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John Simon Ritchie-Beverly ( May 10 , 1957 РFebruary 2 , 1979 ), better known as '''Sid Vicious''', was a British Punk Rock musician and member of the band the Sex Pistols . He died of a Drug Overdose at the age of 21. LIFE Early years Ritchie was born in London to parents John and Anne Ritchie, a former Grenadier Guard . 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 north London where in 1974 Ritchie first met John Lydon (later known as Johnny Rotten ), a fellow student at Hackney Technical College. By 1974 he had already begun using drugs intravenously with his mother, and, 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 the Vicious," which had a habit of biting people. The new name may have been helpful because both his co- Squat ters, Lydon and John Wardle (later known as Jah Wobble ), were also named John and the three of them were sometimes referred to as ''The Three 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 was close friends 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 thrown glass shattered against a pillar and a young girl lost her sight in one eye. Ritchie is widely believed to have been responsible, but this was never proven. At the same event he also 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," Vicious joined the group after '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 live performances Ritchie's amplifier was usually switched off. Sid is said to have asked Lemmy Kilmister from Moțrhead to teach him how to play bass with the words, "''I can't play bass.''" Kilmister's reply was "''I know.''" According to Kilmister, Ritchie was a hopeless student. In his autobiography ''No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs'', Lydon writes, "''he wasn't too bad at all for three-chord songs.''" Ritchie 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 Ritchie 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 Ritchie, 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 Ritchie 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 hospitalised for a time. On the morning of October 12 1978 Ritchie allegedly awoke from a drugged stupor to find Spungen crumpled dead on the bathroom floor of 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 wholly unsupported theories Spungen was murdered by someone else, usually said to be one of the two drug dealers who visited the apartment that night. After appearing in court over Spungen's death, Ritchie was briefly interviewed by a tabloid journalist. He 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 defence. This was to be a collection of standards including according to McLaren White Christmas and Mac the Knife. 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 without Title} '' 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 actually recorded at The Sex Pistols last British gig at Ivanhoes 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
Vicious White Kids
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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