Sid Vicious

It was also on a 2 February (1979) that Sex Pistols' bass player Sid Vicious has died of a heroin overdose in New York. His mother found him death in bed with his sleeping girlfriend in an apartment in Greenwich Village.

Vicious was facing trial over the death of his ex-girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, and there had been a party to celebrate his release on bail. According to some of the guests, Sid Vicious took some heroin, collapsed, went into seizure and displayed the symptoms of overdose. He revived 40 minutes later and went to bed with his girlfriend.

Richard Branson, Virgin records boss, who bailed out Sid Vicious twice, said: "In retrospect he was obviously far safer in jail where the temptations that ultimately killed him were not present".