Nancy Spungen-Life And Death |
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Nancy Home | Life & Death | A Woman Wronged | Nauseous Nancy | DOA Interview | | Sid Vicious | Sex Pistols | |||
Nancy was born in 1958 to a middle class Jewish family in Philadelphia USA. Born prematurely by 1 and a half months her mother recalls her "...in the hospital nursery kicking and screaming at some unseen enemy" and that really set the scene for the rest of her life. Growing up was no better. She had a troubled childhood displaying violent behavioural symptoms - tantrums, frequently threatening her sister Susan and brother David and verbally abusing them, attempting to stab the babysitter with a pair of scissors and having recurrent violent nightmares. It wasn't as if it was a dysfunctional family as apart from Nancy the family appeared to be fine and did their best to live with her. For Nancy her state of mind was frightening and she often confided to her mother 'that she wanted to die.' She suffered from depression and committed self harm. It can't have helped being put into various hospitals and correctional facilities without success. |
Aged 17 Nancy left home and moved to New York and found a place where other damaged kids and behavioural problems could be accepted as fairly normal - the rock 'n' roll scene and she moved in the same circles as Aerosmith, The New York Dolls, Ramones, Debbie Harry and the Heartbreakers as a groupie. Like so many others she entered the drug culture and needing money to survive worked as a stripper and sometime prostitute to get by.
Richard Hell (who she had an affair with) in 'England's Dreaming' describes her as a girl 'with exceptionally large drive to be where the action was'. For Nancy that place was rock 'n' roll and rock stars. Sex and drugs were her ticket in and the ones which she could use to both manipulate and to feel needed. |
Nancy with Iggy & Bowie | Nancy & The Dolls | Nancy with Debbie Harry |
Having a crush on Jerry Nolan she followed the Heartbreakers over to the UK when they moved and quickly entered the UK Punk scene. When Jerry wanted nothing to do with her she seemed determined to 'bag' a punk celebrity and when Johnny Rotten again wanted nothing to do with her she met Sid and set in motion a chain of tragic events.
Instead Nancy got Sid and between them a mutual interdependence on sex, drugs, violence, fame (infamy) and affection even. |
It could have been so different though. the Sex Pistols were the top Punk band in the UK and gaining worldwide attention. The UK punk scene was rocketing with hundreds of bands forming and Sidwas the bassist in this top band. While both may have thought they had hit jackpot little did they know it was the beginning of the end. Unfortunately the Pistols were moribund victims of a manager who was telling them they couldn't play anywhere through bans. A band who had sacked their main songwriter and were writing no new tunes. Sid wasn't the greatest Bass player but he looked the part but as the Pistols began to slowly disintegrate Nancy began to inflate Sid's ego that he was the star of the band and who was holding it all together and in their heroin hazed existence that was probably their reality and what each other wanted to hear. | |
But what a pair of damaged individuals. As a film plot or some dark love story it's just amazing as a downward spiral of sex, love, drugs and rock 'n' roll. For the next 11 months Sid and Nancy would live a very public punk lifestyle of public fights, verbal abuse, court appearances and a very large dependency on heroin. Was Sid already a user? Some say yes. Nancy says no. Did Nancy turn Sid onto heroin? Some say yes and again some say no.
The perception that she was a malign influence on Sid and the band even caused McLaren to bizarrely attempt to kidnap her and offer a one way ticket back to the States without Sid which she refused and then pointed out that Sid would kick sh*t out of them if she went. | |
And what a love affair. Like a lot of young men Sid at first was unsure even about his sexuality. Wayne County: Sid Vicious followed Johnny and Leee around like a puppy dog. Leee even managed Sid's band the Flowers Of Romance for a short period! Sid was extremely paranoid about being 'possibly' Gay. Leee and Johnny would give him 'pep' talks to give him more confidence.Sid even approached me at a gig, asking me if I thought he was Gay!!! Very strange!I didn't know if he was taking the piss, was coming on to me, or was being dead serious! I do know he had a lot of misgivings about his sexuality. And of course, Nancy zeroed in on all that and used it to her advantage! I actually liked Nancy to a degree. Nancy: On the first night we screwed, me and Sid. he had smelly feet and he wet the bed...I've taught him everything he needs to know...I've put that sexual aura into Sid. Record Mirror 8.4.78 Nancy gave him the sex and he gave her the rock star. That may have turned into a more deeper relationship but the drugs would only increase the dependence on each other and each would send the other into oblivion. Johnny Rotten: They were so broke, they were looking out their window which overlooked a garage. there was a black mechanic working down there, and Nancy went down and gave him a blowj*b for fifteen quid. Sid thought it was marvellous because he got to watch. What a couple. Rotten - John Lydon There certainly seemed to be a sad*stic/masoch*stic element to their relationship that gave it added thrills. | |
It was Nancy that goaded Sid to acts of violence on others and herself and like it or not made it impossible for both of them to get off heroin and it was these acts of violence that gave Sid publicity that fed the myth and made them celebrities. Sid: I got in a fight at the Speakeasy but I got my hand in his mouth and ripped it open while Nancy kicked him in the balls. And then at the Roxy some kids jumped on me and they got me on the floor and kicked me. Nancy stepped on their balls. RM 8.4.78 While in the beginning everything may have seemed ok as the months went by the deterioration set in. | |
As the Sex Pistols hit America Sid was a full time junkie, rock god and crap bass player. Nancy was banned from going on tour but was amused by her boyfriends sexual hi-jinks including a liaison with a transsexual while on tour. Wayne County: He even picked up a tranny on the road who looked like Nancy! He actually called Nancy on the phone while in bed with the tranny!!! The conversation went something like this. Sid 'Hey Nancy I picked up a transvestite and she looks exactly like you'. Nancy ' Does she have tit*?' Sid 'Yes, she's got great tit*!' Nancy 'Well, she's not a transvestite, she's a transsexual!!!' The US tour was a disaster and the band split up leaving Sid and Nancy on their own. How was the mighty Sid? Well an interview in the film 'DOA' gives an indication of his state of mind - shot -and how Nancy was looking after him. Rotten in his autobiography recounts how Nancy proposed a new band with Sid 'the star' on vocals and Rotten on drums. Following the Sex Pistols break up Sid and Nancy played as the Vicious White Kids at the Electric Ballroom to raise money to over over to the US and move they did ensconcing themselves in the Chelsea Hotel. If they thought this was a new beginning in a new welcoming land they were soon put right. Vicious as per his name got into just as many fights, they were were short of cash and both were strung out. |
Nancy had by now set herself up as Sid's manager and Sid played a few gigs at Max's etc to get some money. Just before her death Nancy had rung her mum complain about kidney pains and revealing that her stories of being beaten up by Teddy Boys was in fact Sid beating her. A relationship like theirs wasn't ordinary so read into Nancy's statement what you will.
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On October 12th 1978 Nancy was found dead from a single stab wound in the bathroom dressed in panties and bra. The knife that killed her was Sid's and he was arrested for the murder. Whether he did it or not is debatable. Deborah Spungen in her book 'And I Don't Want To Live This Life' thinks Sid did it but on instructions from Nancy and that she she in all intents and purposes killed herself. Who knows. The photo on the left is a depressing portrayal of her journey - a sordid and public end robbed of all dignity and history and quotes since haven't changed that view as of course like Sid she's unable to defend herself. |
Classic Sid & Nancy as the myth demands! | In the Record Mirror of April 8th 1978 Nancy said:
Nancy was born kicking and screaming. In death she achieved peace as her mother recounts in her book.
Like or love loath Nancy hers was one heck of a story and as deserving of a place in rock 'n' roll myth as any. But if she's your role model then caveat emptor! |
Nancy Home | A Woman Wronged | Nauseous Nancy | DOA Interview | | Sid Vicious | Sex Pistols
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