Musician Sid Vicious was born on May 10, 1957 in London in the family of a father - a security guard and a mother - a drug-addicted hippie. At birth, he was given the name John Simon Ritchie. There are different versions of the appearance of the musician's pseudonym. But the most popular is this - the name was given in honor of the musical composition of Lou Reed and Syd Barrett Vicious.
The father of the child left the family literally immediately after the appearance of John, and the mother and son were left alone. It was decided to leave for the island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean. There they lived for four years and then returned to London, to Somerset. The boy's mother remarried, but the new husband quickly died.
Youth and early career of Sid Vicious
The musician left school at the age of 15 and decided to take up photography. He entered an art college, where he never finished his studies. In this institution, the future artist met John Lydon, who gave him a nickname. Lydon's hamster was called Sid, and one day he bit Simon. He exclaimed: “Sid is Really Vicious!” After that, the new nickname remained with the future punk.
The two musicians made money together performing on the streets: John sang and Vicious played the tambourine. Sidu did not like to read books, keep order and rules, so punk culture completely began to reflect his inner state. His idol was David Bowie. And the future punk began to repeat his manner of dressing, behaving and dyeing his hair.
Sid Vicious met the Swankers, which included Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook. They played in a small SEX store whose owner (Malcolm McLaren) became their manager. The group was later renamed the Sex Pistols. And although Vicious tried to get into its composition. But this was only possible after Glen left the team.
Prior to this, the musician could join the group The Damned. But because of his disorganization, he did not come to the audition. However, fortune smiled at him again when he was accepted into The Flowers of Romance team. And at the punk festival in 1976, Vicious first felt the opportunity to control the fans from the stage.
The Sex Pistols
In 1977, Sid got into the group, but not because of his musical abilities. He ideally suited the image of the group, behaved provocatively and shockingly. It looked very advantageous in the performances of the team. Interestingly, many knew about his lack of ability to somehow play the guitar with high quality.
He, of course, tried to learn, trained, but there were no results. At concerts, the artist's bass guitar was either muffled or disconnected from the amplifier. Because it was very much out of the general sound. As part of the group, Sid appeared on the scene in 1977, and the dance with the aggressive attitude of "Pogo" was also created there.
It is a bouncing in one place with a straight back, arms and legs brought together. It is also acceptable to swing to the sides in order to push with the nearest people ("slam").
The group was a huge commercial success and became a successful project of Malcolm McLaren. And although Sid did not differ in either voice or musical abilities, his behavior, appearance and manner of communicating with people delighted the audience and listeners. So everything was forgiven for this participant: antics, ignoring rehearsals, ignorance of the lyrics, even a strong drug addiction.
He constantly played to the public, maintaining the desired image. The artist gave interviews, jumped in front of the camera, provoked people in every possible way. In his entire career, there is not a single good album or hit with world fame. He often spoke to the public in alcoholic or drug intoxication, threw chairs - behaved "like a psycho who escaped from the hospital."
The group continued to tour the States, gathering full houses, stadiums of fans and ardent "fans". Upon returning to his native England, the musician was offered to perform the Frank Sinatra song My Way in the film. This possibility was very interesting to him, but did not give the expected results.
All the time he was on the set for the recording of the composition, Sid Vicious was under the influence of drugs and caused a lot of trouble for the entire film crew. As a result, he was never able to gather strength and complete the work to the end.
The musical group disbanded in 1978. Sid took up any suitable part-time jobs, and Nancy managed to organize several concerts for him.
Sid and Nancy
The musician met Nancy Spungen shortly after joining the band. The Sex Pistols. The girl had a strong drug addiction. In addition, she set herself the goal of sleeping with every member of the group. Gradually, she reached Vicious, and here he fell madly in love with the girl.
However, her passion for heroin "pulled to the bottom" of both. Nancy's acquaintances spoke of her as an unpleasant person who "repels" herself at the first conversation. But the bass player saw her practically in the rays of heavenly grace.
The press dubbed them the Romeo and Juliet of punk culture, and together they shocked people. One day they put on a bloody show that shocked the people at the concert. And this became a prophecy of their future fate.
Death of artist Sid Vicious
Vicious recorded several songs and received a handsome fee of $25. The couple decided to celebrate it chic and fun in the Chelsea Hotel room.
In 1978, after another wild party, the punk musician found his beloved dead with a knife in her stomach. Since he did not remember anything, he decided to confess to the murder. But, most likely, this was done by drug dealers who brought goods for a couple and knew that they had a tidy sum of money in the room.
Due to the small amount of evidence, the musician was released. Even after that, he continued to blame himself for the death of his beloved. And out of desperation, he tried to commit suicide somewhat.
A few months later, he got his way - he took a super-strong dose of heroin and never woke up. There is an assumption that the mother prepared the dose for him in order to save her son from prison.
This guy did not have special vocal abilities, he played the bass guitar mediocrely. However, during his short life, he became the personification of punk culture. It remains a symbol of this movement to this day.
