by André Depienne

He was the “Enfant Terrible” even for real pu- nk-rockers, the Sex-Pistols’s Bassist John Si- mon Ritchie, alias Sid Vicious. His short bio- graphy is marked with scandals. The darkest side of his short life was on October 1978. His girlfriend Nancy was stabbed in their hotel room. He was suspected and arrested for, but was released upon deposit. On February 2nd, 1979 the Sex-Pistols Bassist died in the apart- ment of his new girlfriend “Michelle Robin- son”, in Greenwich Village, New York, due to an overdose. He was only 21. Sid Vicious met John Lydon already in 1973. However his musical career started as a drummer for the Punkband “Siouxie and the Banshes”. He only joined the Sex Pistols after the departure of Glan Matlock in February 1977. Sid didn’t know to play the Bass. Anyway, his part in the band was different, similar to Brian Jones’s from the Stones, he was responsible for the band’s bad image. Motörhead’s “Lem- my Kilmister” tried to teach him playing the Bass, without any success. It seems that on the Sex-Pistols albums the bass was played by Steve Jones, the guitarist of the band. For the concerts both instruments were mixed dis- creetly.