One of the worst bassplayer in the world. RIP.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-02-02 21:17 by steffiestones.

Yes, great image and attitude, but zero talent as a bass player. Big Sex Pistols fan, but dude could not play. McClaren hired him because he looked the part.

why are we wasting bandwidth on this??

Yeah, and Nancy make him an adict.

In the movie, "The Filth and the Fury", John Lydon is talking about John Ritchie (Sid) and actually gets weepy. It could of course been staged, but certainly seemed to me to be genuine emotion about the demise of his friend.

Back in 1984 I lived for a while (a few weeks) in the hotel room he had years before (he lived there also for a longer time if that is true..). At the Ferndale in London. I did not know but about it but the owner, Maurice, told me so. There should be a small scene in the "swindle" movie where you can see the hotel. At the time I lived there, another musician (singer) lived there. But I rather don't mention it here (political reasons..). Funny thing was, that I was asked to deposit a guitar in my room for a couple of days, from a member of that -better not named- band. But since I don't know the difference between a bass or something else... maybe it was bass guitar. Who knows?

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71Tele
why are we wasting bandwidth on this??

Why not? It just an OT like the other OT's.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-02-02 21:35 by steffiestones.

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steffiestones
One of the worst bassplayer in the world. RIP.

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lettingitbleed
Yes, great image and attitude, but zero talent as a bass player. Big Sex Pistols fan, but dude could not play.

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71Tele
why are we wasting bandwidth on this??

You can really feel the love.

Where were YOU in '77 ?

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71Tele
why are we wasting bandwidth on this??

Giggle

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

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steffiestones
One of the worst bassplayer in the world. RIP.

That's unfair, he wasn't a bassplayer at all.

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paulywaul

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71Tele
why are we wasting bandwidth on this??

Giggle

I mean, for God's sake, if he had just died, ok, but a 32 year anniversary of his death? Are we going to have a separate thread for every second-rate musician every anniversary of their death?

great example of a guy that tried way more to be famous than talented

Punk had nothing to with beeing a great instrumentalist. Quite the opposite. There are political inclinations with the punk-movement that, I think, is beyond the American context. Americans have never had a political party center to the left, they have a two-party system with two right-wing parties. The only anarchy that exists in the US is right-wing anarchy (the Tea party militia). So I think most Americans don't understand the punk context.

The Sex Pistols essentially ceased to be a creative entity when Glen Matlock was sacked.

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ab
The Sex Pistols essentially ceased to be a creative entity when Glen Matlock was sacked.

and then Nigel Tufnel quit, and their manager Leggy Mountbatten left to take a teaching post in Australia...I'm sorry, I'm mixing things up again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-02-03 06:34 by 71Tele.

Damn. I remember being in my first car,a '64 VW bug, stuck in traffic while a presidential motorcade was going by, and hearing on the radio that he had died. I'll never forget that.

I've got a bootleg of the Pistols' first US gig, in Atlanta. There are several songs where Sid is just not playing...guess he went to the bar or the bathroom or something.

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lettingitbleed
Yes, great image and attitude, but zero talent as a bass player. Big Sex Pistols fan, but dude could not play. McClaren hired him because he looked the part.

Johnny Rotten brought him into the group after they cleverly fired their main songwriter and bassist, Glen Matlock. Sid then fell in love with his image, Nancy Spungen and heroin in that order.

Opinions are mixed about him as a person. Nick Kent called him "The Exploding Dimwit". Others who knew him insist he was clever and sharp ... until the smack got hold of him. One thing everyone agrees with - he couldn't play for shit.

His greatest moment was My Way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-02-03 11:17 by Nikolai.

Sid Vicious was no dimwit.
Besides, that cover and video of "My Way" made up for everything. Brilliant.

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Nikolai

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lettingitbleed
Yes, great image and attitude, but zero talent as a bass player. Big Sex Pistols fan, but dude could not play. McClaren hired him because he looked the part.

Johnny Rotten brought him into the group after they cleverly fired their main songwriter and bassist, Glen Matlock. Sid then fell in love with his image, Nancy Spungen and heroin in that order.

Opinions are mixed about him as a person. Nick Kent called him "The Exploding Dimwit". Others who knew him insist he was clever and sharp ... until the smack got hold of him. One thing everyone agrees with - he couldn't play for shit.

His greatest moment was My Way.

I actually knew the guy and went to college with him in Kings Cross, north London from 74/76. We were mates for about 2 years and used to bunk into shows (crash them) until he joined the Sex Pistols and his head went up his arse.

During this time I witnessed a goof ball but generally fun guy to be around degenerate into a nasty, violent and self-loathing junkie which was really sad.

The last time I spoke to him he was proudly waiting in an alley way in posh Hampstead, north London, to mug old ladies and relieve them of the contents of their handbags.

The last time I saw him was on stage with the Sex Pistols at Uxbridge University in Dec 77 - quite an experience as I was taking photos and was literally pushed onto his side of the stage and he was about to take a swing at me when I dived back into the crowd.

>I'm sorry, I'm mixing things up again

Nah, you're just wasting bandwidth.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-02-03 11:53 by Glam Descendant.

I take it Tele71 doesn't own many Sex Pistols Boots?

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Silver Dagger


I actually knew the guy and went to college with him in Kings Cross, north London from 74/76. We were mates for about 2 years and used to bunk into shows (crash them) until he joined the Sex Pistols and his head went up his arse.

During this time I witnessed a goof ball but generally fun guy to be around degenerate into a nasty, violent and self-loathing junkie which was really sad.

The last time I spoke to him he was proudly waiting in an alley way in posh Hampstead, north London, to mug old ladies and relieve them of the contents of their handbags.

The last time I saw him was on stage with the Sex Pistols at Uxbridge University in Dec 77 - quite an experience as I was taking photos and was literally pushed onto his side of the stage and he was about to take a swing at me when I dived back into the crowd.

Thanks for sharing, Silver Dagger. Basically it sounds like his life was quite a sad tragedy. Of course, he lives now forever - or used to live - as the martyr or the James Dean of the punk generation, but there isn't really much to remember actually, ar least musicwise. I mean, he was no any Jimi Hendrix, now was he?

Anyway, if the junkie days of the "most elegently wasted human being" are starting to sound pathetic these days, for someone like Sid Vicious there is no bloody glamour left at all. Weren't him and Nancy just living the same dream/life style Keith and Anita were doing in larger context? Sid and Nancy just did it all faster and straight to the point.

- Doxa

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Doxa


Anyway, if the junkie days of the "most elegently wasted human being" are starting to sound pathetic these days, for someone like Sid Vicious there is no bloody glamour left at all. Weren't him and Nancy just living the same dream/life style Keith and Anita were doing in larger context? Sid and Nancy just did it all faster and straight to the point.

- Doxa

Worth checking out Nick Kent's recent memoirs 'Apathy for the Devil' - an interesting account of that whole period and specifically his experiences with Sid and Nancy, not to mention Keith and the Stones. If Kent's recollections are anything to go by, Sid's lifestyle wasn't really comparable to Keith's. In addition to the fact that Sid apparently lost any sense of morals he may (or may not) have had before. Get the feeling that was never the case with Keith.

Too true Doxa. Sid loved Keith and was one of the victims of 'that demon life' that get people in its sway. I unfortunately encountered a lot of them growing up in the 70s and 80s - people who were lured Siren-like into the faux-glamorous worlds of their rock god heroes. And we all know who the best example of that is, don't we!

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Doxa

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Silver Dagger


I actually knew the guy and went to college with him in Kings Cross, north London from 74/76. We were mates for about 2 years and used to bunk into shows (crash them) until he joined the Sex Pistols and his head went up his arse.

During this time I witnessed a goof ball but generally fun guy to be around degenerate into a nasty, violent and self-loathing junkie which was really sad.

The last time I spoke to him he was proudly waiting in an alley way in posh Hampstead, north London, to mug old ladies and relieve them of the contents of their handbags.

The last time I saw him was on stage with the Sex Pistols at Uxbridge University in Dec 77 - quite an experience as I was taking photos and was literally pushed onto his side of the stage and he was about to take a swing at me when I dived back into the crowd.

Thanks for sharing, Silver Dagger. Basically it sounds like his life was quite a sad tragedy. Of course, he lives now forever - or used to live - as the martyr or the James Dean of the punk generation, but there isn't really much to remember actually, ar least musicwise. I mean, he was no any Jimi Hendrix, now was he?

Anyway, if the junkie days of the "most elegently wasted human being" are starting to sound pathetic these days, for someone like Sid Vicious there is no bloody glamour left at all. Weren't him and Nancy just living the same dream/life style Keith and Anita were doing in larger context? Sid and Nancy just did it all faster and straight to the point.

- Doxa

To understand why the Sex Pistols and Sid where and to an extent still are hugely influential you got to go back in time, and understand the political and economical situation in Europe and England in particular. If you think about it lightly it indeed ends up in a 'he was nothing more than a nitwit junky' way, while was, together with Lydon, the visual embodiment of the Pistols, even though he couldn't hold a bass straight.

It's a bit like looking back at Madonna in 1984 with 2011 eyes. It's incomprehensible now that she was such a huge star back then if you don't understand the '84 music scene.

Mathijs

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Silver Dagger
I actually knew the guy and went to college with him in Kings Cross, north London from 74/76. We were mates for about 2 years and used to bunk into shows (crash them) until he joined the Sex Pistols and his head went up his arse.

During this time I witnessed a goof ball but generally fun guy to be around degenerate into a nasty, violent and self-loathing junkie which was really sad.

The last time I spoke to him he was proudly waiting in an alley way in posh Hampstead, north London, to mug old ladies and relieve them of the contents of their handbags.

The last time I saw him was on stage with the Sex Pistols at Uxbridge University in Dec 77 - quite an experience as I was taking photos and was literally pushed onto his side of the stage and he was about to take a swing at me when I dived back into the crowd.

Wow, SD! I wouldn't mind hearing more stories like this if you'd like to share.

BTW, this doesn't sound anything like a story I heard from a tour guide in London back in '03 who basically told me that Vicious was "mentally challenged," who could do no better than to barely hold a job at Whitely's before going with the Pistols.

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Mathijs
To understand why the Sex Pistols and Sid where and to an extent still are hugely influential you got to go back in time, and understand the political and economical situation in Europe and England in particular. If you think about it lightly it indeed ends up in a 'he was nothing more than a nitwit junky' way, while was, together with Lydon, the visual embodiment of the Pistols, even though he couldn't hold a bass straight.

It's a bit like looking back at Madonna in 1984 with 2011 eyes. It's incomprehensible now that she was such a huge star back then if you don't understand the '84 music scene.

Mathijs

Yeah, I agree with what you say (especially since I also consider myself as a member of a punk generation that learned the ABC of rock and roll through punk). So the symbolic significance of the Sex Pistols - and to an extent Sid Vicious - cannot be underestimated. But I think it is better to keep that in symbolic level and not really dig up the Sex Pistols - and especially Sid Vicious - any deeper, since the more you get to know the substance, the less shallow and thinner you will find it being. The idea of Sex Pistols - what they represent - is more important than they actually ever did. That idea - fortunately I think - shocked the rock world and changed the nature of the game, and I think that idea will live forever, and will inspire people as long as rock music has any effective role.

To a degree I also share the sentiment that Americans probably never got the context of The Sex Pistols, and thereby the European version of the punk movement, right. Neither I think Mick Jagger did.

- Doxa

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Edith Grove
Where were YOU in '77 ?

The middle eight there sounds like something in between LSTMT and SFM. Love it, an important document!

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Edith Grove

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Silver Dagger
I actually knew the guy and went to college with him in Kings Cross, north London from 74/76. We were mates for about 2 years and used to bunk into shows (crash them) until he joined the Sex Pistols and his head went up his arse.

During this time I witnessed a goof ball but generally fun guy to be around degenerate into a nasty, violent and self-loathing junkie which was really sad.

The last time I spoke to him he was proudly waiting in an alley way in posh Hampstead, north London, to mug old ladies and relieve them of the contents of their handbags.

The last time I saw him was on stage with the Sex Pistols at Uxbridge University in Dec 77 - quite an experience as I was taking photos and was literally pushed onto his side of the stage and he was about to take a swing at me when I dived back into the crowd.

Wow, SD! I wouldn't mind hearing more stories like this if you'd like to share.

BTW, this doesn't sound anything like a story I heard from a tour guide in London back in '03 who basically told me that Vicious was "mentally challenged," who could do no better than to barely hold a job at Whitely's before going with the Pistols.

I first met Sid on a night when students at my college - Kingsway-Princeton - overtook the place in a demonstration against education cuts.

There was a knock on the door outside and it was this guy all dressed in black who asked me if 'John' was around. I hadn't the faintest idea who he met but invited him in and we sat down and talked - mainly about music. He mentioned liking some of the bands that I was into at the time like The Pink Fairies, Hawkwind,Roxy Music, Alice Cooper, The Stones and most importantly Syd Barrett from whence he got his name. I thought he was an interesting guy. Half an hour later he went off to find his friend John who I know now was John Lydon - a guy I used to see stalking the college corridors with long dyed henna hair and a badge bearing the legend 'In Search Of Eddie Riff'. That was the name of an album by Roxy Music sax and oboe player Andy Mackay.

As I said, over time we became mates and hung out together but bad blood brewed after he took a shine to my girlfriend.
He moved into a squat with my best friend and I used to see him whenever I went up there but by this time he was starting to get into bad habits, inspired by his other hero Keef.
I remember a few occasions where he was so strung out that he would come to college on the coldest winter's day in just a string vest.

In the next year of college I returned late only to find that my place in cinema studies was taken by him. He was never Sid to me, always Spiky John because of his hair. The Sid name really only came about in mid 76 after he styarted hanging about at Sex on the the Kings Road.