Sid Vicious
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40 free Sid Vicious trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Sid Vicious was in the Sex Pistols for barely a year and could hardly play his instrument, yet his sneer, spiked hair and leather jacket became the picture many people see when they hear the word punk. He was dead at 21, and the arguments about what really happened in New York have never stopped. This quiz follows the whole short life: an unsettled childhood, the college friendships that produced his stage name, the gigs and brawls of 1976, the band's only studio album, the American tour that ended it all, and the solo performances that followed. It also covers Nancy Spungen, the court case, and the films, plays and television that have retold the story since. It is written for punk fans, music-quiz regulars and anyone who has seen the biopic and wants the facts behind it. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave knowing more than the legend.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01John Lydon's pet Sid, whose bite gave Sid Vicious his stage name, was what kind of animal?
A hamster
A hamster called Sid, itself named after Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett, sank its teeth into him, and the nickname stuck for life.
Q 02Which actor played Sid Vicious in the 1986 film Sid and Nancy, a role he twice turned down?
Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman later dismissed his own performance, yet Premiere magazine ranked it among the 100 greatest of all time.
Q 03Which singer called Sid Vicious 'Simon Ferocious' before throwing him out of a studio in 1977?
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was recording with Queen at Wessex Sound Studios when Sid wandered in to mock him about ballet, and was marched out by the lapels.
Q 04Sid Vicious recorded a snarling punk cover of which Frank Sinatra song in April 1978?
My Way
My Way, Sinatra's signature song, became Sid's too: he changed many of the words, and lyricist Paul Anka later said he felt Sid was sincere about it.
Q 05Which future Hollywood star made his stage debut in Vicious, a 1986 play about Sid Vicious?
George Clooney
George Clooney played a drug-dealing hustler in the Los Angeles production, eight years before the hospital drama ER made him famous.
Q 06Sid Vicious's trademark chain necklace, later lent by his mother to a film, was fastened with what?
A padlock
A padlock on a heavy metal chain was his signature look, and his mother lent the real one for the lead actor to wear in the 1986 biopic.
Q 07Nancy Spungen was found dead in October 1978 in the room she and Sid Vicious shared at which hotel?
The Chelsea
The Chelsea later split the couple's room into two units so that it could not be turned into a shrine.
Q 08Sid Vicious claimed he invented which punk dance at London gigs in 1976, partly to mock outsiders?
Pogoing
Pogoing, in Shane MacGowan's telling, came about because a leather poncho Sid wore to gigs left him unable to dance any other way.
Q 09Sid Vicious joined the Sex Pistols in early 1977 in place of which original bassist and songwriter?
Glen Matlock
Glen Matlock co-wrote most of the band's songs; their manager claimed he was sacked for liking the Beatles, while Matlock says he quit.
Q 10Sid Vicious's cover of a Sinatra standard plays over the end credits of which Martin Scorsese film?
Goodfellas
Goodfellas, released in 1990, rolls its end credits to Sid's sneering vocal, eleven years after his death.
Q 11Which singer paid Sid Vicious £2 to marry her for a UK work permit, only to find the office closed?
Chrissie Hynde
Chrissie Hynde, later of the Pretenders, needed a husband to stay in Britain; John Lydon had already turned her down.
Q 12Sid Vicious died in New York in February 1979, a day after leaving jail on bail, from what cause?
A heroin overdose
A heroin overdose killed him at 21, at his new girlfriend's apartment on the night of his release, before his case could reach trial.
Q 13Which album, the only studio LP by the Sex Pistols, hit number one with Sid Vicious in the band?
Never Mind the Bollocks
Q 21With Sid Vicious barely able to play, who recorded most of the bass on the Sex Pistols' album?
Steve Jones
Steve Jones, the band's guitarist, simply doubled up, and in 1996 he bought Sid's white Fender bass from Sid's mother for £2,000.
Q 22The teenage Sid Vicious hung around SEX, a King's Road boutique co-run by which fashion designer?
Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood later visited Sid in a remand centre, and her shop's clothes went on to define the look of the punk movement.
Q 23Sid Vicious played his last Sex Pistols show at the Winterland Ballroom in which American city?
San Francisco
San Francisco closed a chaotic US tour routed mostly through the South and cut short after seven shows, and the band broke up straight afterwards.
Never Mind the Bollocks topped the UK chart despite sales bans at major retailers, yet Sid is barely on it, having missed most of the sessions.
Q 14Sid Vicious's father, a part-time jazz musician, was also a guardsman at which royal residence?
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace was the day job; by night he played trombone on the London jazz circuit, and he dropped out of Sid's life early on.
Q 15Sid Vicious reportedly learned bass by playing along for three nights to which band's debut album?
Ramones
Ramones' 1976 debut gave him a simple up-tempo pattern that he went on to use for most of his own playing.
Q 16A 2009 play has the ghost of Sid Vicious visiting which rock star on the last day of his life?
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain is visited in his greenhouse by Sid's ghost in Roy Smiles's West End play, which earned four stars from The Daily Telegraph.
Q 17Which animated series retold the story of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen for Valentine's Day 2008?
The Simpsons
The Simpsons cast Nelson as Sid and Lisa as Nancy, swapping the couple's drug habit for an addiction to chocolate.
Q 18Which punk-era manager said Johnny Rotten was the voice of punk and Sid Vicious the attitude?
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols' manager, prized chaos as a creative tool and admitted planning to have Nancy Spungen abducted and put on a plane back to America.
Q 19Which instrument did Sid Vicious play at the first-ever Siouxsie and the Banshees gig in 1976?
Drums
Drums were his job for one night only at London's 100 Club: the borrowed line-up improvised for 20 minutes around the Lord's Prayer.
Q 20After a nightclub fight in December 1978, Sid Vicious spent two months in which New York jail?
Rikers Island
Rikers Island held him after he broke his bail terms by attacking Todd Smith, brother of singer Patti Smith, at the Hurrah club.
Q 24Sid Vicious covered Something Else and C'mon Everybody, both first recorded by which 1950s rocker?
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran died at 21 after a 1960 taxi crash in England, the same age Sid was when he died nineteen years later.
Q 25Which stage name did Sid Vicious give his friend John Wardle, later the bassist of Public Image Ltd?
Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble was how a drunken Sid mumbled Wardle's real name, and Wardle kept it because people would never forget it.
Q 26Which British director made Pistol, the 2022 miniseries in which Sid Vicious is a main character?
Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle directed all six episodes, and John Lydon went to court in a failed attempt to keep the band's music out of them.
Q 27The surviving Sex Pistols boycotted the 2006 ceremony inducting the band, Sid Vicious included, into which institution?
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted five members, Sid posthumously, but the living ones stayed away and John Lydon insulted the museum.
Q 28In June 1977 the Sex Pistols, with Sid Vicious on bass, played a gig on a boat on which river?
The Thames
The Thames trip was staged to mock the Queen's Silver Jubilee river procession, and ended when police launches forced the boat to dock.
Q 29After Nancy Spungen's death in October 1978, New York police charged Sid Vicious with which crime?
Second-degree murder
Second-degree murder was the charge, but the case never reached a courtroom: Sid died less than four months later while out on bail.
Q 30Sid Vicious was considered as singer for which London punk band but missed the audition?
The Damned
The Damned gave the job to Dave Vanian, the other name on the shortlist for the role.