Padlocks: Living with Sid & Nancy

by Den Browne, Nina Antonia (foreword)

‘Completely convincing… every page is interesting’ GREIL MARCUS (‘Mystery Train’)

‘Den Browne Roolz’ ZOE HOWE (‘Typical Girls?')

‘Violence, famous cameos and sex’ PAT GILBERT (Mojo)

‘Presents Nancy in a more humane, intellectual way than the usual fare’ NINA ANTONIA (‘In Cold Blood’)

‘Recommended. Sid and Nancy emerge more as people than caricatures’
SUSAN COMPO (‘ David Bowie and The Man Who Fell To Earth’)

‘I loved it’ SARAH CHAMPION (‘Disco Biscuits’)

‘This valuable and compelling book packs a punch ... I can’t recommend it highly enough’ SEX-PISTOLS.NET

‘A remarkable memoir, compelling and authentic. Can’t wait to read more from Den Browne’ SPILL

‘Highly evocative, refreshing and engrossing, the book flows seamlessly’ RORY SULLIVAN-BURKE (‘The Light Pours Out Of Me’)

‘Music book of 2023. A triumph’ LOUDER THAN WAR

Summer 1977. A chance ring at the door. Punk’s most notorious couple need to score and they’ve come to the right place.

Two couples, two beds, one cat, one room, and a TV; the junkie life is laid bare as Sid & Nancy move in; bonding over books, music and the eternal quest for the next hit.

From Never Mind The Bollocks to ‘Holidays In the Sun’, this is the story of the Pistols observed up close by Den Browne, the man who Tony Wilson claimed ‘turned him onto punk’.

As the Pistols descend into chaos so does from witty, committed, idealistic musician into drunken, knife-wielding, tabloid hate figure.

Padlocks is an unflinching account of living with Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen in the eye of the media storm.

Genres: Nonfiction

194 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 20, 2023

Reviews

[Mr Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grim but fascinating read. By the end I felt quite drained. However, it was good to read a book about Sid and Nancy where they are treated like humans, not as junkie scumbags like so many other books and essays portray them.
Dennis is an excellent writer, who captures, almost too graphically at times, the Groundhog Day lifestyle of the heroin addict. Throughout, various colourful characters pop in and out, but the true “stars” are the Pistols bassist, his girlfriend, and the two fellow flat shares (What did happen to Annie in the end ? I hope she sorted her life out)
Obviously, we know how this story ends, and Dennis deals with this respectfully and intelligently. If you’re interested in the darker side to the late 70s British punk scene, then I can’t recommend this enough.
Plus points for the fact that Dennis made it to the other end and survived.

[Tom Boniface-Webb · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Enjoyed this. Excellent primary source of a time in the lives of a very infamous couple. God only knows how it remembers it all in such detail. But I like the idea that this simply depicted the home life, whilst the real story happens off screen. But like Prick up your Ears, but less murder… although there is still some murder…

[natalia f · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have been on and off obsessed with sid and nancy since i was 12 years old. i stupidly feel a delusionally deep connection to nancy, especially. i almost cried several times during this book because it's so rare, almost impossible, to find someone having nice things to say about nancy. the entire world was punching down on her, literally and figuratively, and they. never. stopped. she's been dead for almost 50 years, and still, 90% of the time, people only have bad things to say about her. she was just a girl. she was a kid, and for almost 70 years, she's been nothing but a punching bag. it was so nice to see her being treated and talked about as a fucking person, which should be the bare minimum, but here we are.

den manages to paint a real picture of their painful routine and the tragedies that came with it. despite knowing how things ended badly for so many of the people mentioned here (and despite wishing we knew if annie ever got better), i am glad to know den made it to the other side.

[ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Meanwhile Nancy had become the poster girl and soul mate of unhappy and disaffected teenagers and young women all over the planet…”

it was extremely refreshing to hear about nancy in a positive context instead of wasting time demonizing a young girl. this book was also very interesting as it was all new stories and information i was hearing about sid and nancy, after years of hearing the same regurgitated stories that everyone else will talk about

[Gabby Lobby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love anything that has to do with Sid & Nancy. Which is why I read this book. Unfortunately, Sid & Nancy weren’t really the center of the story. It was more about the author’s drug addiction and his life. Sid & Nancy were just kind of there. They only lived with him for a short time. The book didn’t have anything new or interesting to tell. It was just about a group of junkies living together.

[Chris Phillips]

Must read for any old punk

Den makes you feel like you are in the flat with him. A great read for anyone with any interest in the pistol.
He describes the slow decline deeper into drug dependency in an honest way at the end of the book.
A really interesting read

[strawberrysoymilk · Rating 4 out of 5]

brutal!!!

[Nate Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

OKAY so I just finished this
It was really good. It wasn't boring (because sometimes stuff like this is) it was really interesting and I loved the writers voice in it. Just awesome tbh

[Karen Tangle · Rating 2 out of 5]

20% about Sid and Nancy and 80% about the author and his drug habit.