40 Facts About Sid Vicious

Lydon's bandmate, guitarist Steve Jones gave him the name Johnny Rotten, and Sid nicknamed Wardle Jah Wobble.

In 1976, Sid Vicious co-founded, as vocalist and saxophone player, the Flowers of Romance along with the Clash co-founder Keith Levene and Viv Albertine, who would go on to become the guitarist of The Slits.

Sid Vicious was considered, along with Dave Vanian, for the position of lead singer, but Vicious failed to show up for the audition.

Sid Vicious contended that Vanian and his associates had intentionally withheld information about the audition to ensure that Sid Vicious missed it.

On 20 September 1976, Sid Vicious appeared with Siouxsie and the Banshees, playing drums at their first gig at the 100 Club Punk Special in London's Oxford Street, a two-day festival co-founded by McLaren.

Sid Vicious missed, the glass shattered against a pillar and blinded a woman in one eye.

Sid Vicious was their kamikaze pilot, and they were all too happy to strap him in and send him off.

Sid Vicious jammed a broken bottle into the face of BBC recording engineer George Nicholson.

Sid Vicious was allowed to play bass on one track, "Bodies" but his contribution was later overdubbed by Jones.

Sid Vicious missed most of the band's rehearsals and recording sessions because he was in hospital with hepatitis, likely caused by intravenous drug use.

Dee Dee Ramone had seen him shooting drugs on more than one occasion, and Rotten's friend John Gray had found Sid Vicious shooting speed while he was still living with his mother; Sid Vicious told him that the drugs were "me mum's".

Also in 1977, Sid Vicious met Nancy Spungen, an American groupie living in London, who had a history of psychological problems and was a heroin addict.

The track of Vicious singing the Johnny Thunders song "Born to Lose" which appears on Sid Sings, was recorded during this performance, as Vicious stepped in when Lydon left the stage to pose as Father Christmas.

Sid Vicious was in a constant state of semi-withdrawal and furious that the band had blocked Spungen from accompanying them on the tour.

When Sid Vicious returned to his hotel, he found that Spungen had retaliated for being left alone by cutting her wrists.

Sid Vicious bumped into Glen Matlock, who by this point had founded the band Rich Kids, and suggested that they play a gig together.

Sid Vicious did not play bass in this band; he was the lead singer.

Sid Vicious drew large crowds, though some performances were "hellish", with the audience booing his attempted imitation of Rotten, and Vicious insulting the audience.

Sid Vicious first claimed to have killed her, then said he remembered nothing.

Bailey never appeared in court, but another lawyer from his firm, Jim Merberg, arranged for Sid Vicious to be released on $50,000.00 bail, with the conditions that he not leave New York and that he sign in daily at the 3rd Homicide Unit offices, and at the Lafayette Street Methadone Center.

Sid Vicious returned to the Chelsea Hotel, where he was joined by McLaren and his mother.

Hours later, Beverley called Teich and said that Sid Vicious had slashed his arms with a smashed light bulb.

EMS staff arrived with the police; when Sid Vicious saw them, he headed for the window but was blocked by Teich.

Sid Vicious was taken to Bellevue Hospital and then moved to the New York-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center in White Plains, New York.

Sid Vicious said that Spungen's death was "meant to happen" and that "Nancy always said she'd die before she was 21".

Sid Vicious had started seeing women again and was casually involved with rocker Judy Nylon, Dee Dee Ramone's ex-girlfriend Connie Gripp, an aspiring actress named Michele Robison and Rotten's ex-girlfriend, Danielle Boothe.

Smith told him to back off and Sid Vicious smashed a beer bottle and jammed it into Smith's face.

The judge agreed that Sid Vicious had broken the terms of his previous bail and sent him to Rikers Island, where he underwent enforced detoxification.

Sid Vicious's death made the front pages of most New York newspapers for days, and Robison's apartment building was thronged by reporters.

The first of many posthumous albums appeared in 1980; Sid Vicious, released by EMI sub-label Innocent Records, has as its jacket image the photo of Vicious' body being removed from 63 Bank St.

Leon said that Sid Vicious had loaned him the jacket the night before and voluntarily gave it to the NYPD.

Several online sources state that the estate of Sid Vicious continues to earn approximately $400,000 annually in royalties.

In Lonely Boy, Jones states that Sid Vicious' estate passed to maternal cousins.

Sid Vicious had a brilliant sense of humour, goofy, sweet, and very cute.

Sid Vicious felt so isolated, poor old Sid, because he wasn't the sharpest knife on the block.

On 20 January 2009, a 30-minute documentary about Sid Vicious titled In Search of Sid and recorded 30 years after his death by musician and long-term friend of Vicious Jah Wobble was aired on the BBC Radio 4.

In 2011, a suit of Sid Vicious' sold at auction by Christie's for GBP 11,000.

In 1982, the Exploited included the song "Sid Vicious Was Innocent" on their album Troops of Tomorrow.

In September 2009, the Roy Smiles play Kurt and Sid Vicious debuted at the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End.

The play, set in Kurt Cobain's greenhouse on the day of his suicide, revolves around the ghost of Sid Vicious visiting Cobain to try and convince him not to kill himself.