John Beverly, born John Simon Ritchie, later named Sid Vicious (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), was an English musician, most famous as the bass guitarist of the influential punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and notorious for his arrest for the alleged murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. Vicious appeared briefly as the drummer for Siouxsie & The Banshees, and was also a member of the 'Flowers of Romance' before replacing Glen Matlock as bass player in the Sex Pistols. After the break-up of the Pistols he performed with Johnny Thunders, solo and with the group Vicious White Kids, the latter with which he performed his farewell gig in July 1978. On October 12th 1978 he was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. Ten days later, he tried to kill himself and was sent to Bellevue Hospital. February 2nd 1979 whilst still out on bail, Vicious died at a New York loft party from an accumulation of fluid in his lungs, brought on by a heroin overdose.
Links To Peel[]
Peel passed comment on the death of Vicious on his show on 05 February 1979:
"I think it would be unseemly to let the programme pass without mentioning the death at the end of last week of Sid Vicious. Personally I'm dreading reading those rock writers who over the past six or nine months or so have presented the affairs of Sid Vicious as being either romantic or even amusing, which some of them have done. I've personally found them profoundly depressing and I would imagine that most of you will have done as well. And the exploitation of the situation has been thoroughly sinister."
He would later play a track or two from Vicious' posthumous solo LP, a work comprised mostly of covers recorded in concert.
Shows Played[]
Sid Vicious - Something Else
- 1979
- 07 March 1979: Something Else (7 inch) Virgin
- 03 December 1979 / Late December 1979: Stepping Stone (LP - Sid Sings) Virgin