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.
Nancy
Spungen: I was concentrating on big rock n roll
stars...I toured around with Aerosmith for a while. One
of the first nights I was with them ...we drove out in
the limousine. I was sitting in the backseat with Tom
Hamilton on one side of me and Brad Whitfield on the
other. I had one hand on one prick and one hand on the
other...I had a good time and I got treated nice...I
know everybody... a lot of my really good friends are in
the top bands. Please Kill Me
Nancy
Spungen: I slept with David Johansen, I slept with
Johnny Thunders, I slept with Syl Sylvain, I slept with
Jerry Nolan. Please Kill Me
Iggy
Pop: I spent the night with her once. She wasn't a
beauty, but I liked her. There was something really
spunky there, But I was a big boy by then. So my thought
was, Trouble. Please Kill Me
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.
Nancy:
I slept in the same bed as John for two nights and he
said to me 'You want it but you're not going to get it'.
Don't you think it means that he just wanted to get into
my pants? Record Mirror 8.4.78
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
Sid was 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.
I've been
doing every-fuckin'-thing they reckon she turned me onto two
years before I met 'er. NME 17.12.77
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 shit 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
blowjob 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 sadistic/masochistic 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 tits?' Sid
'Yes, she's got great tits!' 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.
Vicious
attempted to throw himself out of the third storey
window, an attempted suicide that would have succeeded
had not his girlfriend been able to grab Sid's
belt...and drag him back inside...Once inside, Vicious,
in yet another fit, grabbed Spungen's blonde hair and
drove her head against the wall relentlessly again and
again until he finally stopped just as she was about to
loose unconsciousness, blood from her scalp running down
the wall...the pair finally collapsed into bed at 5 a.m
in the morning. NME 17.12.77
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:
I'll kill
myself as soon as the first wrinkle appears... I don't want
to lose my looks.
Nancy was born
kicking and screaming. In death she achieved peace as her mother
recounts in her book.
The
pain was missing from her face. She had no more pain.
Without it, she almost looked like a different person.
She wasn't angry anymore.
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!
