Sid Vicious

In 2006, Vicious, along with the four original members of the Sex Pistols, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, although the band refused to attend.

In the documentary series Final 24, NYPD sergeant Richard Houseman said that shortly after overdosing, Vicious wanted another dose of heroin. In 1996, Beverley told journalist Alan G. Parker that she had then purposely administered a fatal dose of heroin to Vicious because 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. Parker later directed his own film, Who Killed Nancy?.

The 1986 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 by Uncut as a "hugely sympathetic reading of the punk figurehead as a lost and bewildered manchild."

Various bands over the years have recorded songs about Sid Vicious. In 1982, The Exploited included the song "Sid Vicious Was Innocent" on their album Troops of Tomorrow. Former frontman for the Clash, Joe Strummer, recorded "Love Kills" and "Dum Dum Club" for the Sid and Nancy soundtrack. In 1986, the Ramones released "Love Kills" on their album, Animal Boy which was a tribute to both Sid and Nancy.

Due to intravenous drug use, Vicious was hospitalized with hepatitis during the recording of the Sex Pistols' only studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols; his bass is only partially featured on one song, "Bodies." Vicious later appeared as a lead vocalist, performing three songs, on the soundtrack to The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980), a largely fictionalised documentary about the Sex Pistols. As the Sex Pistols were gaining attention, Vicious met Nancy Spungen, and the couple began a relationship which culminated in Spungen's death from an apparent stab wound while staying in New York City's Hotel Chelsea with Vicious. Under suspicion of murder, Vicious was released on bail; he was arrested again for assaulting Todd Smith, brother of Patti Smith, at a nightclub, and underwent drug rehabilitation on Rikers Island. He died in 1979 after overdosing on heroin.

Less than four weeks after Vicious's death, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle soundtrack album was released. On 15 December 1979, a compilation of live material recorded during his brief solo career was released as Sid Sings. Gary Oldman portrayed Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (1986).

On the evening of 1 February 1979, a small group of friends, including Jerry Only of the Misfits and future D Generation founding member Howie Pyro, gathered at the Manhattan apartment of Vicious’s new girlfriend, Michele Robison, at 63 Bank St. in New York City in order to celebrate his having made bail. Vicious was on a detoxification methadone programme during his time at Rikers Island, but at the dinner gathering, Vicious had a friend, English photographer Peter Kodick, deliver him heroin. Vicious died sometime in the night from an overdose and was discovered by his mother, Anne Beverley, early the next morning.

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," and the issue of Vicious's worsening heroin habit and negative interactions with members of the audience. In San Antonio, Vicious struck an audience member on the head with his bass; the audience member had antagonised Vicious, who shouted out "faggot fucker" before hitting him. Before Sex Pistols took the stage of the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Vicious, again in heroin withdrawal, carved the words "gimme a fix" into his bare chest with a razor. In autumn 1977, the Sex Pistols began to perform the inflammatory song "Belsen Was a Gas" live for the first time. The song was most likely Vicious's only contribution to the band during his tenure as a member, 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 Vicious to do as he pleased. He embarked on a path to destruction, while recording lead vocals on three cover songs for soundtrack album and 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.

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 stab wound to her abdomen and appeared to have bled to death. The knife used was a Jaguar K-11 hunting knife, according to the police report, and not the "007" knife, commonly cited. Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder. 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.

On 22 October, ten days after Spungen's death, Vicious attempted suicide by slitting his wrist with a smashed light bulb. He was hospitalized at Bellevue Hospital, where he also tried to kill himself by jumping from a window shouting, "I want to be with my Nancy!" or similar words, but was pulled back by hospital staff. In a November 1978 interview he said that Spungen'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."

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. 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 February 1, 1979. His bail was originally set at $50,000 (equivalent to $176,000 today), 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. John Lydon said that Mick Jagger paid for Vicious' lawyer, praising Jagger for never seeking publicity for this.

Vicious was asked to join the Sex Pistols after Glen Matlock's departure in February 1977, due to Vicious being present at every gig.

McLaren also said that if he had met Vicious before he had hired Rotten to be the singer, then the more-charismatic Vicious would have been the Sex Pistols' front man. Alan Jones described Vicious as "[having] the iconic punk look ... Sid, on image alone, is what all punk rests on." His nails would be painted in a sloppy manner with purple nail polish. 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.

Vicious was in the band, but he could not play well and had no bass guitar experience, so guitarist Steve Jones played bass on the band's debut album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Vicious appeared only on "Bodies", which he was allowed to play bass on, even though it would be overdubbed later on by Jones. He was also absent from the album's sessions, because he was in the 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 friend of Johnny Thunders') he had met in 1977. She is said to have introduced Vicious to heroin, although he was already abusing drugs (supplied by his mother, Anne Beverley) before he met her.

On 25 December 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 Baubles that Vicious 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 Vicious 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).

Vicious began his musical career in 1976 as a member of the Flowers of Romance along with co-founding member of the Clash, Keith Levene (who later co-founded John Lydon's post-Pistols project Public Image Limited; their 1981 album was titled after the band) and Palmolive and Viv Albertine, who would later join the Slits. 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. 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.

Simon first met John Lydon in 1973, when they were both students at Hackney Technical College. Lydon described Simon, who was by now calling himself "John", at this time as a David Bowie fan and a "clothes hound".

Christopher Beverley died six months later from cancer, and by 1968 Ritchie and his mother were living in a rented flat in Tunbridge Wells, where he attended Sandown Court School. In 1971, mother and son moved to Hackney in east London. He also spent some time living in Clevedon, Somerset.

John Simon Ritchie (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), known professionally as Sid Vicious, was an English bassist and vocalist. He achieved prominence as a member of the Sex Pistols, a British punk rock band. Sid replaced Glen Matlock, who had fallen out of favour with the other members of the group.

Vicious was born Simon John Ritchie (often erroneously reported as "John Simon Ritchie") on 10 May 1957 in Lewisham, to John and Anne Ritchie. His mother dropped out of school early due to a lack of academic success and joined the British Army, where she met her husband-to-be, Simon's father, a guardsman at Buckingham Palace and a semi-professional trombone player on the London Jazz scene. 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 that he was not going to come. Anne later married Christopher Beverley in 1965, before setting up a family home back in Kent.