The first, intimate full-length 80 minute documentary on Sid’s life to mark 30 years since his death, when he was just 21 years old from a heroin overdose. Many of those closest to Sid speak for the very first time about the only true punk icon – who burnt out, but never sold out.

Sid! by those who really knew him (Collector’s edition) DVD & CD Set
Odeon Entertainment – www.odeonent.co.uk
RRP: £19.99. Running time: Approx 86 minutes

Considerable mystery surrounds the short life of Simon John Beverley. Better known as Sid Vicious, to many fans he was a hero of the punk movement and a cultural icon. Sid lived his life in chaos and anarchy. He was a drug addict from a teenager and as a member of the Sex Pistols he lived up to his name – once attacking NME music journalist, Nick Kent, with a bicycle chain.

Eventually, heroin abuse took its toll and Sid died aged twenty-one in 1979. To mark the 30th anniversary of his death, a new documentary, in association with ITN Archive, relates the definitive story of Sid’s life. Critically, the DVD documentary includes interviews with the people who knew Sid best – Malcolm McLaren (Sex Pistols manager), John Wardle aka ‘Jah Wobble’ (a childhood friend who is available for media interviews), Vivienne Westwood (Sex Pistols designer), Rat Scabies (The Damned), Steve Severin, ex-flatmate Viv Albertine (The Slits), Ron Watts (100 Club), Caroline Coon, Glen Matlock, Marco Pironi, Sex Pistol’s tour manager, John Tiberi, and many more of Sid closest mates

Ritchie joined the Pistols after bassist Glen Matlock’s departure in February 1977, his first gig was on 3 April, at the Screen on the Green in London. Soon after joining the Sex Pistols Sid told the Daily Mirror: “I’ll probably die by the time I reach 25.” Manager Malcolm McLaren said had he met Sid before he had hired Johnny to be the singer, Sid would have been the Sex Pistols front man. Although Sid couldn’t play guitar very well, and it was often unplugged at live gigs, he had the most charisma of anyone on that stage.

Although Sid fixed the iconic greatness of the Sex Pistols, just 12 months after he joined, the band collapsed. His year with the Sex Pistols is rightly covered extensively in this DVD – highlighting Sid’s contribution to the group on stage. The final chapter of Sid’s life revolves around his girlfriend, Nancy Spurgeon – a fraught relationship which would eventually lead to her death. Sid himself was found dead of a heroin overdose in New York’s West Village on 2 February 1979.

How he acquired the last fatal dose of heroin remains the subject of controversy. Punk era music photographer, Peter Gravelle, claims he sold Sid that last dose and is available for media interviews for the first time. Many of Gravelle’s back catalogues of photographs of the Sex Pistols and Sid are to be exhibited for the first time at Proud Galleries, Camden, London, on 25 March. Some of the photographs are available for copyright-free use in features and a number of them are available to purchase as prints – details are included in the DVD notes.

In addition to the special collector’s edition DVD documentary, filmed in high definition (HD) and including previously unseen archive footage, there is a FREE CD recorded live in New York in 1978 with Sid Vicious, Steve Dior, Arthur Kane and Jerry Nolan. There’s also a 28-page biography of Sid Vicious written by Mark Paytress, author of Vicious: The Art of Dying Young.

Funkyfogey has 3 copies of ‘Sid! by those who really knew him’ DVD and CD sets for you to win! Go to the Music quiz for your chance to win this fantastic collector’s item!