Due to intravenous drug use, Vicious was hospitalised with hepatitis during the recording of the band's only studio album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Accordingly, his bass is only partially featured on one song from the album. Vicious would later appear as a lead vocalist, performing three cover songs, on the soundtrack to The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, a largely fictionalised documentary about the Sex Pistols, produced by the group's former manager Malcolm McLaren and directed by Julien Temple.