Sid Vicious

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Vicious 1978 with the Sex Pistols

Sid Vicious (actually John Simon Ritchie ; born May 10, 1957 in Lewisham , London , † February 2, 1979 in New York ) was a British punk rock musician and the bassist for the band Sex Pistols .

Life

John Simon Ritchie was born on May 10, 1957 in Lewisham, London. In the same year he moved to Ibiza with his parents John and Anne . After his father left his mother, Anne Ritchie moved to Kent , where she married Christopher Beverly. Six months later, Beverly died of cancer. In 1968 the family moved to Royal Tunbridge Wells . There Ritchie attended Sandown Court School. In 1971 they moved to Hackney in East London. Ritchie attended, among other things, the comprehensive school and then the technical college. He studied photography for two semesters at Hackney Technical College before leaving college and delving into the burgeoning London punk scene.

Musical career

Ritchie first met John Lydon in 1973, later he would occupy a house with Lydon, John Wardle and John Gray. Ritchie's stage name Sid Vicious allegedly came from the name of Lydon's hamster . Vicious became part of the so-called Bromley Contingent , a group of ardent admirers of the Sex Pistols and fashionable pioneers of the punk movement, which also included Siouxsie Sioux and Billy Idol .

Sid Vicious began his musical career as the drummer in the group Siouxsie and the Banshees , which consisted of members of the Bromley Contingent and made their legendary debut appearance at the 100 Club Punk Festival in 1976 . He then briefly participated as a singer and saxophonist in the band The Flowers Of Romance , which never appeared in public or produced albums.

When bassist Glen Matlock left the Sex Pistols in February 1977 , Vicious took over the part, although he could not play bass - his role was more that of the personified punk in the band. Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead had tried in vain to teach him to play the bass. Guitarist Steve Jones recorded his bass parts for the album, according to the band biography England's Dreaming , and his instrument was mixed quietly at concerts.

Sid Vicious had been in love with Nancy Spungen , an American heroin addict groupie , since November 1977 , and embarked on a drug career himself. The relationship was on the one hand intimate and deep, on the other hand it was also often shaped by physical violence. This peaked for the time being during the dissolution of the Sex Pistols in early 1978.

In 1978 Sid Vicious pursued a solo career and played briefly in the band Vicious White Kids . Some live recordings and a few studio recordings come from his solo career; most are covers recorded live at Max's Kansas City in September 1978 . Officially, only three singles and one album were released by Virgin Records in 1978/1979 and one album by EMI in 2004 . However, there are numerous bootlegs and compilations with pieces from this time.

Events surrounding his death

Sid Vicious graffito in Madrid

In October 1978, Nancy Spungen was found stabbed to death with the drugged Vicious in a room at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City . Vicious was arrested on suspicion of murder and released on February 1, 1979 on $ 50,000 bail provided by the Virgin Records label. After a drug rehab in prison, he was "clean" but overdosed himself at the celebration of his release and died on February 2, 1979 in New York in the apartment in the Chelsea Hotel, where Nancy died. Speculations that he couldn't get over his girlfriend's death and took his own life persisted. Allegedly, a letter to Nancy was found next to his body. His mother, Ann Beverly, who also died of a heroin overdose in 1996 , told a reporter that she had given Sid the lethal dose because he had used highly concentrated heroin hours earlier but survived it. She wanted to save Sid from safe prison because she feared that he would not survive it anyway.

The murder of Nancy Spungen was not resolved after Vicious' death.

In private, Sid was - contrary to his pseudonym ( vicious can be translated as 'malicious' or 'devilish') - as a calm, sensitive, intelligent, almost shy, extremely friendly, happy and extremely humorous person. Johnny Rotten wrote in his autobiography: “Sid was a little naive, but full of wit and humor. An excellent guy, but the drugs made him an animal, a deeply uncomfortable guy. "

reception

  • In anticipation of a new rock hero myth, Die Tödliche Doris shot the ten-minute Super 8 film The Life of Sid Vicious in 1981 , with drug excesses, beating orgies and death. In this film, shown at home and abroad and hotly debated, Sid Vicious is played by Oskar, the 3-year-old son of the then Die-Tödliche-Doris drummer Dagmar Dimitroff, Sid Vicious friend Nancy Spungen by a six-year-old girl named Angie. Just as the original runs through Paris in Great Rockn'Roll Swindle , Oskar Dimitroff walks through West Berlin from 1981 with black punk hair, rivets and a swastika T-shirt.
  • In 1986 Alex Cox produced the film Sid and Nancy , which fictionally deals with the life story of the two.
  • The German actor Ben Becker wrote a play about Sid & Nancy , which he staged in 1995 together with his sister Meret Becker .
  • The Simpsons episode Love in Springfield alludes to the Sex Pistols and specifically to Sid Vicious, who is played by Nelson Muntz in this episode and tells about the love between him and Nancy Spungen , who is played by Lisa Simpson . The drug that changed his life so dramatically is in the Simpsons version (instead of heroin) chocolate in any form.
  • The band The Exploited wrote a song called Sid Vicious was innocent , which describes the late Nancy Spungen as a "bloody cunt" and Sid Vicious as innocent of her death.
  • Sid Vicious and Nancy are also featured in the songs Jessica by Dir en gray and Love Kills by the Ramones .
  • The US band Sparks landed an international chart hit in 1994 with the song When Do I Get To Sing 'My Way' . This contains the line of text “ When do I get to feel like Sid Vicious felt ”, based on Sid Vicious' vocal interpretation of the evergreen My Way .
  • The American country singer Ronny Elliott addresses the tragic love story of Sid and Nancy in his song Room 100 on the album Poisonville (2001).
  • The Finnish rock band The 69 Eyes also takes on the theme of the "Sid and Nancy Affair" in their song Dead and Gone from the 2009 album Back in Blood . The song describes the fictional situation of the lead singer as the protagonist in a story in which he has the same experiences with a woman as Sid Vicious must have had with Nancy Sprungen.
  • The Russian rock band Lumen deals with the story of Sid and Nancy in the song of the same name, Sid and Nancy .
  • The Estonian band Vennaskond released a song called The Return of Sid Vicious on their 2003 album Subway .
  • Die Toten Hosen ( sad for a summer ) and the doctors ( is that still punk rock? ) Also mentioned Sid Vicious in a song.
  • The song The Strongest of the Strange (2010) by the German punk band Pascow begins with the lines of text "So so so so sorry Sid for this ...".
  • In the Spliff Radio Show from Spliff the subject is in the song Gravy also treated: " Kill your girlfriend and then commit suicide, get a lot of press; No comeback, but you're legend, is that what you call success ”.
  • The German-speaking punk band OHL dealt with the subject of Sid Vicious in their song Sid on their 1981 album Heimatfront , which was previously indexed .
  • The American professional wrestler Sidney Ray Eudy appeared under the ring name Sid Vicious for a few years.
  • The band Foster the People refers to the love affair between Vicious and Sprungen on their third album Sacred Hearts Club in the song Loyal Like Sid & Nancy .

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Sid Sings
  UK 30th 
silver
silver
December 15, 1979 (8 weeks)

Official publications

  • Sid Sings (1979, LP, Virgin, V2144; 1989 as CD)
  • My Way (single, 1978)
  • Something Else (single, 1979)
  • C'mon Everybody (single, 1979)
  • Too Fast to Live ... (2004, CD, EMI)

Bootlegs etc.

  • My Way / Something Else / C'mon Everybody (1979, 12 ", Barclay, Barclay 740 509)
  • Live (1980, LP, Creative Industry Inc., JSR 21)
  • Vicious Burger (1980, LP, UD-6535, VD 6336)
  • Love Kills NYC (1985, LP, Konexion, KOMA 788020)
  • The Sid Vicious Experience - Jack Boots and Dirty Looks (1986, LP, Antler 37)
  • Love Kills (1986, LP, MCA, MCG 6011)
  • (Don't You Gimme) No Lip / (I'm Not Your) Steppin 'Stone (1989, 7 ", SCRATCH 7)
  • The Idols With Sid Vicious (1993, CD, Last Call Records, LC22289)
  • Cult Heroes (1993, CD)
  • Never Mind the Reunion Here's Sid Vicious (1997, CD)
  • Sid Dead Live (1997, CD, Anagram, PUNK 86)
  • Sid Vicious Sings (1997, CD)
  • Vicious & Friends (1998, CD, Dressed To Kill Records, Dress 602)
  • Sid Vicious & Friends (1998, CD, Cleopatra, # 251)
  • Better (to provoke a reaction than to react to provocation) (1999, CD, Almafame, YEAAH6)
  • Probably His Last Ever Interview (2000, CD, OZIT, OZITCD62)
  • Better (2001, CD)
  • Vive Le Rock (2003, 2CD)
  • Naked & Ashamed (7 ", Wonderful Records, WO-73)
  • Sid Live At Max's Kansas City (LP, JSR 21)
  • Sid Vicious (LP, Innocent Records, JSR 21)
  • Sid Vicious McDonald Bros. Box (3CD, Sound Solutions, 003)
  • Sid Vicious v's Eddie Cochran - The Battle Of The Rockers (LP, Jock, LP 6)

Vicious White Kids

  • The Vicious White Kids featuring Sid Vicious (1991, LP / CD)
  • Vicious White Kids Live (2001, CD, Sanctuary, CMRCD372)

Movie

  • Sex Pistols Number One (1976, dir. Derek Jarman)
  • Will Your Son Turn into Sid Vicious? (1978)
  • Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979, dir. Michael O'Donoghue)
  • The Punk Rock Movie (1979, dir. Don Letts)
  • The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980, dir. Julian Temple, VHS / DVD)
  • DOA (1981, dir. Lech Kowalski)
  • Buried Alive (1991, Sex Pistols)
  • Decade (1991, Sex Pistols)
  • Bollocks to Every (1995, Sex Pistols)
  • Filth to Fury (1995, Sex Pistols)
  • Classic Chaotic (1996, Sex Pistols)
  • Kill the Hippies (1996, Sex Pistols, VHS)
  • The Filth and The Fury (2000, dir. Julien Temple, VHS / NTSC / DVD)
  • Live at the Longhorn (2001, Sex Pistols)
  • Live at Winterland (2001, Sex Pistols, DVD)
  • Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols (2002, Sex Pistols, VHS / DVD)
  • Punk Rockers (2003, Sex Pistols, DVD)
  • Blood on the Turntable: The Sex Pistols (2004, dir. Steve Crabtree)
  • Music Box Biographical Collection (2005, Sex Pistols, DVD)
  • Punk Icons (2006, Sex Pistols, DVD)
  • Chaos! Ex Pistols Secret History: The Dave Goodman Story (2007, Sex Pistols, DVD)
  • Pirates of Destiny (2007, dir. Tõnu Trubetsky, DVD)
  • Rock Case Studies (2007, Sex Pistols, DVD)
  • Sid and Nancy (1987, Sex Pistols, DVD)
  • Sad Vacation - The Last Days Of Sid & Nancy (2016, DVD)

literature

  • Anne Beverley: The Sid Vicious Family album . Virgin Books, 1980.
  • Gerald Cole: Sid and Nancy . Methuen, 1986.
  • Alex Cox, Abbe Wool: Sid And Nancy . Faber and Faber, 1986.
  • Keith Bateson, Alan Parker: Sid's Way . Omnibus Press, 1991.
  • Tom Stockdale: Sid Vicious. They Died Too Young . Parragon, 1995.
  • Malcolm Butt: Sid Vicious. Rock'n'Roll Star . Plexus, 1997.
  • David Dalton: El Sid . St. Martin's Griffin, 1998.
  • Sid Vicious: Too Fast To Live ... Too Young to Die . Retro Publishing, 1999.
  • Alan Parker: Vicious. Too Fast To Live… . Creation Books, 2004.

Web links

Commons : Sid Vicious  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sid Vicious. In: officialcharts.com . Accessed February 2, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
personal data
SURNAME Vicious, Sid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ritchie, John Simon (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British punk rock musician
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Lewisham , London
DATE OF DEATH 2nd February 1979
Place of death new York