Sid Vicious: Rock 'n' Roll Star

When I first got this book in the mail and opened the box, my first impressions were a little deflating as there lay before me an oversized, glossy, relatively thin affair that looked like it had very little substance and about as much information as a cheap tabloid. I was however pleasantly surprised when I cracked it open and started digging in.The author has a very good flowing writing style which mixes just the right amount of antidotal evidence as well as factual content. What it does not do, which is a good thing, is be to over zealous with the outrageous legend of what we know to be Sid Vicious.Instead, the author takes a very matter of fact approach and doesn't try and glorify the cartoon caricature that has become such a punk icon. This is a very eye opening and sobering read that delves deep into Sid's psyche and at times makes you wish someone back then could somehow reach out to Sid and just shake him up or help him change his ways. Then there are times when it seems completely hopeless and there wasn't anything anyone could do to help him. This book is also a very good glimps into the shocking and sometimes degrading world of 1970's punk counter culture in general and gives a very good "vibe" of what it was like. A very short read, but there isn't any fluff so it feels like you get enough and are satisfied. This is definitely recommended even if you have a passing interest in old school Punk but have a bigger interest in the human condition and subculture in general.

Just got the book today, and i picked it up and dint put it down untill i finished. Well written, has good pictures. As a Sex Pistols fan from then and now, it was fascinating to read. In a way i wished it had been longer, hated to get to the end. What else can i say but if you are a fan, you must read it..

This is a great book on Sid, lot's of pictures good stories,and an easy read you can pick it up and just open it up to any page and you'll be happy.I'd say buy it.

This book is short and concise, hitting the main events in Sid's in life. The writing itself isn't perfect, and there are a few problems with diction and syntax. In some areas the author uses slang rather than proper clinical terms, which makes the text a little high school and lacking in professionalism.This book also fails to do its own detective work like so many other books out there about Sid. The author didn't interview the major players in Sid's life; instead, he lifts quotes and info from other already published books, such as John Lydon's. Here and there are a few intimate details, such as the police pathologist stating that Nancy's body started decomposing after only 7 hours, yet the reader isn't given any source for this offcial and probably confidential legal information.The book is factually written for the most part, although Malcolm Butt does inject some editorial comments about Sid that reflect a judgemental and ignorant attitude toward psychiatric issues and substance abuse. He clearly panders to the stigma when he states, "As his lack of musicianship grew ever more apparent, he made up for it with increasingly gross acts of anarchy and self-mutilation..." Cutting and self-mutilation are red flags for serious underlying psychological/psychiatric issues, which had been there for some time before he became a Sex Pistol according to a close friend of Sid's, Jah Wobble.Malcolm Butt also gets on his soap box about substance abuse and states, "...he knew he was taking the heroin, he knew he was doing the things he did to himself and others. Other heroin addicts used the drug and didn't do what Sid did. He knew that after every detox he would end up back on the stuff and he chose to do that." If you know anything about what heroin does to a person's brain, then you know this statement is a sanctimonious piece of garbage. Heroin changes the structures in the brain and how the brain functions. Therefore, behavior is greatly affected, causing personality changes, violence, lack of awareness, and of course concomitant health problems. It causes the brain to crave heroin constantly due to its action on dopamine, making addiction impossible to break regardless of how much the user wants to quit. By the time a user becomes addicted, which can happen very quickly, it's too late. Sid had no way to quit, and appropriate treatment programs don't exist in jails even today, let alone in the late 1970's. Sid's friends/band mates made valient efforts to help him, but he would've needed a detox program specifically tailored for heroin, not a 12-step program. Sid would've required inpatient care with psychiatrists specializing in addiction, counseling with PhD-level psychologists, treatment for underlying psychiatric issues (suicidal ideation, etc.), a Social Worker, Registered Nurses, and group therapy. Then probably a decent half-way house with actual licensed professionals for a year with continuing therapy. Having grown up with an addict mother would've made it quite challenging had he lived.Many despise Nancy, but had it not been Nancy, it would've been another woman with a drug problem, because the archetypal woman in his life, his mother, was an addict. Nancy had her own psychiatric issues as well, and drugs and past trauma gave the two of them a lot in common.The book doesn't provide any new or rarely seen photos, although there are plenty of them. The layout and fonts are very good, and the photos are large, which is what everyone wants to see.Tragically, the book fails to point out that there were adults in Sid's life that he trusted who didn't have his best interests at heart. His mother didn't try too hard to enforce any discipline, his manager Malcolm McClaren used him for sensationalistic antics and headlines, his father was absent, Richard Branson never stepped in to take charge of the drug problem in any way, and Sid's minders dropped out of sight when the tour was over. The only time the "responsible adults" cared to get Sid sober was when there was work to be done and money to be made. In those physically miserable moments of sobriety, he probably knew it.

A great biography...the only reason I rated it a 4 was because the author was sometimes wary on details.When you read about Sid,you realize he wasn't as "cool" as everyone thinks he is.He was just like anybody else,a regular human being.People put him on this high pedestal thinking "Wow,he's so cool.I want to wear leather jackets just like him!" well maybe not exactly like that,but you get the point.It shows he was just like most people...insecure at times,and liked to have fun.I read this all in one day...I couldn't put it down.

This was the best book that i read about 'Sid'. It's very comprehensive, and seems factual, but i don't think it includes anything about the animal abuse and mugging old ladies allegations that John Wardle talked about. I don't know, of course, if it's true, but i think i believe Wardle, but again, i don't know. What i do know is that this guy had a great look, no talent whatsoever, and to see the Pistols in their 50's with Glen Matlock (always the coolest guy in the group) pumping out the bass notes, so great even without any new songs, makes Sid seem anecdotal and irrelevant.

This is a great buy for a nice price. Nice photos, it's short because Sid didn't live long.

My favorite bassist of all time! His story is really inspiring. It made me play my bass guitar again after a decade!

This book goes into reasonable detail when looking at the life of Sid Vicious, poster-child for the simple thug or fashinable punk. It is alternately sad, compelling and hilarious.It charts Vicious' days as a relatively sweet child, following his single mother around Europe, fatherless, but pleasant just the same. It then briefly charts his journey through adolescence, going from petulant schoolchild to wilful art student. The author's theory is that Sid's unconventional, unstable and fatherless childhood was responsible for his hatred of rules and authority, and there could be some truth in this.It then details the period when Sid first became friendly with John Lydon at art college, one of the most important turning points in his life. It then charts his journey as a fan, one of the notorious 'Bromley Contingent', follwoing the Pistols every move during their early days, with Lydon at the helm, and Glen Matlock still on bass. Then this book explains how it came to pass that Sid ended up as bassist, and briefly hints at the opportunist and exploitative nature of Malcolm McLaren, though not nearly enough for my liking.This book contains many humourous moments, including one particularly hilarious part of the young Sid's life, when he and Lydon would busk in London, Sid with an acoustic guitar he couldn't play and Lydon on an out-of-tune fiddle which he was similarly useless on. The two would then bemuse onlookers by hollering out the same Alice Cooper song on a constant cycle. This is decribed very well; one of the books definite laugh out loud moments.However, from the moment Sid joins the Pistols, the book heads into sordid territory, almost from the word go. Very soon after joining, Sid made the transition from reasonably harmless clown to chain-wielding, glass-smashing yob, with a ferocious appetite for alcohol and drugs. The book does detail this very vividly, and tells of how the despicable Johnny Thunders introduced Sid to Heroin, a habit which was nurtured by the equally loathsome Nancy Spundgen, who, along with Lydon, would have the most profound effect on Sid's life, though more for the worst.The author's description of Sid and Nancy's drug-induced haze of sex and violence is hellish and repellent, a strong adverisement for steering as well clear of drugs as possible. The book recounts Sid's reckless violence, self-mutilation and thirst for excessive hedonism, and his fellow band members despair at Sid's behaviour. None of which was helped by the gormless McLaren, who stood by and watched as the Sex Pistols unravelled at an alarming speed.After the pistols split, the book moves into even more depressing, seedy territory as it describes Sid and Nancy drowning in a sea of drugs, alcohol, sex, violence, vomit and blood. All of which is disturbing, sickening and actually very sad. This culminated in the murder or some might say suicide of Nancy, and the eventual heroin overdose of Sid, resulting in his death.It is incredibly sad to read about such a swift destruction of a human being, and even sadder to read about the death of a once attractive and comical mother's boy who loved his mother a great deal. Many point the finger of blame at Nancy, fewer point the finger at the far more intelligent Lydon and others blame Malcolm Mclaren, but ultimately, the only one to blame for the death of Sid Vicious was Sid Vicious. This book is a disturbing look at what drugs can do to a person, and their state of mind.Because of it's grim look at the reality of drugs, and the book's more light-hearted moments, as well as the once harmless nature of Sid, I recommend this book very much. It is not a particularly long book, but it does examine the tragically short life of Sid Vicious with reasonable clarity.

Uno spaccato della Londra (e non solo) di fine anni '70, tra la voglia di ribellarsi giovanile, il perbenismo della società inglese e le conseguenze disastrose dell'inseguimento della vita da rock 'n' roll star. Circa 150 pagine arricchite da stupendi reperti fotografici che contribuiscono ad avvicinare il lettore alla tumultuosa vita dell'icona del punk rock per eccellenza. Il libro è in lingua inglese ma lo stile è veramente semplice, non usa particolari tecnicismi né frasi troppo articolate, quindi la lettura risulta molto piacevole. Lo consiglio