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It was all that media hype surrounding the Sex Pistols and it all definitely enveloped Sid and Nancy, particularly in America after Nancy's death where the stabbing of her was probably what most Americans first heard about regarding Sid Vicious. The whole punk period and the Pistols was something that was covered press-wise far more extensively in the United Kingdom during most of the years it was actually happening than it was in the United States. Outside of the New York underground scene and maybe some Los Angeles/New York-based music trade publications, America at large probably didn't hear much about punk until the Pistols came to America in early 1978. That did make some waves on some national news shows, mostly concerning the violent image of it all.
After the Pistols broke up and Sid and Nancy eventually ended up in New York City in the late summer of 1978, the period between their arrival and Nancy's death wasn't exactly causing a national media sensation here. By and large, nobody in the US gave two shits about punk music in 1978. Sid did a couple of club gigs in NYC, and an interview on an underground cable tv channel. The press coverage didn't happen until after Nancy died.
Whatever the media image of Vicious after Nancy's death and his own death became - that whole 'live fast, die young in a blaze of glory' bullshit - the reality strikes me as more than a bit pathetic. I remember after seeing the Sid And Nancy movie in the 1980s reading Nancy's mother's book that came out around the same time. Reading that book was an eye-opener and definite counterweight to the whole Sid and Nancy as Mythical Rock Star And His Super Groupie hype. By Nancy's mother's account, Nancy was deeply psychologically disturbed from an early age. It is certainly telling that by the time she died she had no close friends, her family didn't want anything to do with her and the acquaintances she had were solely people she encountered as Sid's 'manager'/groupie or people she was doing drugs with. In a nutshell, on a personal level people steered clear of Nancy because she had an off-putting personality. Sid seemingly bought into the whole image of it all and bought into the myths the media portrayed regarding him as the icon of punk or whatever. Throw heroin into that mix and it wasn't surprising in the least that the two ended up going down the tubes. Even if Nancy hadn't ended up being stabbed and Sid hadn't overdosed and died, their lives were obviously in a downward spiral.
I suppose the enduring image of the legend and myth of Sid and Nancy remains mildly lucrative for whoever has the rights to Sid's likeness and whatever recordings he managed to make (if the rights to those recordings were even retained by Sid's mother and passed on to whoever in the wake of her death). It'd be hard to imagine Sid's estate heaping in millions of dollars these days. I'd tend to imagine now Vicious is far more popular in the United Kingdom than he is in the US.
Who knows what really happened in the Chelsea Hotel? It's not exactly the Kennedy assassination in terms of a mystery with any consequence outside of whatever residual tabloid fodder mentioning it conjures up. Maybe Vicious and Nancy both passed out, then someone else came into the room to rip off their dope and money and Nancy woke up during the robbery and got stabbed for her troubles while Sid remained passed out. Maybe it was a drug deal gone sour. Maybe Sid stabbed her then passed out. Those two were hellbent on speeding toward oblivion one way or another, which isn't to say they deserved what they got, exactly. However, you strip away the tabloid notoriety factor and it was all a sad, pathetic end to a couple of very disturbed people who weren't even really revelling in a noteworthy degree of media notoriety when the stabbing happened. By and large, outside of the marginal NYC punk circle, Sid and Nancy had no celebrity currency in the couple few months they spent in NYC. Sid, when he was recognized, was already a has-been by that point.
It was hardly a Rock And Roll Heaven love story for the ages.
After the Pistols broke up and Sid and Nancy eventually ended up in New York City in the late summer of 1978, the period between their arrival and Nancy's death wasn't exactly causing a national media sensation here. By and large, nobody in the US gave two shits about punk music in 1978. Sid did a couple of club gigs in NYC, and an interview on an underground cable tv channel. The press coverage didn't happen until after Nancy died.
Whatever the media image of Vicious after Nancy's death and his own death became - that whole 'live fast, die young in a blaze of glory' bullshit - the reality strikes me as more than a bit pathetic. I remember after seeing the Sid And Nancy movie in the 1980s reading Nancy's mother's book that came out around the same time. Reading that book was an eye-opener and definite counterweight to the whole Sid and Nancy as Mythical Rock Star And His Super Groupie hype. By Nancy's mother's account, Nancy was deeply psychologically disturbed from an early age. It is certainly telling that by the time she died she had no close friends, her family didn't want anything to do with her and the acquaintances she had were solely people she encountered as Sid's 'manager'/groupie or people she was doing drugs with. In a nutshell, on a personal level people steered clear of Nancy because she had an off-putting personality. Sid seemingly bought into the whole image of it all and bought into the myths the media portrayed regarding him as the icon of punk or whatever. Throw heroin into that mix and it wasn't surprising in the least that the two ended up going down the tubes. Even if Nancy hadn't ended up being stabbed and Sid hadn't overdosed and died, their lives were obviously in a downward spiral.
I suppose the enduring image of the legend and myth of Sid and Nancy remains mildly lucrative for whoever has the rights to Sid's likeness and whatever recordings he managed to make (if the rights to those recordings were even retained by Sid's mother and passed on to whoever in the wake of her death). It'd be hard to imagine Sid's estate heaping in millions of dollars these days. I'd tend to imagine now Vicious is far more popular in the United Kingdom than he is in the US.
Who knows what really happened in the Chelsea Hotel? It's not exactly the Kennedy assassination in terms of a mystery with any consequence outside of whatever residual tabloid fodder mentioning it conjures up. Maybe Vicious and Nancy both passed out, then someone else came into the room to rip off their dope and money and Nancy woke up during the robbery and got stabbed for her troubles while Sid remained passed out. Maybe it was a drug deal gone sour. Maybe Sid stabbed her then passed out. Those two were hellbent on speeding toward oblivion one way or another, which isn't to say they deserved what they got, exactly. However, you strip away the tabloid notoriety factor and it was all a sad, pathetic end to a couple of very disturbed people who weren't even really revelling in a noteworthy degree of media notoriety when the stabbing happened. By and large, outside of the marginal NYC punk circle, Sid and Nancy had no celebrity currency in the couple few months they spent in NYC. Sid, when he was recognized, was already a has-been by that point.
It was hardly a Rock And Roll Heaven love story for the ages.
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