A new documentary re-opens the cult case surrounding the death of Sex Pistol Sid Vicious' girlfriend Nancy Spurgeon, but does it reveal anything new? Richard Firth finds out.
The pre-screening blurb for Who Killed Nancy claims that the film ‘reveals what really happened’ the night former prostitute Nancy Spungen died in a hotel room in New York.
Anyone watching will be aware of the perceived wisdom on this one – her boyfriend Sid Vicious did it, he was charged with murder and died of a heroin overdose before his trial.
But the scene of the crime, the notorious Chelsea Hotel, was a magnet for pushers, dealer, pimps and junkies and, as with every ‘celebrity’ death, multiple conspiracy theories have arisen, most insisting that any number of ne’r do wells could have snuck in and stabbed her.
Just because there’s nothing really new in the theory behind Alan G Parker’s film, it remains a worthwhile documentary on a crime committed more than 30 years ago which bestowed the status of eternal worldwide icon on a couple of late-1970s heroin addicts.
We kick off by looking at the immediate aftermath of Nancy’s death. Sid was quickly arrested and charged with her murder.
He claimed he couldn’t remember anything about the stabbing and was bailed. He attempted suicide and was then charged with assault following a fight in a nightclub. He was arrested and spent 55 days in prison before being released on February 1, 1979. He died the next day, of a heroin overdose.
We then go into Sid and Nancy’s well-worn back story – how she turned up in London desperate to bed a Sex Pistol (her first choice, Johnny Rotten, wanted nothing to do with her) and ended up with Sid.
Interviewees are pretty much unanimous in their hatred of Nancy, who was, by common consensus, a whining, parasitic, heroin-addled nymphomaniac with a hair-trigger temperament and a shrieking mid-Atlantic accent.
She ‘managed’ Sid after the Sex Pistols split up and the pair moved to New York where the fateful events of October 12, 1978 brought a brutal end to their relationship.
Throughout Who Killed Nancy, Sid’s friends claim he would not have been capable of killing Nancy. Those who spent time with the couple on the night Nancy died say he was catatonic and there are suggestions the police thought they had the man from the get-go and so didn’t bother investigating the crime with any degree of thoroughness.
But only the last ten minutes of the film directly address its title, as punk face Steve Dior, amongst others, puts forward another suspect – a shady addict known only to him as ‘Michael’ who was around the Chelsea Hotel at the time.
But Dior’s is the flimsiest of allegations, its credibility hardly enhanced by a skilful but pointless pencil sketch he produces of the aforementioned ‘Michael’.
It all makes for compulsive but ultimately hollow viewing, enhanced by eye-witness interviews and anecdotes but weakened by a lack of any real argument against the accepted version of events.
Full credit to Parker, he got to everyone who matters. Sex Pistols road manager John Tiberi is a welcome contributor but one interviewee stands out above all others. Keith Levene was in the first incarnation of The Clash and in the classic line-up of Public Image Ltd (PiL) before leaving in 1983.
Levene has had well-publicised drug problems and disappeared altogether for years. This is the first time I have seen him or heard him speak since his departure from PiL (even Pat Gilbert couldn’t persuade him to contribute to his monumental Clash biog Passion is a Fashion) and it is nice to be able to confirm he is alive and well.
The film suffers from the ineffectual use of overlaid montages with blurred actors playing the roles of Sid and Nancy and there is not a single note of Sex Pistols music on the soundtrack (I assume because of licensing costs – this isn’t a big budget movie).
There are some entertaining anecdotes from the likes of Pistols’ roadie Roadent, Don Letts and Peter Kodick, the man who bought the heroin that killed Sid, which all contribute to an engaging narrative.
New York punk face of the period, Howie Pyro, takes an interesting trip into the very bedroom where Sid died – but a visit to the hotel room where Nancy met her end would have been nice.
But when it comes to uncovering what happened in room 100 of the Chelsea Hotel on the night in question, we learn nothing from this film. Don’t believe the hype.
Who Killed Nancy? is released in cinemas on Feb 6.
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