Simon John Ritchie[a] (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), better known by his stage nameSid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the second bassist for thepunk rock bandSex Pistols. After his death in 1979 at the age of 21, he remained an icon of the punk subculture; one of his friends noted that he embodied "everything in punk that was dark, decadent andnihilistic."[3]
Simon John Ritchie was born inLewisham, southeast London, to John and Anne Ritchie (née McDonald; later named Anne Beverley; died 1996).[5][2] Anne McDonald had dropped out of school and joined theBritish Army, where she met Ritchie's father, a guardsman atBuckingham Palace and a semi-professional trombone player on the London jazz scene. Shortly after Simon's birth, he and his mother moved toIbiza, where they expected to be joined by his father, who did not appear and provided no financial support—Anne reportedly sold marijuana to get by.[6]
With the help of theBritish Embassy in Spain, Anne returned to England and, in 1965, married Christopher Beverley, who died six months later of kidney failure. Anne and Ritchie settled inTunbridge Wells, Kent, where they lived from 1965 to 1971, and where Ritchie attended Sandown Court School (later renamedThe Skinners' Kent Academy).[7][8][9] In 1971, the pair moved toStoke Newington inHackney, East London, where Ritchie attended Clissold Park School (later renamedStoke Newington School). At this time, Ritchie began using the name 'John Beverley'.[10]
By 1973, Anne's life was consumed by her addiction toheroin, to the point where, as Ritchie's friendJohn Wardle claimed in a 2009 interview, she was unaware that her son was attending Kingsway College of Further Education (later known asWestminster Kingsway College). While at Kingsway, which he was likely attending to complete hisO levels, Ritchie told a counsellor that he was contemplating suicide. When Ritchie turned 16 that year, Anne kicked him out of her home. In a 1988 interview, Anne said: "I remember saying to him: 'It's either you or me, and it's not going to be me. I have got to try to preserve myself and you just fuck off.' He said: 'I've not got anywhere to go,' and I said: 'I don't care.'"[3]
In 1973, Ritchie met fellow Kingsway studentJohn Lydon, who introduced him to his friends John Grey andJohn Wardle. All four, who became known locally as 'The Four Johns', quit school and began squatting in various dingey locations. Three of the four Johns would then take nicknames: Lydon nicknamed Ritchie "Sid Vicious" after Ritchie was bitten by Lydon's hamster Sid (named afterSyd Barrett);[11] Lydon was dubbed "Johnny Rotten" by his bandmate, guitaristSteve Jones; and Ritchie nicknamed Wardle "Jah Wobble".[3]
The four young men started hanging around theKing's Road inChelsea, London which was a centre for music and fashion.[12] A favourite spot wasMalcolm McLaren andVivienne Westwood's clothing store,Sex. There, Vicious met American expatriateChrissie Hynde, before she formed her group thePretenders. According to her 2015 autobiographyReckless: My Life as a Pretender, Hynde convinced Vicious — by paying him £2 — to join her in asham marriage to enable her to get awork permit and remain in the country, after John Lydon had already declined. The plan was thwarted by theregister office being closed the day the 'happy couple' turned up.[13] According to Lydon, he and Vicious took upbusking, with Lydon singing and occasionally playing theviolin and Vicious playing atambourine or anacoustic guitar. They would playAlice Cooper covers, and people gave them money to stop.
In 1975, Lydon, Steve Jones,Glen Matlock andPaul Cook, with McLaren as their manager, formed theSex Pistols, the band Vicious would eventually join. Vicious was photographed watching the band attack their audience at the Nashville Rooms inWest Kensington in 1976.[3]Vicious then began his own musical career.
The Flowers of Romance and Siouxsie and the Banshees (1976)
In 1976, Vicious co-founded, as vocalist and saxophone player,[14]the Flowers of Romance along withthe Clash co-founder guitaristKeith Levene,Viv Albertine andPalmolive (who would both go on to become the guitarist and the first drummer ofthe Slits respectively), andKenny Morris (future drummer ofSiouxsie and the Banshees) who would replace Palmolive who got kicked out of the band by Vicious after rejecting his advances.[15] In the music documentary, "Punk Attitude",Chrissie Hynde remarked that at this time, he learned to play bass by staying up for 3 nights onspeed playing along to theRamones first albumRamones,[16] fixating on the up-tempo bump-and-grind pattern of the song "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement", a pattern he would apply to most of his playing from then on.[3]
In June 1976, Vicious went to a Sex Pistols concert at the100 Club.Nick Kent, who had played guitar with the Sex Pistols early on and had left music to become anNME music critic and champion of punk rock (and who was Hynde's boyfriend), was also there, and was apparently blocking Vicious's view. Vicious, high on speed, lashed Kent's head with a rusted motorcycle chain which, according to Hynde, he carried with him.[17] The incident was reported in the papers but no charges were laid.[18][19]
Although the songs they wrote would later be performed by other bands, the Flowers of Romance did not perform live, or record any music. But Vicious came to the attention of members ofthe Damned. He was considered, along withDave Vanian, for the position of lead singer, but Vicious failed to show up for the audition.[20]
On 20 September 1976, Vicious appeared withSiouxsie and the Banshees, playing drums only at their first set at the100 Club Punk Special in London'sOxford Street,[21] a two-day festival co-founded by McLaren. The following day, Vicious went to the Damned's performance. Drunk and high on amphetamines, he hurled his glass at the stage, attempting to strike Vanian. He missed, and the glass shattered against a pillar and blinded a woman in one eye.[22] Vicious was arrested and imprisoned atAshford Remand Centre. Westwood and Albertine visited Vicious in prison, with Albertine bringing the bookHelter Skelter as a gift.[21][23]
The Sex Pistols (Vicious left, Steve Jones centre, and Johnny Rotten right) performing in Trondheim in 1977
In February 1977, Sex Pistols' manager McLaren announced that Glen Matlock had been "thrown out of the band" because "he likedthe Beatles", and that he had been replaced by Vicious. In his autobiographyI Was a Teenage Sex Pistol,[24] Matlock says he quit because he was "sick of all the bullshit".[25] In the 2000 documentaryThe Filth and the Fury, the band members agreed that there was tension between Matlock and Rotten, but Matlock says that those tensions were aggravated by McLaren, who wanted to generate chaos in the band as a creative mechanism, and as a way of building the band's image. He wanted Matlock to leave, and to replace him with Vicious, saying "if Johnny Rotten is the voice of punk, then Vicious is the attitude".[26]
Vicious had become the Sex Pistols' uber-fan, never missing a concert. He was encouraged to be drunk and disorderly, with Wobble saying, "Sid was offered up as a sacrificial lamb by the people around the Pistols. None of them would have gone over the top. He was their kamikaze pilot, and they were all too happy to strap him in and send him off."[3]
In March 1977, the Sex Pistols were signed toA&M Records. In celebration, they trashed the company's offices, and then held a private party atthe Speakeasy, a club and restaurant frequented by established members of the London music scene. The Sex Pistols members confronted theBBC DJBob Harris, who was the presenter of theOld Grey Whistle Test, a television show which featured non-chart music. Blocking Harris behind the bar, broken bottles in hand, they demanded to know when they would be on the show. A bar fight ensued. Vicious jammed a broken bottle into the face of BBC recording engineer George Nicholson. Harris was rescued by theProcol Harum road crew, who grouped around him and escorted him out of the club, where they found that police had had to cordon off the entire block. None of the Sex Pistols were arrested but, the next day, A&M dropped them andCapital Radio banned all Sex Pistols music from its stations.[27]
Vicious played his first show with the Sex Pistols on 3 April 1977, atThe Screen on the Green;[28] his debut was filmed byDon Letts and appears inPunk Rock Movie. But he could not play well and had no bass experience, so guitarist Steve Jones played bass on the band's debut album,Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols.[29] Vicious was allowed to play bass on one track, "Bodies", but his contribution was later overdubbed by Jones. He also missed most of the band's rehearsals and recording sessions because he was in hospital withhepatitis, likely caused byintravenous drug use.[30] By this time, Vicious was using heroin, with many believing that his mother was his supplier.[31]Dee Dee Ramone had seen him shooting drugs on more than one occasion, and Rotten's friend John Gray had found Vicious shooting speed while he was still living with his mother; Vicious told him that the drugs were "me mum's".[6]
Also in 1977, Vicious metNancy Spungen, an American groupie living in London, who had a life-long history of unstable mental behaviour and was also a heroin addict.[32] Spungen, who had initially set her sights on Rotten and who supported herself by alternately dealing drugs[33] and working as a topless dancer,[34] made herself useful on the King's Road scene by procuring drugs for musicians. She and Vicious became inseparable, which caused problems with the band, whose members did not like her; McLaren admitted to planning to have her abducted and forced onto a plane back to the United States.[35][36][37] Vicious and Spungen had a volatile relationship; Vicious played nursemaid when she was sick and was shy and polite with her mother, who reported watching Spungen cut his meat for him. On the other hand, Spungen was known to be verbally abusive and physically aggressive. Vicious may have facilitated Spungen's occasional prostitution (and watched). According to Rotten's wife Nora Forster, Vicious often hit Spungen and, in her last conversation with her mother, Spungen admitted that beatings which she had previously said were at the hands of strangers actually came from Vicious.[6] They shared an infatuation with knives.[34]
Beginning in July, with Spungen in tow, the band went on a Scandinavian tour, then toured the Netherlands and the UK.[28] On 28 October 1977, their only album,Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols was released and, due in part to notoriety (particularly of the song "God Save the Queen"), and in spite of sales bans at major retailers, the album debuted at number one on the UK Album Charts and went gold on 17 November. It remained a best-seller for nearly a year, spending 48 weeks in the top 75. It is frequently listed as the most influential punk album of all time.[38]
On 24 December 1977, the Sex Pistols played The Royal Links Pavilion,Cromer; the next day, the band played two shows at Ivanhoe's inHuddersfield,West Yorkshire. It was during the national Fire Brigades Strike and the band performed a matinee for the children of firefighters.[39] In the 2013 documentaryNever Mind the Baubles: Xmas '77 with the Sex Pistols, Lydon claimed that Vicious had to be warned not to be the "hardcore, tough rocker bloke" in front of the children. The track of Vicious singing theJohnny Thunders song "Born to Lose",[40] which appears onSid Sings, was recorded during this performance, as Vicious stepped in when Lydon left the stage to pose asFather Christmas. These were the Sex Pistols' last performances in Britain, until the original members reunited for theFilthy Lucre Tour in 1996.[28]
In January 1978, the Sex Pistols embarked on a two-week USA tour. There was rising tension within the band. Rotten was barely speaking to anyone.Warner Bros., which organized and staffed the tour, insisted that Vicious clean up his heroin habit, so he was usingmethadone. He was in a constant state of semi-withdrawal and furious that the band had blocked Spungen from accompanying them on the tour. McLaren had long been keeping Vicious on rations of $14.00 (US) a week but he still managed to find drugs.[41] To make matters worse, McLaren, ever eager for more chaos and careful that journalists were on-scene, booked the band, not into the clubs of New York, but into bars in Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas.[42] InSan Antonio on 8 January, Vicious felt antagonised by an audience member and struck him on the head with his bass.[3] Before the Sex Pistols took the stage of theLonghorn Ballroom inDallas on 10 January, Vicious carved the words "gimme a fix" into his chest with a razor (later joking that "if you try to kill yourself [with a razor to the chest], it won't work"). He greeted the audience by calling them "redneck cowboy faggots"; in return, he was struck by a full can of beer to the head.[43] The next night, 11 January, he punched a hole in the Green Room wall after the band's show atCain's Ballroom inTulsa.[44][45] It was long rumoured that at their 14 January show at theWinterland Ballroom in San Francisco, Vicious did not bother to plug in his bass at all, although video from the show makes it clear when Jones's guitar cuts out during "Bodies" that Vicious was both playing bass and the right notes.[46] There is also a pre-show soundcheck audio recording where Rotten says to turn Vicious down because his bass was too loud.[47] At the end of the show, Johnny Rotten uttered the famous quote "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?", marking the end of the Sex Pistols.[42]
On 19 January, Vicious boarded a flight from San Francisco to New York. By the time the plane landed atJFK Airport, he had slipped into adiazepam-, methadone- and alcohol-induced coma and was rushed to a hospital inQueens where, as he told the photographerRoberta Bayley, the doctor told him that if he did not quit drinking, he would be dead in six months.[3]
When he was released, he re-united with Spungen. In April, the two travelled to Paris to film the Sex PistolsmockumentaryThe Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, where they spent most of their time in their hotel room, doing drugs. DirectorJulien Temple was able to get Vicious to attend production long enough to record threesong covers: "C'mon Everybody", "Something Else" and "My Way".[48] When Vicious returned to his hotel, he found that Spungen had retaliated for being left alone by superficially cutting her wrists.[37]
The couple then travelled to New London where, by August, they needed to return to the US but had no money. Sid bumped into Glen Matlock, who by this point had founded the bandRich Kids, and suggested that they play a gig together. For this concert, Vicious and Matlock recruited Rich Kids guitarist and singerSteve New, and the Damned's drummerRat Scabies. They called themselvesVicious White Kids and performed once—at theElectric Ballroom inCamden Town on 15 August 1978. Vicious did not play bass in this band; he was the lead singer. Spungen joined on backing vocals but Matlock made sure that her microphone was not plugged in for the concert.
Vicious and Spungen then returned to New York, where they settled into Room 100 of theHotel Chelsea (after causing a fire in their first room) as Mr. and Mrs. John Ritchie.[49] Spungen acted as his manager, putting together the band ofSteve Dior,Jerry Nolan andArthur Kane and booking him into the New York clubMax's Kansas City. Spungen sang with him,[50] and they were sometimes joined byMick Jones andJohnny Thunders. He drew large crowds, though some performances were "hellish", with the audience booing his attempted imitation of Rotten, and Vicious insulting the audience. Examples of this can be heard in the in-between tracks on his live albumSid Sings;[51] these performances were also released in 2002 (and again in 2011), asLive at Max's Kansas City, NY 1978.[52] In the documentaryWho Killed Nancy?, Dior said that Vicious "got good money for those shows" but Spungen often had to call her parents for money. In one of these conversations, Spungen said that she was having problems with her kidneys, and asked her mother to look into getting her, and Vicious, into a detox programme.[6][53]
On the night of 11 October 1978, Vicious and Spungen hosted a party in their hotel room, during which Vicious took approximately 30Tuinal tablets, and was comatose for the rest of the night while numerous people came and went. At about 11 a.m. the next day, hotel staff found Spungen dead on the bathroom floor, with a knife wound to her abdomen. Vicious was found wandering the hallway. He first claimed to have killed her, then said he remembered nothing. Two people who had been at the party stated that Spungen was alive at 5 a.m. The murder weapon was identified as a Jaguar K-11 hunting knife, which Spungen had purchased for Vicious a few days earlier.[6][54] Vicious was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.[55] He told police that he and Spungen had argued 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 anything, then that Spungen had fallen onto the knife.[56] The arresting officer, Sgt. Thomas Kilroy of the Third Homicide Unit, said: "... Vicious admitted killing Miss Spungen during a dispute."[6]
Lawyer Michael Berger first dealt with the matter, but McLaren and Anne Beverley were lawyer-shopping. They interviewed several high-profile lawyers, includingMelvin Belli,Gerald B. Lefcourt andWilliam Kunstler before settling onF. Lee Bailey. Bailey never appeared in court, but another lawyer from his firm, Jim Merberg, arranged for Vicious to be released on $50,000 bail, with the conditions that he not leave New York and that he sign in daily at the Third Homicide Unit offices, and at the Lafayette Street Methadone Center. All legal costs were paid by the Sex Pistols' label,Virgin Records.[57] Vicious returned to the Chelsea Hotel, where he was joined by McLaren and his mother.
McLaren firmly believed that Vicious was innocent. Noting that the knife was left in plain view and that the couple kept their cash in a drawer, he believed that Spungen caught one of the party guests stealing money and was stabbed by that person.[35][36] Given the number of people who had been through the hotel room on the night of the murder, Bailey had his investigator look into the possibility that a third party was involved in Spungen's death.[34]
Bailey also hired forensic psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Teich to evaluate Vicious. After their initial conversation, during which Vicious was preoccupied by the 'working class in Berlin' and remained fixated on the television, Teich told Anne Beverley that Vicious must not be left alone. Hours later, Beverley called Teich and said that Vicious had slashed his arms with a smashed light bulb. Teich returned to the hotel and called an ambulance. EMS staff arrived with the police; when Vicious saw them, he headed for the window but was blocked by Teich. He was taken toBellevue Hospital and then moved to the New York-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center inWhite Plains, New York.[58] He was released on 26 November and returned to the Chelsea. At this time, Rotten tried to contact Vicious, but his calls were barred by Beverley and McLaren.[6] On 28 November, Vicious was interviewed by the Irish journalist Bernard Clarke. He said that Spungen's death was "meant to happen" and that "Nancy always said she'd die before she was 21". He said that he just wanted to have fun. When asked where he would like to be, he replied, "Under the ground".[59]
In the meantime, McLaren announced that the Sex Pistols would reunite to record a Christmas album to benefit Vicious's defence, and sold T-shirts with the slogan, "She's Dead, I'm Alive, I'm Yours."[6][60]
In his 2007 bookPretty Vacant: A History of Punk, director Phil Strongman stated that he was convinced that it was actorRockets Redglare who killed Nancy Spungen, noting that Redglare not only knew about the large amounts of cash kept in the bedside table, but also brought theTuinal to the party.[32] Redglare, who died in 2001, had publicly denied this but privately confessed it to friends.[32] However,Howie Pyro insisted that it was Redglare's habit to tell stories to gain attention.[61] Strongman also implicated Redglare's friend, punk rocker Neon Leon.[b] Leon lived down the hall from Vicious and Spungen and was found to be in possession of many of Vicious's belongings, including his leather jacket. Leon claimed that Vicious had given the items to him for safe-keeping. He later surrendered them to police.Lester Bangs also toldThe Village Voice that he telephoned Leon after Spungen's death and that Leon had told him he knew who the murderer was, but refused to name the person.[49] Leon has since claimed, in two memoirs,[citation needed] that he had already left the Chelsea Hotel when Bangs claimed to have called him there.
By December, Vicious had started dating rockerJudy Nylon as well as fellow drug addicts Connie Gripp (ex-girlfriend ofDee Dee Ramone) and Michelle Robinson, an aspiring actress. On 5 December 1978, Vicious went to theHurrah nightclub with his friend Danielle Boothe, photographers David Still and Peter Kodick Gravelle, and the comedian and drug-dealerRockets Redglare who had appointed himself Vicious's bodyguard. Playing that night wasSkafish; their drum roadie, Tarrah, was the girlfriend of Todd Smith (Patti Smith's brother). Vicious began flirting with Tarrah. She rebuffed him and he pinched her. Smith told him to back off and Vicious smashed a beer bottle and jammed it into Smith's face. Smith required five stitches. Redglare told police that Smith provoked Vicious, that the bottle broke in Vicious's hand and, producing the glass shards, said that Smith's wound was the accidental result of flying glass. On 7 December, Vicious was arrested and charged with assault.[66] The judge agreed that Vicious had broken the terms of his previous bail and sent him toRikers Island, where he underwent opiate detoxification. While he was in Rikers, Anne Beverley brought Robinson to visit her son.[67]
On 18 January, Vicious appeared in court, represented by Jim Merberg. To everyone's surprise, the judge, James Leff, not only released Vicious on $10,000 bail, but reduced his previous bail conditions—he now had to report to the Homicide Unit only three days a week and did not have to appear at the methadone centre at all. Leff applied one condition: that Vicious not frequent night clubs.[67]
While it was widely reported, including by Rotten, thatMick Jagger paid Vicious' bail, that was untrue; Virgin Records continued to pay his legal fees. Anne Beverley, who was in court with Robinson, was happy with the outcome, telling reporters "Now the public will know he is a good boy."[67]
On the morning of 1 February 1979, after completing his detoxification programme, Vicious was released from Rikers Island. He arrived in Manhattan, and by chance, met his friend Peter Gravelle. Vicious asked Gravelle to find him some heroin. Gravelle brought $200 worth of the drug to the apartment of Michelle Robinson at 63 Bank Street, where he joined Vicious, Robinson, Beverley,Jerry Only of the bandMisfits,[68][69] Eileen Polk,Jerry Nolan ofthe Heartbreakers, Esther Herskovits, andHowie Pyro.[70][71][72] Gravelle said that they sat around doing drugs, and he left at 3:00 a.m.[73]
Only said that he and Anne Beverley made dinner, and that he, Polk, and Pyro left early, when the heroin use began. He noted that Vicious was already nodding off,[69] and around 11:00 p.m., he "picked him up and slapped him around" before Beverley put a blanket over him and told Only "that he'd be okay. I was like, he's just been in prison for two months so he had to be clean so you know you can't be messing with him."[68] However, Gravelle said that Robinson gave Vicious four Tuinal (a barbiturate and a favourite of Sid's) to help him sleep.[74] Vicious died over the night of a drug overdose. Robinson and Beverley discovered his body the following morning, on 2 February 1979.[75][76]
Anne Beverley later claimed that Vicious and Spungen had made asuicide pact and that Vicious's death was not accidental. She produced a handwritten note, which she said she found in the pocket of Vicious's leather jacket,[77] reading "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."[78][79] According to Deborah Spungen, Vicious wrote a letter to her when he was last hospitalized, saying approximately the same thing. "We always knew that we would go to the same place when we died", he wrote. "We so much wanted to die together in each other's arms. I cry every time I think about that. I promised my baby that I would kill myself if anything ever happened to her, and she promised me the same. This is my final commitment to my love."[6] Spungen was Jewish, and is buried in a Jewish cemetery in Pennsylvania. As an inter-faith burial was not possible, Sid's body was cremated atGarden State Crematory inNew Jersey.[80] According to Polk, Beverley asked Deborah Spungen if she could scatter Vicious' ashes over Nancy's grave and Spungen said no. Regardless, Polk said thatJerry Only drove Beverley, her sister, and two of Vicious' friends, to Nancy's gravesite, where Beverley scattered Sid's ashes.[80]
By the time of Vicious's death, he and Spungen were internationally notorious. His death made the front pages of most New York newspapers for days, and Robinson's apartment building was thronged by reporters.[81] Robinson would soon change her name. The first of many posthumous albums appeared in 1980;Sid Vicious, released byEMI sub-labelInnocent Records, has as its jacket image the photo of Vicious's body being removed from 63 Bank St.[82]
Several online sources state that the estate of Sid Vicious continues to earn approximately $400,000 annually in royalties. These statements are not verified. InLonely Boy, Jones states that Vicious' estate passed to maternal cousins.[30]
In 1986,Vicious, an American play about the life of Sid Vicious premiered in Los Angeles and was the theatre debut of actorGeorge Clooney, who played a male prostitute drug dealer.[83]
The acclaimed manga and anime seriesNana (2000 manga; 2006 anime) by Ai Yazawa drew significant inspiration from the band both aesthetically and thematically.Nana features characters, fashion choices, and narrative references that echo the raw energy and rebellious spirit of the Sex Pistols, making the group a key artistic influence on the work.[84][85][86]
In 2006, the Sex Pistols were inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame. The surviving members declined to attend the ceremony.[87][88]
Green Day frontmanBillie Joe Armstrong said of Vicious: "[He] was everything that's cool about punk rock: a skinny rocker who had a ton of attitude, sort of anElvis,James Dean kind of guy".[89]Steven Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees remembered Vicious in positive terms: "Before he got deeply into drugs, he was one of the funniest guys. He had a brilliant sense of humour, goofy, sweet, and very cute."[6] In 2009, Lydon toldThe Independent: "I'm sorry, God, for the day I brought Sid into the band. He felt so isolated, poor old Sid, because he wasn't the sharpest knife on the block. The best aspect of his character, which was his humour, just vanished the day he joined the Pistols."[90]
In 1996, Anne Beverley sold Vicious's bass guitar– a whiteFender Precision Bass with a blackpickguard and a leather strap with the name 'Sid' etched into it– to Steve Jones for £2,000.[30]
On 20 January 2009,In Search of Sid, a 30-minute documentary about Vicious recorded by his close friendJah Wobble was aired on theBBC Radio 4.[91]
In 2011, a suit of Vicious's sold at auction byChristie's for £11,000.[92]
As of 2025, Vicious-themed souvenirs are widely available for purchase. Many recordings with Vicious have been repeatedly released. His singles "My Way" and "It's Shit" were last released by the American label Cleopatra Records in 2021.[93] Also in 2021, Cleopatra's sub-label, Anarchy Records, released the albumLove Kills.[94]
Numerous bands have recorded songs about Vicious. In 1979, the band Helpless Huw released the four-track recordingSid Vicious Was Innocent.[95] In 1982,the Exploited included the song "Sid Vicious Was Innocent" on their albumTroops of Tomorrow.[96] Former frontman for the Clash,Joe Strummer, recorded "Love Kills"[97] and "Dum Dum Club"[98] for theSid and Nancy soundtrack. In 1986, the Ramones released "Love Kills" on their albumAnimal Boy, which was a tribute to both Vicious and Spungen.[99] In 1994,NOFX released "Punk Guy" on their albumPunk in Drublic, which makes references to a number of famous punk rock musicians; the line "Exudes a vicious disposition" referencing Vicious. In 2017,Foster the People released "Loyal Like Sid & Nancy", which references Vicious and Spungen's relationship, as the second single from their albumSacred Hearts Club.[100][101] In 2015,Medusa released a music video to their song "Sid and Nancy" which portrays the two as children.[102] In 2017,Industrial Metal bandPowerman 5000 released a single called "Sid Vicious in a Dress", which is about a female punk rocker who exhibits similar chaos and violent nature of the former Sex Pistols bassist.[103] In 2017, singer-songwriterPhoebe Bridgers recorded a track titled "Chelsea", included on her debut albumStranger in the Alps. The track was originally a poem about Vicious and Spungen's relationship in their final two months of life. In Remy Bond's 2024 'Summer Song', Sid and Nancy are mentioned in the line "I want real love just like Sid and Nancy". In his 2022 albumMainstream Sellout, artistMachine Gun Kelly released a track titled "Sid & Nancy", about a couple who was deeply in love but shared some dark ideas. The song ends with the sound of two consecutive gunshots.
The critically acclaimed 1986 filmSid and Nancy, directed byAlex Cox, portrays Vicious's life from his joining the Sex Pistols to the end of his life. It starsGary Oldman as Vicious andChloe Webb as Nancy Spungen. Oldman's performance was praised byUncut as a "hugely sympathetic reading of the punk figurehead as a lost and bewildered manchild" though Oldman himself detested the film and punk music in general.[104]
TheFoo Fighters' 1997 video for "Everlong" is about Vicious and Spungen, with Vicious defending Spungen against party demons.Dave Grohl andTaylor Hawkins play Vicious and Spungen, respectively.[105]
In September 2009, theRoy Smiles playKurt and Sid debuted at theTrafalgar Studios in London's West End. The play, set inKurt Cobain's greenhouse on the day of his suicide, revolves around the ghost of Vicious visiting Cobain to try and convince him not to kill himself. Vicious was played byDanny Dyer.[107]
In January 2021,FX announced that a series about the Sex Pistols, calledPistol, had gone into production, with Vicious to be portrayed byLouis Partridge. It is based on Steve Jones's memoirLonely Boy and is directed byDanny Boyle. Lydon called the series "The most disrespectful shit I've ever had to endure"[108] and unsuccessfully sued to block the use of the Sex Pistols' music in the series.[109]
Hits, Hype & Hustle: An Insider's Guide to the Music Business (2018, Series Episode "Revivals and Reunions")
Professor Rex Sings Every Song Ever! (2020, Series Episode 5: "Sex Pistols")
Radio and interviews
Cult Heroes, Sid Vicious/Elvis Presley, was released in 1993 by BBC Transcription Services. It is an in-depth profile of Vicious intercut with interviews and music, presented byMagenta Devine.
Sid Vicious – Probably His Last Ever Interview (2000), Ozit-Morpheus Records
In Search of Sid, a 30-minute radio documentary about Sid Vicious recorded byJah Wobble, was aired on theBBC Radio 4 on 20 January 2009.[135]
^Various accounts list Vicious's real name as John Beverley, Simon Ritchie, John Simon Beverley, or John Simon Ritchie.[4] According to his friend and bandmateJohn Lydon, Simon was Ritchie's first name, but he disliked it, preferring instead to use the name John.[2]
^Some sources quote Leon's family name as Matthews.[62][63][64] Getty Images quotes his family name as Webster.[65]
^Robinson, Charlotte (15 June 2006)."So Tough...June 2006".PopMatters. Pop Matters.Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved3 February 2022.
^Wells, Steven (8 January 2008)."Musical hack attacks"(Music blog).The Guardian. London.Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved13 June 2022.
^abMcLaren, Malcolm (4 February 2009)."Sid Didn't Kill Nancy".Daily Beast. New York: IAC. Archived fromthe original on 18 June 2017. Retrieved13 June 2022.Pistols boss also claims Vicious' mother smuggled him heroin!
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