One of the great films of the 80s about a sad tale from a decade earlier has a new lease of life. Alex Cox’s Sid & Nancy has just seen a great 30th anniversary restoration with the help of the film’s cinematographer.
Sit back and take your mind back to the heyday of punk in its now glorious best.
It’s 1977 and The Sex Pistols have taken the music world by storm with lead singer Johnny Rotten and bass guitarist Sid Vicious enjoying all the spoils that fame and money have to offer. Vicious embarks on a relationship with an American groupie – Nancy – who has come to London to pursue him but the couple’s increasing drug use frays relationships with Johnny and the rest of the band.
With Nancy in tow, The Sex Pistols embark on a chaotic tour US tour which ends in disaster with the band breaking up. Vicious attempts to start a solo career, with Nancy as his manager, but by now both are dangerously addicted to heroin. The two continue in a downward, destructive spiral until, in October 1978 at the Chelsea Hotel in New York,Nancy is found stabbed with Sid lying prostrate at her side. Arrested and accused of murder, he dies of an overdose before his trial.
