Above: The infamous Sid and Nancy interview, which inspired the 1988 Alex Cox film Sid and Nancy (which stars Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious and Chloe Webb as Nancy Spungen).
NARRATOR: In our last episode, the first half of the transcript of the entire interview with Sid and Nancy from DOA: A Rite of Passage (the 1981 film documentary about the Sex Pistols U.S. tour and the punk scene) was posted.
In this second half of the Sid & Nancy interview, for a few minutes Sid is awake enough to talk about the incident when he and Johnny Rotten were attacked by a gang of football hooligans. This is a part of the Sex Pistols’ history that is rarely mentioned as a contributing factor to their break-up, but I think Sid nailed it: Things with the band were never the same again.
Sid also has kind words for the Sex Pistols’ “Svengali,” Malcolm McLaren. Malcolm believed Sid Vicious could become a huge star, and later helped him after the arrest over the Nancy Spungen murder (unsolved to this day). The Sid Vicious music video “My Way” was a huge underground hit back in the early days of MTV. Malcolm not only saw Sid’s star quality, but also how Nancy was leading Sid down a path of self-destruction.
Forgive me for the following rant, but I have to get this off my chest:
When I launched PUNK Magazine in January 1976, everything in New York City and the CBGB/Max’s scene was about the music and the image. One year later, “London Punk” was about the sideshows: the physical violence at shows, “gobbing” (spitting on the bands), the pogo dance (jumping up and down), politics, the extreme fashion looks and the weirdness. I hated all that, and so did many of the bands (especially the gobbing). But this is what attracted the mass media to the London punk scene. It was type of “multi-vehicle car accident” type of story they love to cover.
I didn’t hate the music from England, quite the opposite: Bands like The Damned, the Pistols, The Clash, X-Ray Spex, the Buzzcocks, Generation X etc. were bringing an incredible energy to punk rock. Meanwhile, New York bands (who were older than their teenage counterparts in England) were rejecting punk. CBGB is remembered as the place where punk rock began, but the Ramones were the only band besides the Dead Boys that were truly punk rock, that performed there. (The Dictators, our favorite punk band (besides the Ramones), were banned from both CBGB and Max’s Kansas City over the infamous Wayne County versus Handsome Dick Manitoba incident.)
The Sid and Nancy incident represented the end of the 1970s punk rock scene. The horrific violence of Nancy’s death and Sid Vicious’s overdose death a few months later cast a pall on the whole movement. “Punk” was suddenly all about heroin, murder, and the worst aspects of being into punk rock. The Charlie Manson Murders, which ended the hippie scene, were equivalent to what the Sid & Nancy incident did to punk rock: It switched the narrative of a cultural movement from a positive to a negative.
Not a lot of punk bands came from England after 1979: Stiff Little Fingers, one of the best English punk rock bands, were also one of the last. Meanwhile, the hardcore punk scene was becoming a true underground scene all over the United States. It kept punk rock alive, and the music started mattering more than the drama.
Just my perspective on this little bit of punk rock history… I hope someone out there is offended by it.
Meanwhile, here’s a toast to Maureen McFadden: We all owe her a debt of gratitude: She was thoughtful enough to send this transcript to me before she left High Times magazine after working as Tom Forcade’s personal secretary. Without her efforts? This movie would never have happened…
Remember? Maureen had a friend working at Warner Brothers Records, and kept Tom and the film crew aware of the Sex Pistols’ itinerary during their 1978 US tour… This gave us access to the Sex Pistols, who rarely gave access to any media outlet during that tour, and helped the film crew sneak into the Sex Pistols shows.
THE ENTIRE SID AND NANCY INTERVIEW
PART TWO
FROM
DOA: A RITE OF PASSAGE
Interviewed by Chris Salewicz
SECTION IN “MONTAGE” REEL
NANCY: Right, I knew it. I told him he would say that, right? What are you doing? (Sid touches her belt)
SID: (grunt)
NANCY: And I, I, I told him, I said: “You watch, the first thing he’s gonna say: ‘What I am doing here,’ right, and ’The band’s having too many problems at the moment.’ And that’s like the first thing he would say. (Mumbles) Fucking…
SID: Stand up, I want you to take it off.
NANCY: Excuse us a second. You just have to lean with us. (Lifts t-shirt over tits) I’ve nothing under it.
SID: What?
NANCY: I said I’ve nothing under it.
SID: What?
NANCY: Excuse me, nobody look! (Putting black bra on) Oh, God! I’m sweating,
SID: Yeah, you’re sweating. Hang it up on a hanger, the sweat will dry.
NANCY: See how much I’m sweating?
SID: Imagine if it was me. (Unintelligible)
NANCY: Let me wipe the shit off of it. Okay, fire away, next question.
CUT
START TAPE 2
NANCY: We’re spur of the moment people. If you know what I mean.
SID: We’re very safe, really, like…
(Nancy takes off her sweater)
It started getting up (unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: Sorry I can’t hear what you’re saying.
NANCY: (Grunt)
SID: This guy in San Francisco, right, he him, spaghetti, Bol- - - -arise…
NANCY: What we are talking about, guys, in San Francisco and spaghetti Bolognese. What was the question that you asked, Chris?
INTERVIEWER: Hmm, I don’t remember (laughs).
NANCY: This is probably the most fucked up interview you’ve ever done in your entire life.
INTERVIEWER AND SID: (at the same time) (unintelligible)
NANCY: An interview with Sid and Nancy. Sid and Nancy at home. Oh, I’m so fucking… What was the question you, you said you met somebody in San Francisco.
INTERVIEWER: How no, that would be… No the question about Malcolm and about fucking you over you know…
NANCY: Malcolm has done things to us in the past year that you would not believe. He’s tried to keep us apart, with like the most wildly sneaky fucking things about and hasn’t succeeded one inch because we don’t listen to what he says. I mean, Sid, they got a Sid a place in a hotel, I wasn’t supposed to be there, you know, I mean, we just fucked him up at every turn, so like he just gave up after a while, you know.
INTERVIEWER: I’ve got the question, the question was about the Pistols having been caught up with the consequences of their actions.
NANCY: Yeah, and when I first met Sid, they didn’t want any more publicity. They, they’d gotten in over their necks. I came here March the 10th last year and like, I’ve been with Sid ever since the first day. I’ve even got to England and we’re partners in crime and we have good fun and we help each other out you know, and Sid would like, Sid would have died of 15 deaths if I hadn’t been around. He’s just a ______, you know the way he is, I mean he’s not, this is what he does (pointing at the bed) when he’s not with me.
Cigarette.
You know what I mean?
SID: It’s true. _____ just an old no fool.
NANCY: What’re talking about J. _____ for?
SID: I’m not.
NANCY: Talk about something.
INTERVIEWER: The Clash have been spoken of as the new messiahs, or whatever, you know.
SID: Ha!
NANCY: Pfffft- - - -(lifts her hand) jerk off.
INTERVIEWER: Everything being said was very positively about them, you know, and like…
NANCY: It’s a load of shit, you know, they’re like with their fucking political stuff, and I was walking down a street one day and I saw fucking _____ Jones in a goddamn limousine with his guitar, you know, and fuck that.
SID: Yeah, I don’t even know what a limousine even looks like.
NANCY: Yeah, Sid don’t ride in limousines, we end up walking around most of the time. This I can tell you, _____ him.
(To Sid) Put your arms around me.
(Sid puts his arm around her)
Oh God! So fucking you’re so it.
SID: I really- - - don’t know.
INTERVIEWER: So…
NANCY: So what? Ask anything you want.
INTERVIEWER: (unintelligible)
NANCY: The people think that isn’t playing, but that’s damned fast, man, and I like to see them, _____ where we were filling _____ up, he couldn’t play as fast as Sid, you know, he is more on the finger, he is more on the (sound) you know, but Sid plays melodic. He plays great, you know, he never misses a note, he misses less notes than anyone else in that band. He’s a fucking good player and he can really play good rhythm guitar as well, you know, and like it’s shit when people say that he can’t play because he can. I watched him improve over a year and…
(To Sid) You’re putting your cigarette in my face—Sid!
(He burns her) Jesus, come on.
SID: I’m sorry about that, I’m just, so tired.
NANCY: Ah pfft— What was I saying?
INTERVIEWER: You were saying he could play great.
NANCY: He can. He’s like, he’s one of the most exciting bass players I’ve ever seen in my life. But I mean, he can play.
SID: (Grunts)
NANCY: I don’t care what anybody says about it. And I’m not using that as biased, if you can ask Sid, I’m always honest, about everything. If he played shitty, I’d tell him that.
Here’s the ashtray, not my fucking foot.
SID: I feel like I’m going to be sick.
NANCY: Do you?
CUT
NANCY: No.
INTERVIEWER: Did that, did not being able to play with John and the Pistols, did that put a big stress on you?
NANCY: It made him just want to make- - -he learned all the Pistols songs in two weeks, I mean it just made him want to
INTERVIEWER: Catch up.
NANCY: Yeah, just made him want to, you know, like, work over more.
INTERVIEWER: Do you think the other two resented you. Do you think Paul and Steve resented you because you’ve come into the band as an unknown musician?
NANCY: Steve was always jealous. Steve always said he’d- - - - what he said was a load of shit, you know?? When he shouldn’t have, you know, when he knew it wasn’t and in the end he knew. Ahooooo.
INTERVIEWER: Did they say, do they say…
CUT
NANCY: No.
INTERVIEWER: Did that, did not being able to play with John and the Pistols, did that put a big stress on you?
NANCY: It made him just want to make- - -he learned all the Pistols songs in two weeks, I mean it just made him want to
INTERVIEWER: Catch up.
NANCY: Yeah, just made him want to, you know, like, work over more.
INTERVIEWER: Do you think the other two resented you. Do you think Paul and Steve resented you because you’ve come into the band as an unknown musician?
NANCY: Steve was always jealous. Steve always said he’d- - - - what he said was a load of shit, you know?? When he shouldn’t have, you know, when he knew it wasn’t and in the end he knew. Ahooooo.
INTERVIEWER: Did they say, do they say…
CUT
NANCY: Talk to you about Glen’s leaving.
SID: Hmmmm- - - - a month before, right? Rotten phoned up and said, “Do you play bass?
NANCY: Try to talk intelligibly.
SID: Do you wanna play bass in the Sex Pistols? (His cigarette begins to fall)
NANCY: Yeah, Rotten approached you and said you want to play bass in the Pistols.
SID: Hmmm
NANCY: Talk intelligibly.
SID: (unintelligible) Something like that, he said and
NANCY: Rotten just said d’you want to play bass in the Sex Pistols and you just set up a lot of smack. Talk! Wake up!
SID: Okay, okay, and then hmmm… Yeah and then I just, I just said, well listen John, hmmm, I told him I don’t wanna be in a group any more. I’m fed up with it.
NANCY: You’re talking about two different things. He asked you, “Did Paul, Steve or John talk to you about Glen’s leaving after he left,” and you said John came up to you and approached you and said to you “Did you wanna play bass in the Pistols?” Continue on from there.
SID: Glen wasn’t. They weren’t rehearsing at that time. So very quickly, there was a fucking sports car in the street and we took the…
NANCY: And what?
SID: (Grunt)
NANCY: Oh Sid, please wake up! Drink that coffee I made for you. You never drunk it.
SID: I’m saving it.
NANCY: You just dumped the ashtray over, that was real good Sid. If you do one more thing like this tonight, I’m gonna have a flip-out.
CUT
SID: … Make a success the way…
NANCY: He says the Pistols, it seems the Pistols have been in disarray ever since you joined them. He wants an answer to that.
SID: An answer to that—I know.
NANCY: I mean, in fact not just since you joined them, since they formed really, like if they’re going to separate directions like since they form…
SID: With Matlock and all the rest, Matlock against the other three, the situation now or was just, Paul and Steve together, me and John on their own, like, my own (unintelligible) and uh…
I think it was because there’s such a big gap between us playing in the gigs, a year…
NANCY: A year of not playing in the gigs. What he’s talking about… Do you understand what’s he’s talking about?
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
CUT
INTERVIEWER: (Unintelligible) Paranoid? No, did he really get paranoid?
SID: Paul and Steve didn’t, but John.
NANCY: Ever since his beat up.
SID: Ever since he’s got beat up, he’s like never gone out unless
NANCY: He’s got around 30 people with him.
SID: Yeah.
NANCY: And that’s what ruined John: Getting beat up. He’s gone downhill ever since.
SID: Yeah. That finished him off.
NANCY: Ever since, he’s been a paranoid little pussy, ever since that.
INTERVIEWER: What? Ever since he’s gotten beaten up?
NANCY: Yeah, that’s what ruined him.
INTERVIEWER: Was that, when was that, was that May, was it? It wasn’t May I think.
NANCY: April or May or something like that, sometime.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, things were relatively okay, despite all the other problems. Things were okay ’til then, yeah?
SID: Hmmmm
INTERVIEWER: Then things seemed to change drastically.
SID: Hmmmm
INTERVIEWER: How did you react when you heard he’d got beaten up?
SID: What, Johnny Rotten beat up?
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Did you get worried about being beaten up?
NANCY: Yeah!!!
SID: I wanted to go out and kill the people.
NANCY: That’s how I got nicked, he had a truncheon, and he couldn’t fit it anywhere so he put it in my handbag (eats chocolate).
We were walking down the halls of the hotel with chains and that’s how paranoid we were. It was incredible. It was a really funny story, like, we were all (eating candy bar) in this room, like all John’s big, strong friends and me and Sid and somebody knocked at the door and we thought: “Oh! Fuck, it’s boot boys coming to get a pan of boiling water.”
SID: A pan of water… Starts pulling out a switchblade… knives, chains, we opened the window, I mean the door, about that much, right. And it was five kids, seven kids about this tall, who wanted our autographs (Sid pulls out a knife) and we just had to laugh, I mean you know, it was incredible. It was hysterical, we were ready to…
NANCY: We were all ready for about seven or eight of us.
INTERVIEWER: Did you know… Listen, I heard—
NANCY: Yeah!
INTERVIEWER: (unintelligible)
NANCY: Yeah we knew that, we knew it was a fiddle. A record doesn’t come out and reach Number 6 the first week and Number 2 the second week and then go back down. I mean, it’s just… Doesn’t happen, does it? Obviously, and you know, what can you do.
INTERVIEWER: I was told that the nature of the charts was changed. Sid, Sid, you’ve got to listen to this.
NANCY: Listen.
INTERVIEWER: I was, I was told that the nature of the BRMB charts (Ed. note: the UK Singles chart), one Top of The Pops chart, had changed, so that the week of the Jubilee week, it would have been the logical progression, would have been for “God Save The Queen” to be Number One, but that a certain, uh… Forcer, prevented it from being
NANCY: Yeah! Oh, it was fiddled. Yeah!
INTERVIEWER: Number One, by changing (unintelligible) Virgin shops, they were a lot, Virgin shops were selling a lot of copies. Certain Virgin shops were excluded, and “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols couldn’t be Number One during Jubilee Week. A little heavy.
NANCY: Oh, it was fiddled for sure, it was definitely fiddled.
INTERVIEWER: Why do you think people would, but what, Sid! Why do you think people wanted to make sure the Pistols weren’t Number One during Jubilee Week. Sounds quite heavy to me, you know.
SID: Because it was a statement against our figurehead and all that bullshit the horseshit and her daughter and we just thought…
NANCY: And it just would have been horrendous to three-quarters of the people, of the population to 99% of the popular, would have been: “Oh, my God! “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols, Number One on the Top of the Pops! Like, that stage show, you know, I mean, oh my it just wouldn’t be right to the hearts of the nation, and the Queen, her majesty, you know, I mean fuck.
INTERVIEWER: I mean, Sid, do you, do you reckon that you did really affect the establishment so strongly? Did you really make them feel very uncomfortable?
SID: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: I think so.
NANCY: That’s why they got so scared
SID: Listen…
NANCY: It’s the first thing people do when they don’t understand things, it’s to get frightened.
SID: Violent. When we played in Dallas, right? That’s, yeah.
NANCY: (Nods in agreement)
SID: Mmmmm…
NANCY: When you played in Dallas,,,
SID: Played a- - - - on a - - - - slippery floor, slippery, hum…
NANCY: What?
SID: A like I ended up, I booked him in the face and over (the) head with my guitar, and where…
NANCY: What was that guy doing to you?
SID: Spit it right in my face.
INTERVIEWER: Spat right on your face?
SID: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
NANCY: (Coughs) Go on.
SID: And, uh,- - - - Got me real mad.
NANCY: So you hit him over the head with your guitar.
SID: Yeah, and uh- - - the others said I ruined the show because, because no continuity.
NANCY: Can you believe that? I mean the Pistols, the Pistols used to jump into fights, I mean and that’s John, because Paul and Steve daren’t stand up to him. Im mean, that’s what John was becoming. (Pause)
I mean it’s a goddamn shame, isn’t its it?
SID: Sure is.
NANCY: To me it’s just a Goddamn shame.
INTERVIEWER: Listen, listen: I want to ask you something. The large, the predominant impression about the Pistols is that they’re really have been fucked over by the establishment. At the time you are giving me the impression that you’re really fucked over by Malcolm as well.
NANCY: It’s true.
INTERVIEWER: I mean, has Malcolm in any way given the impression that the Pistols were fucked over by the establishment to cover the way he’s fucked over the Pistols?
NANCY: Of course!
INTERVIEWER: He has—
NANCY: Course!
INTERVIEWER: Sid, Sid—
NANCY: (unintelligible)
SID: I don’t know, I don’t feel as if what —— what has he done to us?
NANCY: Look at all the shit we went through while about two months ago: He’s been trying to keep us apart, and —— and I mean he tried to keep us, —— I mean you know what? Fucking you over with money.
SID: Hmmm… Yeah, right. Well, he’s, he’s okay now, but like before.
NANCY: He was fucked! He did everything in his power to keep us apart. I mean it was incredible, it was just fucking nuts.
INTERVIEWER: But why is he okay now, what’s the change?
NANCY: Because he hasn’t, he doesn’t bother anymore, ‘cause he knows he can’t do anything.
INTERVIEWER: Do you think he was really badly affected by the pop paranoia. ________ went down, I mean, was he really badly affected?
NANCY: What’s “POP PARANOIA” mean?
INTERVIEWER: Well, that’s the, the anarchy getting blown out, from etc. etc., getting kicked off _____
NANCY: Yeah, I think he was for a while, wasn’t he, Sid?
INTERVIEWER: Sid?
SID: Yeah, he was—remember me and John took him down to, you know on Saturday night and all the football _____ go out.
NANCY: Oh God.
SID: Wait until you hear this, you’ll die.
NANCY: You won’t believe this.
SID: He —— Oh, he said Oh! I’ve got to make a phone call!
INTERVIEWER: Got to what?
SID & NANCY: Gotta make a phone call
SID: And hmmm… the boot boys came up the road.
NANCY: Went down the Leicester Square tube station on Saturday night.
SID: Listen to this.
INTERVIEWER: Go on, Sid.
SID: And I said to him, there’s nothing we can do, let’s just get out of here. THere’s a million of them, there’s two of us. ‘Cause you don’t even count as a person when it comes to fighting. So and like he says: “Oh! I’m not frightened of anyone. And hmmm…
NANCY: Malcolm, the anarchist!!! Tell him the rest of it.
SID: What was I saying?
NANCY: The Leicester Square on Saturday night with Malcolm. You were telling him about when they cornered you into an alley or something. Tell him!
SID: When we don’t run
NANCY: Yes!
SID: And they cornered us into this alley and we had to do a battle.
INTERVIEWER: Where was the alley?
NANCY: The tube station, Leicester Square. (Pause) And like, he didn’t realize how heavy things were until he saw it for himself: 40,000 football hooligans, you know, after them and they had to do a run or something. (Pause) I mean, he thought it was perfectly fine to go down Leicester Square tube station on a Saturday night, I mean, you know.
SID: And if anybody cleans my bass again, I’m going to kill them.
INTERVIEWER: Cleans it? What were they cleaning up?
NANCY: He’s still got blood on it from some…
CUT
SID: Hey, do you want to make a pornographic movie? Give us 100 pounds.
NANCY: Oh, stop. We made one for S. P. Number 3 in Huntersville. (Whisper)
INTERVIEWER: Yeah (unintelligible)
SID: Yeah, it’s a real good film.
NANCY: It was great fun, on a, on a dirty floor with the Never Mind the Bollocks poster under us. It was great, it was one of those—
INTERVIEWER: What were you doing? Screwing?
NANCY: Sucking, and being dominant and submissive. Sid licking my feet and things like that.
INTERVIEWER: Is that, is that going to be shown?
NANCY: Oh no! Sid!
SID: What?
NANCY: (Burnt her with the cup) It’s not even on the seam, even! Oh, fuck.
CUT
(Kissing)
SID: And the next question, please?
NANCY: No, he’s all right, isn’t he, talking about Chris.
SID: That coffee perked me up.
NANCY: Did it?
SID: Yap!
NANCY: Of course.
INTERVIEWER: Feeling better?
SID: Just has a little sleep.
NANCY: Put that cigarette out. You should see what they give away to them this morning.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, yeah, listen, hmm. First, right I mean, I mean, we seem to have this situation where, where Malcolm is being accused of a paranoid rip-off merchant. I mean, this is the situation we have so far, right?
SID: Mmmmm…
INTERVIEWER: But at the same time, I mean the Pistols, I mean presumably under Malcolm’s guidance to a certain extent, one playing gigs for the benefit of—
NANCY: Oh!
SID: Oh, sorry—
NANCY: You hit me in the mouth.
SID: Sorry, I didn’t mean it.
NANCY: So go ahead, Chris.
INTERVIEWER: Sid.
SID: Yeah!
INTERVIEWER: Listen, the Pistols are playing gigs, for the benefit of the striking miners. No, they are playing gigs for the benefit of the striking farmers.
SID: No, no.
INTERVIEWER: Is that so, it was the striking farmers, and, and—
NANCY: Yeah!
INTERVIEWER: So that’s a great contradiction, you know.
NANCY: Why is that a contradiction?
INTERVIEWER: I mean, he is ripping, he is ripping you off but is, or, or, and ripping off in whatever way, right, financially on your soul, or whatever, you know.
NANCY: Fucking us over.
INTERVIEWER: And is still prepared to do something like that, which seems to me really good, I mean—
SID: He, he doesn’t really rip us off, actually.
NANCY: He doesn’t really rip us off, it’s just that he fucked us over so bad.
SID: He’s just very paranoid.
INTERVIEWER: And, and—
NANCY: And the things (Oh, I’m sorry) and the things he’s
(Sid grunts having been squashed in the balls) done to me and Sid basically as far as tryin keep us apart and trying to get—you know that they kidnap me and try to put me on, on, on a plane back to America on a one-way ticket.
INTERVIEWER: How is that, how did that happen?
NANCY: Sophie came over on the pretense of borrowing things for the flat and she tried to take me to the airport and I said: “Fuck man, turn the car around, if you don’t want to get hurt, Sophie.” And the whole time I said: “Look, Sophie, leave me alone because I don’t want to fight and if I fight you we may have an equal battle but it’s going to fucking damage you baby so don’t you put your hands on me, the Paddington police station is right across the street, now I will tell them that you were kidnapping me, of course, international law, which it would have been, because you were taking me against my will.
Got to keep firing away or I’ll fall asleep. Hang on, hang on.
INTERVIEWER: So you’re saying like, that Malcolm didn’t rip you off financially.
NANCY: Not really. He just fucked us over. Well, I mean, he, he did in a way, because he gave Sid 60 pounds a week.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, in a way.
NANCY: I mean that’s ridiculous. He had a Number One album, four Top Five singles, and what does he do. He gives him 60 pounds a week. (Approx. 283 pounds, or $500 US adjusted for inflation)
I mean, with all the work that’s in it, he should, should be getting much more than that.
INTERVIEWER: Despite all the, listen, did, did—
Sid!
SID: Yeahhhh
INTERVIEWER: Did Malcolm strike you as very idealistic?
SID: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Why do you think he wants to do it?
CUT
NANCY: Why do you think he is being, what, very idealistic?
SID: I still thinking really.
NANCY: Oh.
CUT
SID: No, it wasn’t boring, was it?
NANCY: No, I don’t think that.
SID: Anyway.
INTERVIEWER: Can you answer that again for the film, you know. What, what was it that he thought the Pistols and Malcolm were trying to do? Was it just like “We’re kicking the establishment up the ass? Sid?
SID: No, it wasn’t, it was just what we wanted to do.
INTERVIEWER: To just be the Pistols.
NANCY: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: Don’t you think Malcolm wanted to kick the establishment down the ass? On his own.
SID: Yeah—
NANCY: Oh, I don’t know (unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: That’s, that’s I thought that it was kicked quite well, you know. Isn’t withi e Pistols situation, I mean, I mean though, I mean, doing it seemed to split up the Pistols, didn’t it?
(No response. Both seem asleep) Sid?
SID: Yeah. We’ll all been becoming, hmmm, more pissed off.
NANCY: Oooh! (Cigarette has burned her)
SID: Where did it fall?
INTERVIEWER: Becoming more pissed off at what?
NANCY: He—damn you! Fuck!
SID: Yeah, I’m sorry, I tried, I tried helping you.
NANCY: It’s the eighth time, you stoop! Burned a cigarette on me, spilled coffee on me, spilled orange juice on me.
SID: I’m just so tired. I’m worn out. Oh, all right, what was the next question? What was the question again?
NANCY: Don’t drop it on me again!
SID: I’m sorry about that. What was the question?
INTERVIEWER: Hmmmm…
NANCY: You make me fucked up, you’re so fucked up. I’m really sorry, Chris.
INTERVIEWER: That’s all right.
NANCY: I’m just trying to keep him awake.
CUT
INTERVIEWER: I mean obviously you felt commitment to what “the Pistols” as such stood for, yeah?
SID: Yeah, but that was at the beginning. (Police siren) You know, when we were really good and they continued _____ a really good _____ as well. But, hmmm, they just completely fucked up.
NANCY: Is there another person here?
SID: Yeah
NANCY: It’s not this room.
SID: We all fucked up, really, because like we weren’t playing his, right, so there was no sense into writing any new songs. (Unintelligible)
INTERVIEWER: Sorry?
SID: It all seemed futile.
INTERVIEWER: I mean, whose, whose decision was it (Police go by) that the Pistols weren’t playing any gigs? _____ Sid? Whose decision?
SID: (Cough) Well, like I said, when Malcolm was going to the airport to go to Brazil I told him when we were there I said: “Turn around and take me back to where we came from. (Falls asleep)
INTERVIEWER: No, no Sid, I mean, listen _____ I mean, I mean when the Pistols weren’t playing at all, like for most of last year, were they—
SID: Sorry, I don’t know what you mean.
INTERVIEWER: No, I mean, why was it that the Pistols weren’t playing for most of last year?
SID: Hmmm, it was because—
INTERVIEWER: Apart from the Swedish tour… Sid (has fallen asleep) Why weren’t they playing?
SID: Because, hmmm, our agency (cow bell)…
INTERVIEWER: God!
(Sid and Nancy are both asleep)
___________________________
EXTRA STUFF
Nancy Spungen on feminism:
The Roberta Bayley phone call:
Thanks! I'm always a bit nervous when giving my assessment of punk rock history. Even though I had a front seat for the CBGB scene and all, I don't always get things 100% correctamundo.
But I think I made a few good points, and that's all I try to do.
Yep, a Charlie Manson Moment!