousy to ensure Vicious did not arrive. Soured by the experience, Vicious held a personal grudge for this perceived slight perpetrated against him by Vanian and The Damned, a grudge which would result in violence. During The Damned's performance at day 2 of the 100 Club Punk Special, the day after making his debut drumming with Siouxsie and the Banshees, an intoxicated and amphetamine-fuelled Vicious hurled his glass at the stage. He was attempting to strike Dave Vanian as an act of retribution, but the glass missed, shattered on a pillar and partially blinded a girl in one eye. Vicious was arrested the next day and imprisoned at Ashford Remand Centre. Westwood, likely working with McLaren to encourage Sid's worst instincts sent him a tome to read, written about Charles Manson, to keep him occupied during his imprisonment.[12]

Sex Pistols[edit]

The Sex Pistols (Vicious left, Steve Jones centre, and Johnny Rotten right) performing in Trondheim in 1977
According to various publications (such as the biography England's Dreaming by Jon Savage) and films (namely The Filth and the Fury), Vicious was asked to join the group after Glen Matlock's departure in February 1977, due to Vicious being present at every gig. ManagerMalcolm 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."[13] His nails would be painted in a sloppy manner with purple nail polish.[14] Vicious played his first gig with the Pistols on 3 April 1977 at The Screen On The Green in London. His debut was filmed by Don Letts and appears in Punk Rock Movie.
Sid was in the band, but he could not play very well and had no bass guitar experience, so guitarist Steve Jones had to double on bass duties as well as guitar for the band's debut album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols barring two songs: "Anarchy In The UK" (which was recorded with Matlock on bass and already out as a single) and "Bodies" which Sid was allowed to play on even though it would be overdubbed later on by Jones. He was also absent from the album because he was in hospital with hepatitis (most likely from his drug use) and during that period his main visitor would have been his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, an American groupie and heroin addict he had met in 1977. She was also a part-time prostitute and stripper, and she is said to have introduced Sid to heroin, although Sid was already abusing multiple drugs (supplied by his mother Anne) before he met her.
1977 ended with the Sex Pistols being arguably one of the most famous bands on the planet with vulgarity and obnoxiousness as well as Sid's hardcore punk personality as the absolute key to their ever-growing status.
On Christmas Day 1977, the band played a matinee for the children of Huddersfield during the firemen's strike. John Lydon claimed in the documentary Never Mind the Baublesthat Sid needed a serious talking-to beforehand because he wanted to be the "hardcore, tough rocker bloke" and that swearing and being tough wasn't "the right way" to "get the message across" to the children. The recording of the Johnny Thunders song "Born to Lose" which appears on Sid Sings, featuring Sid on vocals, was recorded during this performance, when Johnny Rotten stepped offstage to pose as Father Christmas. These were the Sex Pistols' last performances in England until the Filthy Lucre reunion tour of 1996 (with the original quartet together again).
In January 1978, the group embarked on a US tour which would only last one to two weeks because of multiple show cancellations and deterioration within the group. These issues primarily involved tension between Malcolm McLaren, Johnny Rotten and Vicious, with Rotten accusing Mclaren of trying to "wreck the very thing that made the Sex Pistols great",[citation needed] and the issue of Sid's worsening heroin habit and negative interactions with members of the audience. In San Antonio, Vicious famously hit an audience member who meant him physical harm on the head with his bass; the audience member had antagonised Sid, who shouted out "faggot fucker" before hitting him[citation needed]. Before the Pistols took the stage of the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, again in heroin withdrawal, Vicious carved the words "Gimme a Fix" into his bare chest with a razor.[15] In autumn 1977, the Sex Pistols began to perform the controversial song "Belsen Was A Gas" live for the first time. The song was most likely Sid's only contribution to the band during his tenure as a member,[citation needed] even though it was composed during his time in the Flowers of Romance. Vicious would also perform this song during his brief solo career after the band's split.
After the show at Winterland in San Francisco, (Live at Winterland 1978 was released in 2001), the group fell apart, freeing Sid to do as he pleased. He embarked on a path to destruction, while recording lead vocals on three cover songs at the same time for the soundtrack album for the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. "My Way" was released in 1978, "C'mon Everybody" was released in 1979, and "Something Else" was released in 1979 after his death.

Solo career[edit]

With Spungen acting as his "manager", Vicious embarked on a solo career during which he performed with musicians including Mick Jones of The Clash, Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, Rat Scabies of The Damned and the New York Dolls' Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan, and Johnny Thunders. He performed the majority of his performances at Max's Kansas City and drew large crowds, though some performances were "hellish", especially when Sid insulted some of the audience. Examples of this can be heard in the in-between tracks on his live album Sid Sings. Guitarist Steve Dior said in the documentary film Who Killed Nancy? that he "got good money for those shows".[citation needed] His gigs at Max's would turn out to be his last performances as a solo musician, as well as his last performances ever before he died the following February.[16]

Musicianship[edit]

Though regarded by many including Steve Jones and original Sex Pistols (as well Rich Kids and Vicious White Kids (which Sid was in)) bassist Glen Matlock as a talented vocalist, Vicious's abilities as a bass player were debated. 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."[17] The only song that he played on in the studio was "Bodies". Vicious 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."
Vicious performing with his short-lived punk group Vicious White Kids
According to Paul Cook, in the few months between joining the band and meeting Spungen, Vicious was a dedicated worker and tried his hardest to learn to play; indeed, this period was Cook's favourite in the band.[18] 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."[19] 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 concert at the Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, Vicious was a reasonably competent bass player, as is evident in the footage of the gig, especially at the beginning during the soundcheck when he plays a bass part from the song "Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones.[20]

Arrests[edit]

Nancy Spungen's death and Sid Vicious's arrest[edit]

Vicious' mugshot from 9 December 1978
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 "007" flip-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, Vicious had bought the knife after seeing Stiv's.[21] Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder.[22] He said they had fought that night but gave conflicting versions of what happened next, saying, "I stabbed her, but I never meant to kill her", then saying that he did not remember and at one point during the argument Spungen had fallen onto the knife.[23]
On 22 October 10 days after Spungen's death, Vicious attempted suicide by slitting his wrist with a smashed light bulb. He was hospitalised at Bellevue Hospital, where he also tried to kill himself by jumping from a window shouting "I want to be with my Nancy" or other similar words, but was pulled back by hospital staff. In a November 1978 interview he said that Nancy's death was "meant to happen" and that "Nancy always said she'd die before she was 21." Near the end of the interview, he was asked if he was having fun. In reply, he asked the interviewer if he was kidding, adding that he would like to be "under the ground." At Bellevue he was visited by his lawyer James Merberg, who did everything he could to keep Vicious out of jail.

Subsequent arrest for assault[edit]

Vicious was charged with assault after attacking Todd Smith, singer Patti Smith's brother, at a Skafish concert at Hurrah, a New York dance club.[24] Vicious was arrested on 9 December 1978 and sent to Rikers Island metro jail for 55 days to undergo a painful and enforced detoxification. He was released on bail on 1 February 1979.
Bail was originally set at $50,000,[25] but lowered after court hearings and negotiations from his lawyer. Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols' manager, worked to raise money and the bond was eventually covered by Virgin Records.[25] John Lydon has stated that Mick Jagger stepped in and paid for Sid's lawyer, and has praised Jagger for never seeking any publicity for this.[26]

Death[edit]

Vicious' death certificate

Party and possible suicide[edit]

On the evening of 1 February 1979, a small gathering to celebrate Vicious having made bail was held at a friend's Manhattan apartment in New York City. Vicious was clean, having been on a detoxification methadone program during his time at Rikers Island, but at the dinner gathering, Sid had his friend, English photographer Peter Kodick, deliver him some heroin. Sid had apparently spent hours during the party looking toward the future, planning an album he would record to get his life and career back on track should he be off the hook. Vicious overdosed at midnight, but everyone present worked together to get him up and walking around to revive him. Vicious died in the night and was discovered dead by Anne, his mother, early the next morning.
In his first interview, appearing in the Daily Mirror's 11 June 1977 issue, Vicious said "I'll probably die by the time I reach 25. But I'll have lived the way I wanted to."
A few days after Vicious' cremation, his mother allegedly 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. Bury me in my leather jacket, jeans and motorcycle boots Goodbye.[27]
Since Spungen was Jewish, she was buried in a Jewish cemetery. As Vicious was not Jewish, he 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, Jerry Only of the Misfits drove Anne and her sister, and two of Sid's friends to the cemetery where Nancy was buried, and Anne scattered Sid's ashes over Nancy's grave.[28] In the same book, it is alleged that the cemetery didn't want to be associated with Vicious and his inherent negative reputation, and it is speculated that this was of greater importance to them than the above-stated reason he and Nancy could not be buried together.

Anne Beverley's involvement[edit]

In the pilot episode of documentary series Final 24, NYPD police sergeant Richard Houseman revealed, supposedly for the first time, that shortly after overdosing Vicious wanted another dose of heroin. Anne, his mother, went into the bedroom. Before her death in 1996, Anne confessed to journalist Alan G. Parker that she had then purposely administered a fatal dose of heroin to Vicious because she knew that he was afraid of going back to prison and had doubts about how good his lawyers were, even though the lawyers were certain they would clear his name. In an interview some time after this documentary's broadcast, it was revealed that the show's production team lied to Parker to obtain his "confession." Parker later directed his own film, Who Killed Nancy? (Soda Pictures) to set the record straight.

Legacy[edit]

In 2006, Vicious, along with the four original members of the Sex Pistols, was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame, although the band refused to attend.
In 2014, the town of Tunbridge Wells, where Sid had lived as a schoolboy, proposed a memorial plaque for famous people from the town. Sid was one of the people in line to receive his memorial plaque and, while some people liked the idea, some locals were opposed to it, calling the former John Simon Ritchie a "vile, hideous man".
In 2015, UK rock band Medusa released a music video called "Sid and Nancy", in which a young boy resembling Vicious wreaks havoc around London with a young girl resembling Spungen.[29]

Discography[edit]

Sex Pistols[edit]

Studio album
Compilations and live albums
Singles
The Vicious White Kids, featuring Sid Vicious Tracklist:

Solo Albums/Live Albums[edit]

  • Sid Sings (1979) UK: Silver BPI [30]
  • The Idols with Sid Vicious (1993)
  • Sid Vicious & Friends (1998)
  • Better (2001)
  • Live at Max's Kansas City, NY 1978 (2002)
  • At the Electric Ballroom (2003)
  • Too Fast to Live (2004)
  • Sid Lives (2007)
  • Chaos and Disorder Tapes (2008)

Biopic[edit]

The 1986 UK feature-film Sid and Nancy, directed by Alex Cox, portrays the chaotic last phase of their lives, ending with a fictionalised stabbing scene. It starred Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious and Chloe Webb as Nancy Spungen. Oldman's performance was praised as a "hugely sympathetic reading of the punk figurehead as a lost and bewildered manchild."[31]

Other films that include Sid Vicious[edit]

  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 Vicious footage, such as his videos for "My Way" and "Somethin' 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. Buried Alive (1991, Sex Pistols)
  8. Decade (1991, Sex Pistols)
  9. Bollocks to Every (1995, Sex Pistols)
  10. Filth to Fury (1995, Sex Pistols)
  11. Classic Chaotic (1996, Sex Pistols)
  12. Kill the Hippies (1996, Sex Pistols, VHS)
  13. The Filth and the Fury (2000, directed by Julien Temple, VHS/NTSC/DVD)
  14. Live at the Longhorn (2001, Sex Pistols)
  15. Live at Winterland (2001, Sex Pistols, DVD)
  16. 24 Hour Party People (2002, Michael Winterbottom)
  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)
  27. Sid! By those that really knew him (2009, directed by Mark Sloper)
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