February 2, 1979: Sid Vicious dies of a drug overdose at a friend's apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village. He was 21 years old.
John Simon Ritchie was born on May 10, 1957 in Lewisham, Southeast London and... well, perhaps "grown up" isn't the right term... in Stoke Newington, East London. By the time he was 16, both he and his mother were hooked on heroin, he was torturing cats, and she kicked him out of the house.
Then he met John Lydon, who introduced him to his friends John Grey and John Wardle. They called themselves "The Four Johns," and moved in together. Lydon had a hamster he'd named Sid, after Syd Barrett, formerly of the bank Pink Floyd. That hamster bit Ritchie, and Lydon gave him the nickname "Sid Vicious." Vicious nicknamed Wardle "Jah Wobble." (Lydon and Wardle would form Public Image Ltd. after the Sex Pistols broke up.)
The original Sex Pistols were lead singer Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, and bass guitarist Glen Matlock, both 21-year-old natives of North London; and a pair of West Londoners who had been in a previous band together, lead guitarist Steve Jones, 22, and drummer Paul Cook, 21.
They needed an album, and they had several songs written as they began recording in February 1977. But Matlock, who had written a lot of the lyrics, quit, saying he was "sick of the bullshit."
He was replaced on bass guitar by Vicious, who'd been in a band named The Flowers of Romance. He could barely play the instrument at all, but embodied the punk persona (as the British saw it, not as Americans saw it) more than even Rotten did. If Rotten was, as he claimed in the song "Anarchy in the U.K.," an anarchist, Vicious was an out-and-out nihilist.
Left to right: Sid Vicious, Steve Jones,
Paul Cook and Johnny Rotten.
When the album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols was released on October 28, 1977, only 2 songs on it had Vicious on them: "Bodies" and "God Save the Queen," the latter written in connection with the Silver Jubilee (25th Anniversary) of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
Despite the album's strong sales, the Pistols were doomed from the start. Their subsequent American tour did not do well. On January 14, 1978, they played the last show on that tour, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. As with The Band in 1976, that venue would be the site of the last concert that Rotten, Vicious, Jones and Cook played together.
Vicious stayed in America, at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. He recorded a version of "My Way," which would be used by director Martin Scorcese to close his gangster film Goodfellas.
In late 1978, his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, was murdered there. He was arrested as the only suspect. Early in 1979, he was sent to the City prison on Rikers Island to detox from drugs. He was released on February 1 -- and died of a heroin overdose the next day. He was 21.
Ironically, his legal troubles had led his mother to reconcile with him. She told his New York friends that under no circumstances should he be left alone. But he was alone in a bedroom the night he died, even though she and the friends were sleeping in other rooms at that apartment, at 63 Bank Street. Anne Ritchie would also die of a heroin overdose, in 1996.
Matlock built a separate musical career, and swallowed his differences with Rotten, Jones and Cook, joining them on tour in 1996, 2003 and 2007-08. As of February 2, 2022, the 4 original members are all still alive.
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February 2, 1979 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 10 games played in the NBA that night:
* The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 105-101 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, despite 35 points from Julius "Dr. J" Erving.
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, 117-100 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 112-98 at the Boston Garden.
* The Washington Bullets beat the Houston Rockets, 120-106 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Golden State Warriors, 87-84 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the New Orleans Jazz, 116-110 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Kansas City Kings beat the Detroit Pistons, 130-114 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.
* The Phoenix Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs, 133-108 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
* The San Diego Clippers beat the Denver Nuggets, 124-100 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena). Lloyd Free, who would later rename himself World B. Free, led all scorers on the night with 49 points.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 104-102 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
There were no games in the NHL that night, but there were 2 in the World Hockey Association:
* The New England Whalers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 4-1 at the Springfield Civic Center (now the MassMutual Center) in Springfield, Massachusetts. The Whalers were playing there while their home, the Hartford Civic Center (now the XL Center), was being rebuilt following a roof collapse in 1978.
* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2 at the Winnipeg Arena. These 4 teams turned out to be the only ones from the WHA admitted to the NHL after the season, with the Whalers changing their name to the Hartford Whalers. In 1995, the Nordiques moved, becoming the Colorado Avalanche. In 1996, the Jets moved, becoming the Phoenix Coyotes, and eventually the Arizona Coyotes. In 1997, the Whalers moved to Greensboro, and after 2 more years to Raleigh, becoming the Carolina Hurricanes. In 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers moved, becoming the new Winnipeg Jets. The Oilers have stayed put.
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