Sid Vicious Sid Vicious Sid Vicious (born Simon John Ritchie, 10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979) was an English bassist and vocalist. He achieved fame as a member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, replacing Glen Matlock, who had fallen out of favour with the rest of the group. Due to intravenous drug use, Vicious was hospitalised with hepatitis during the recording of the Sex Pistols' only studio album, "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols"; his bass is only partially featured on one song. Vicious later appeared as a lead vocalist, performing three cover songs, on the
Sex Pistols "Rolling Stone" has argued that the band, "in direct opposition to the star trappings and complacency" of mid-1970s rock, came to spark and personify one of the few truly critical moments in pop culture—the rise of punk." In 2004, the magazine ranked the Sex Pistols No. 58 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time." Leading music critic Dave Marsh called them "unquestionably the most radical new rock band of the Seventies." Although the Sex Pistols were not the first punk band, the few recordings that were released during the band's brief initial existence were singularly catalytic