Punk star numb, incoherent

Press, 23 October 1978, Page 7

Punk star numb, incoherent

NZPA-Reuter New York A Sid Vicious Halloween concert scheduled for next week has been called off as the British punk-rock star remains “numb, upset, and incoherent—in no condition to perform,” his manager has said.

Vicious, charged with murder in this week’s stabbing death of his American girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, has been in seclusion with his mother at an undisclosed New York address since friends put up his $50,000 bail on Monday. Mr Malcolm McLaren, manager of the 21-year-old bass guitarist who played for the now-defunct Sex Pistols group, told NZPA-Reuter that Vicious was “in very poor health and going through a memory breakdown.” Vicious, whose real name is John Simon Ritchie, was still continuing on a methadone drug treatment programme, Mr McLaren said. “It’s Nature’s way, I suppose,” Mr McLaren said. “But I hope within the next couple of weeks he will start to understand the reality of the situation, which is that he’s going to have to fight for his life in the New York courts.”