Sid Vicious

Returning to London from Ibiza in 1961 John ended up in a private school after trying various other academic establishments, but it was obvious to Anne that John was not a scholar and by age 15 he had left. Having an aptitude for art his only real choice was to go to art college, and so the renamed Simon John Beverley (His mother Anne remarried in 1965) enrolled in Hackney College to study art and photography, it was here he met and found someone he could actually relate to; that person was John Lydon.

John Lydon had red hair and according to Anne was incredibly introverted and shy. Simon at this time was a Bowie fan who spent time spiking his hair and dying the front red. His new friend John described him as a poseur and noted that he could laugh at anything, and had a kind of innocence about him. Simon was initially renamed Sid Vicious by John as reference to his hamster and Syd Barrett ex-guitarist of Pink Floyd. Sid and John were joined by John Wardle (Jah Wobble) and John Grey, all collectively known as the 4 Johns.

Sid’s main source of income at this time was turning tricks under the name “Hymie”; for a pretty boy in London this was not difficult. It was during this period that Sid came across a shop at the wrong end of the Kings Road called “Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die.” This was not what could be described as a normal shop selling as it did Teddy Boy and Fetish gear with rock ‘n’ roll blaring from the jukebox all the time.

Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm’s partner had noticed a tall lanky young man in the shop and he was suggested as a possible singer. This was Sid Vicious. However another member of the Johns who was by now sporting green hair, bad teeth and a self-made ‘I hate Pink Floyd’ T Shirt beat him to it. Following a hastily arranged audition miming to I’m Eighteen on the shops juke box, John Lydon was rechristened Rotten, and the line up was complete.

Punk legend tells that one night, Sid speeding his head off took a bass guitar and the Ramones first album to bed. By the morning Sid was able to pump out a rudimentary bass line, not good enough for any boring Prog rock band, but sure as hell good enough for a burgeoning punk band.

Sid had always been a bit of a loner. Now he was at the centre of this scene as yet un-christened. He was now someone, and he was not going to miss this opportunity. Sid was ‘punk’ before the word was used, and from this point on Sid Vicious lived the life which, as we now know, led to his untimely death and perhaps arguably inevitable.

Once Steve took the songs and made them fit to his self taught method of guitar playing a unique and never-repeated source of energy and emotion was created. The Sex Pistols were becoming something even Malcolm McClaren could not have reckoned with – a credible creative force that had worth and credibility outside of him.

Not only that the Sex Pistols captured the feelings of youngsters growing up in the mid-70s and became their spokesmen. Out of the Blank Generation came a means of self-expression and creativity – stop complaining about things, get off your arse and do something about it.

Unfortunately no band actually existed and they did not have long to form one. Initially the line-up was to be Sioux, Steve Spunker (Severin), Sid Vicious on drums and Billy Idol on guitar. Billy however not wanting to undermine his own drive for stardom dropped out. Marco Pirroni, Sid’s friend through Soo Catwoman, who could actually play the guitar was drafted in and Sid found himself on stage at the 100 Club playing a loose version of what became known as the Lord’s Prayer.

In some respects day two of the Punk Festival was more important to Sid, as this led to him being accused of throwing a glass and allegedly a woman being blinded in one eye. Because of this he was arrested and locked up in Ashford Remand centre and all Punk Bands banned from the 100 Club. On his release, Sid now having nowhere to stay was put up by Soo Catwoman, and Sid became her minder.

Sid Vicious having seen this, knew exactly was to follow and rushed back to Soo’s house to tell her and Marco. This he knew was gonna be big and the repercussions massive. The next day his prediction was found to be absolutely true, the Sex Pistols had become overnight Britain’s public enemy number 1. Soon after, EMI caved into pressure and the Sex Pistols were sacked and their proposed national “Anarchy Tour” was left in tatters.

On March 9th 1977, the Sex Pistols signed to A&M. By March 15th they were sacked. Various stories exist as to what happened, following the staged signing outside Buckingham Palace, drunken antics at A&M’s offices and Sid allegedly attacking Bob Harris. It all rapidly got too much for A&M, and just as quickly as they were signed they were sacked again.

Like some kind of contagious disease, the biggest band in England seemed to be uncontrollable. Then from an unexpected source a hippy from Virgin was on hand to offer them what was to prove to be their last record contract. Richard Branson had courted Malcolm previously and was keen to sign a band that would help Virgin shake off their staid hippy image that had come about with the success of Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’. So the Sex Pistols signed to Virgin on May 12th, trusting their future to Richard Branson, though they had their doubts about it.

Banned up and down the country they hit on the idea of hiring a boat down the Thames, performing their songs as they passed the Houses of Parliament and sailed under the bridges of London. Playing a shortened set, the whole boat trip was prematurely ended when the boat they were playing on was boarded by the police and the party was brought to an abrupt end. Various arrests took place but the Sex Pistols managed to make a discrete get away.

By the end of November it was believed that Nancy was only achieving one thing, that was the gradual destruction of Sid and it was decided to attempt to put her on a plane and ship her back to America. The plan predictably failed and as a result Sid and Nancy pulled together even more; it was them against the world and nothing was going to split them up.

Not taking any chances, their American label Warner Brothers had hired Noel Monk and a bunch of heavies loosely described as minders to travel with the band. Making one of their main goals to prevent Sid scoring any heroin, Sid however had other ideas and soon disappeared after the Georgia gig returning in the morning having met a Sid obsessed fan by the name of Helen Killer.

On January 14th, the remains of the world’s most exciting band limped into San Francisco to play the final gig of the tour at the Winterland Ballroom. The show was full of technical problems from the outset. Steve’s guitar kept cutting out leaving at times only Paul’s drums and Sid’s bass accompanying Johnny. The show like all their shows was an event, but the energy had gone, the fun long forgotten. As the now regular encore of No Fun was finishing John summed it all up in a single line “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated.”

Now patched up he was put on a plane back to England. Unfortunately the methadone pills he had been given and the altitude conspired to put Sid in a coma and he was rushed to hospital in LA. Once there cut off from the world by a freak snow blizzard, Sid sunk into depression. With no money, no Nancy and completely cut off, he knew if things continued as they were he would be dead in 6 months. It was not long before Boogie met Sid and placed him on a plane back to London to a waiting Nancy.

The recording of My Way did not go easily with Sid refusing to work with what he called ‘fucking French idiots’. It was finally completed and sent to London for Steve Jones to add his guitar and give it the Sex Pistols authentic seal, well it at least had two members on it.

In June My Way was released as a single with the infamous Ronnie Biggs song No One Is Innocent, it stormed up the charts. In return for his work on the film, Sid was free of McLaren as his manager this role was now filled by none other than Nancy Spungen. Both in a strange way now living their dream, Sid front man in his own right and Nancy in control of her Sex Pistol. This dream however was lived in a cloud of heroin, which if they had freed themselves from it, may have been the start of a different rock n roll story than the one ahead of them.

During the time of recording My Way, Sid has also recorded Something Else and C’mon Everybody. Both had been released as Sex Pistols singles and sold well. In October Sid had received a royalty cheque from Malcolm and something in the region of £25,000 was banked in a drawer in their room in the Chelsea. It seems then that Sid and Nancy’s world had actually taken a more positive turn so maybe they did have a future.

On October 11th Sid and Nancy were looking to score. How much it cost was irrelevant; they just needed their shit now. The word was out and 2 dealers apparently supplied and Sid and Nancy sunk into the oblivion they both craved. But in the early hours of the 12th Sid awoke to find his beloved Nancy dead in the bathroom, killed it seemed by one of his knives. A hysterical called for an ambulance. The hotel called for the police. Soon after Sid was arrested and charged with the murder of the only person he had ever connected with after Johnny; his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. The money which was stashed in the bottom drawer was never found.

Sid was sent to Rikers prison on remand, his bail set at $50000 which was raised by Virgin following pressure from Malcolm and the promise of a new Sid album. Warner Brothers raised the money for a legal team and Sid was released on bail. Full of confusion and sadness over the death of Nancy, Sid tried to commit suicide on October 22nd. To Sid, there was really no future for him without Nancy. Following a period in hospital Sid was released to the care of his mother.

On a night out soon after Sid and his new friend Michelle Robinson, Sid got involved in a fight and found himself back in Rikers. In prison over Christmas Sid was again released on bail on February 1st. Sid headed to Michelle’s flat with his mother and a group of friends. Sid took heroin at the flat and collapsed. The others in the flat managed to get him around. Later that night, Sid took some more heroin and by the morning he was dead.

On February 7th Sid Vicious was cremated, later that same week his mother scattered his ashes over Nancy’s grave. Sid wrote these words while in Rikers for his Nancy:

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Sid History – © OldPunkGit 2007

You’d have thought Sid Vicious would have had a whole discography of tunes to his credit but instead, it’s a miserly three songs. All of them are covers and one unrecorded composition from his Flowers Of Romance days ‘Belsen Was A Gas’ was his only contribution to the Sex Pistols.

The three covers were ‘My Way’, ‘Something Else’ and ‘C’Mon Everybody’ all from the Sex Pistols film ‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’.

What swells the Sid catalogue are numerous albums of his live show as the Vicious White Kids at the Electric Ballroom London and which again comprises cover versions. Most were originally available on bootlegs at the time but have now been commercially released.

Well here are the three songs and accompanying videos. There’s no doubt that ‘My Way‘ is an absolute classic with Sid ad-libbing the words and a fantastic punky treatment. Even the Eddie Cochran covers sound pretty good as Sid, while impersonating Johnny Rotten, delivers a cool sneering delivery. Never noticed how gay Sid looked in the ‘Something Else’ video with the white thong pants on and for some reason Malcolm’s proposed magazine ‘Chicken’ comes to mind!

Sanctuary last released the Vicious White Kids set from the Electric Ballroom London 1978 featuring, Rat Scabies, Glen Matlock and Steve New. The gig was full of covers and was to raise money for Sid and Nancy to move to New York.

In 2007 a CD from Jungle appeared Sid Lives (2007) which offers a double cd of Sid’s USA gigs prior to his death. Same set but featuring Mick Jones and Steve Dior and a nice set of sleeve notes.

If that isn’t enough for you aurally visually you go from re-enactment to documentary to real-time filming. Check out Danny Boyle’s Pistol (based on Steve Jones’s autobiography) too!

DOA: A Right Of Passage

A documentary chronicling the rise and fall of the punk movement with rare interview footage of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. Also concert and news footage.

The film ‘DOA’ didn’t do much to portray English Punk as in any way intellectual what with Terry & The Idiots and this interview with Sid & Nancy following the break up of the Sex Pistols. Sid is obviously strung out on smack, he’s constantly nodding off, drops a lighted fag on the bed without realising and basically is unintelligible as he pauses mid-sentence never to finish.

Nancy meanwhile looks after him, conducts the interview with obligatory sideswipes at Rotten and how good Sid was, deftly removes a rubber top, makes ‘coaffee’ and despairingly coddles Sid. Ah what glorious nights in playing Mastermind this Punk couple must have had!

A few years ago I was propping up the bar in a local pub (yes, I’m close to fifty and still live in the same town, very “punk”!) when who should walk in but that self-same Friends Reunited claimant. After a bit of backslapping and banter of the “fucking hell I haven’t seen you since were nippers” kind, the conversation got around to the summer I spent running with this fella’s little kiddie gang…..he was a few years older than me and a brilliant footballer, so he was the natural leader…..” Its funny how no other fuckers but us can remember Sid Vicious ain’t it”, I laughed and told him to fuck off. He looked at me incredulously and after being subjected to another couple of choice expletives said “You REALLY don’t remember do you?”…..”c’mon, gawky kid, John, he lived with his mum in Marine Parade, he latched on to us one day when we were climbing the rocks down on the beach, you must remember! His mum was Ann, their flat was a bit of a hippy tip!”

………I went a little cold, fuck, I DID remember, and as I stood there chatting with my mate from all those years ago, it come flooding back in torrents! He was right, John was gawky, in retrospect he also seemed very lonely, desperate for friends if you like, always prepared to go that one step further than the rest of us, just to impress us I suppose. But ordinary, so ordinary! Those of you who were expecting tales of a sadistic, brash boy, a microcosm of his later alter ego if you like, will be so disappointed to know that he was a completely normal child. And this is why, I think, that he’d been filed away and forgotten right at the back of my mental filing system for all those years. Why would I remember him? Your childhood is packed full of much more interesting stuff, and an enormous amount gets forgotten until your memory gets a gentle jog.

 So what do I now remember of John? Nothing that’s going to get your pulses racing if the truth be told, we only spent a few months together, climbing trees, playing on the beach, football, you know, normal kid’s things. The only mildly shocking tale I have to tell is of him throwing a maggot ridden dead squirrel at a bunch of workmen and then running away and acting as a decoy while the rest of us nicked all their jazz mags out of their hut. His mum was nice, if not quite all there at times…we now know why of course…and I wouldn’t have said that their flat was a “hippy tip”, more a scene of bohemian squalor! What happened to them? I really don’t know. One day they were there and suddenly…gone! We’ve since learnt of course that this is how John and his mum lived their lives until they settled in London.

So there we are, my scant unimportant memories of John, but do you know that the strangest thing of all of this, is that if I’d have been able to remember him in 1976/77 I would have revelled in it and I daresay pulled a few pretty punkettes on the back of it, and yet having finally learnt that I knew him I just can’t connect little “gawky John” with punk icon, big “gawky Sid”….I just feel a sense of loss, not of Sid Vicious, but of my childhood friend John.