- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJohn Simon Ritchie
- Nickname
- Sidney
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- Along with fellow Sex Pistol member, Johnny Rotten, lanky, sneering, pock faced Sid epitomised the punk movement born in the mid 1970s in working class England. Sid Vicious (real name John Beverly) wasn't an original member of the Pistols, but rather joined the band after original bassist, Glen Matlock dropped out after personality clashes with lead singer Rotten. On stage, Sid (often stripped to the waist) would incite the audience to get wilder and more frenzied, and his infamous antics included spitting and spraying beer into the audience. The British establishment despised the Pistols with a passion, and Sid was viewed as a crude, foul mouthed hoodlum corrupting English youth with his unclean image. Unfortunately for a naive Sid, he fell into the company of alleged drug user, Nancy Spungen, and his world spiralled out of control leading to the break up of the Pistols (their last show being in San Francisco), and Sid's lame attempts to kick start his own solo career, which included a demented cover of the popular Frank Sinatra song "My Way", accompanied by a violent video clip. Vicious and Spungen took up residency in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in early 1978, however their self destructive personalities meant a tragedy was fast approaching, and on October 12th 1978, Spungen was found dead in their hotel room from stab wounds. Vicious was charged by police with Spungen's murder and released on bail, pending trial. However, only four months later in February 1979, Vicious himself was found dead of a heroin overdose. Sid was dead at aged 21. His will requested his ashes be poured over Nancy's grave at the King David Cemetery in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Along with Janis Joplin, Brian Jones & Jimi Hendrix, Sid had assured himself a place in rock and roll history, as another iconic music figure dead at a young age.- IMDb Mini Biography By: firehouse44
- Padlock chain worn around his neck given to him by Chrissie Hynde of band The Pretenders
- His sneer
- The Pogo dance
- Leather jacket
- Spikey hair
- During the filming of Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy (1986), Sid's mother gave the actor who played Sid (a relative unknown named Gary Oldman) Sid's famous padlock necklace.
- Gained the enmity of The Clash's Mick Jones due to his habit of wearing a Nazi Swastika t-shirt. Jones, who is Jewish, and the rest of the Clash vowed they would never appear on stage with the Sex Pistols.
- His ashes were scattered on Nancy Spungen's grave by his mother, Ann. Eileen Polk said that Spungen's family would not allow Sid to be buried next to her, despite his request, nor would the Jewish cemetery permit scattering the ashes there. They were escorted through the cemetery and Ann later returned to scatter the ashes in secret.
- Vicious' mum Anne Beverley committed suicide in 1996.
- He was allegedly stunningly musically incompetent, even by punk standards. His bass work was so rudimentary, that it's rumored (and all the members of the band corroborate) that original Sex Pistol bassist Glen Matlock was invited to return to record bass lines over Vicious' originals, even though he had left the band under extremely acrimonious circumstances.
- On drugs: "I don't want to be a junkie for the rest of my life. I don't want to be a junkie at all."
- I got this feeling I'm gonna die before I get old. I don't know why. I just have this feeling.
- On what EMI thought the Sex Pistols were: "We weren't the nice boys they thought we were. And, we weren't nice boys, we were fuckin' nasty little bastards... and we still are.
- On John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten: "John's just jealous because I'm the brains of the group. I've written all the songs, even from the beginning when I wasn't in the group."
- When there are no more categorizations; when there are no more "niggers", when there are no more "whites", when there's just "people", you know, when there's no more "punks" when there's no more "dirt", that is when everything is gonna be OK.
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