Vermilion

In the US Vermilion had been in the legendary Mary Monday Band of I Gave My Punk Jacket To Rickie fame as a co-singer for a while and famous for their stage act.

Talking about Mary Monday (Pictured above – photo courtesy of Search & Destroy).

She’s stupid c**t, but she’s the only chick I hang out with. We like to yell at each other across the room and barge stages and have bottle smashing contest. Search & Destroy 1

While her writings and interviews were never going to set the world alight, they were earnest and enthusiastic believing in a revolution of women, punk and bikers united and captured the speed and progression of the times.

It’s no surprise that she attempted to make it musically and in retrospect, she is a forgotten pioneer for women in music and new attitudes being driven by Punk rock. In the first issue of Search & Destroy in 1977 she sets out in an interview what was to be her philosophy that struck a chord with the time.

We barf on old models of female behaviours and interaction. We’re women with some fucking guts, not fashion magazine poseurs. Like dykes who prefer cock (laugh)

And some suitable zeitgeist quotes

My favourite bands are my own, the Damned, a few others and everyone else stinks. All records made before a year ago ought to be burned! Of course I’m not talking about Iggy.

..I’m against anything that results in passivity…four billions visible slaves in this world, and a few thousand invisible masters. Search & Destroy 1

Her first band was formed in mid 1977. She was up against it and as a singer, she was reliant on the pool of musicians who would join other bands if they offered better prospects. On bass was Fritz (aka Leslie Field), pictured above with Vermilion at the Hope & Anchor (Picture courtesy Search & Destroy).

Johnny Bivouac (Guitarist) He was another character from the Wood Green/North London bunch of misfits which also included me, Mark Ryan, Dave Barbe and a few others that went against the grain even before punk exploded.

Fritz (Les Field) was a bass player and had been in a heavy metal trio called Vehicle who supported Desolation Angels a few times at The Nightingale pub in Wood Green. He then got involved with Vermilion which you know about. He had a great look. Long blond hair – his hero was Mick Ronson – with drainpipe jeans, boxing boots and leather jacket. He was basically a blond Ramone.

It was Fritz who introduced friend Johnny Bivouac to Vermilion:

The revolving door started with Johnny who joined Adam & The Ants when Mark ‘The Kid’ Ryan was sacked by Jordan in October 1977.

Johnny Bivouac (Guitarist) I was then asked to join The Ants after Mark Ryan left which was a bit of a no brainer. When Vermilion heard she called me a cunt which was pretty mild coming from her. But there was no malice at all really and we remained on friendly terms. Punk77 Interview May 2020

Tony Brown (Guitarist) Mark Ryan (Gaumont) acted as recruiting agent for Vermilion and got a few of us (me, Fritz,  Mark) together one weekend in central London, we got incredibly pissed and ended up in Vermilions band. Fritz had rehearsal space at the print shop he worked at in Holborn, where he used to rehearse with the boys in Vehicle, so we used that for preliminary practice.

Their first gig was at the Stiff/Chiswick Challenge in November that year and featured rather strangely in the Liverpool Echo on 16th January right underneath an angry feature on the Moors Murderers band who had just had a feature in the Sunday Mirror. The aim was to find the next lady non star and featured 38 Inch Bust, Vermilion and Painted Lady (who would change their name to Girlschool) on the bill.

The feature has the headline; “The Most Unusual Punk Event Of The Year” and Vermilion is pictured. Reporter Yvonne Roberts writes the below of her performance: (click for larger image)

Johnny is replaced on guitar by Kenny Alton, ex of band Puncture who had released the classic Mucky Pup single on Small Wonder records, who was friends and flatmates with drummer Pete Davies.

Pete Davies (Drummer) My Flatmate Kenny Alton was playing at The Stiff Chiswick Challenge at The Pegasus. He didn’t tell us much about what he was doing so I went with my gf Kelly, Girlschool’s guitarist.

Vermilion, Fritz on Bass and Kenny on guitar were reasonably tight playing Vermilion’s Ramones / Damned inspired flat out punk. The drummer though was struggling, so I offered to help out, and we started rehearsals straight away. Punk77 Interview 2020

Vermilion came to live at our flat in Southfields.

Tony Brown exits very soon!

Tony Brown (Guitarist) The Stiff Test / Chiswick Challenge was my first ever gig (I was on guitar, with Kenny Alton also on guitar, Fritz on bass and I think it was Pete Davies on drums). Steve Strange lent me his leather biker jacket, which was a little too large for me as I remember. He was one of several friendly faces around. Regarding the jacket, Vermilion wanted a sort of ‘hard rockin’ image for the band and I had a tatty Levi jacket, which didnt cut the mustard in Vermilion’s eyes. Steve was at the gig, and offered me his jacket, so that sorted that. Steve was a fairly stocky fellow and I was stick thin back then, so the jacket fitted like a tent, but it got the job done. Vermillion sacked me soon after for some act of dissent on my part….

Recalling the amazonian approach to performing on the UK Subs website:

… yes it’s true. Vermilion wore nothing beneath her leather jacket when she performed. But her breasts were not exposed, unless she raised her arms during performance, which she did quite often, and nearly always facing me!

The band were reviewed supporting Penetration at the 100 Club (20.3.78) in Sounds by Jane Suck. Jane had thrown beer over Vermilion’s bare stomach and got slapped in the face but her review is pretty spot on:

… they’re a good rocking-tonight band with more than hint of biker overtones. I believe we have a ’78 resurrection of the Deviants – only Mick Farren never ‘ad erect nipples. Jane Suck Sounds 1.4.78

Songs at the time included I Wanna Have Some Fun Tonight, Nymphomania, Sex Symbol, Present From America, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Angry Young Women, Gladiator Rock, I Like Motorcycles and Wild Boys.

Other memories of the band from Pete include:

Pete Davies (Drummer) We were about to sign with X Ray Spex’s manager, who’s name escapes me [Falcon Stuart]. We toured with the Adverts and a gig at Manchester Uni turned into a riot. We played at the Castle in Tooting, supporting the UK Subs and during our set the police arrived said we were too loud and closed the gig. I was acoustic; we had two small amps and Charlie’s 100 watt PA. Pete Davies 2020

The band joined the lively London gig circuit that accommodated the second wave of punk and were a frequent support act. They lost their drummer, Pete Davies to one of those bands – the UK Subs – whom they frequently supported after not getting the PIL drum spot. He recounts a gig with both at the Rochester Castle.

She released one single written as Dick Envy but instead billed as Vermilion and featured none of her band on the cover around May 1978 so there was some compromise there. The record was on Mile’s Copeland’s Illegal label and rumour had it she had secured her deal by jumping on Miles’ table and demanding it, which I can imagine is the sort of behaviour he’d warm to.  She had also landed a job in PR in his Faulty empire.

Miles Copeland You’d have some artists come in and you’d like their vibe. They were enthusiastic and enthusiasm was something you’d gravitate towards because a lot of the record business people you came across were jaded people who didn’t even listen to records or get excited.

Vermilion was one of those with an energy. She was an artist but also open to taking on opportunities to help her achieve her goals. I asked her “Do you want to be a publicist and help get publicity?” and she said “Yes.”

She had what the Jews call chutzpah – a ‘can do’ attitude even if you don’t know what you’re really doing. I would gravitate to people like that because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Punk77, Interview 2022

In fact there are no promotional shots of Vermilion/Dick Envy with the band; they are of just her. The EP however received virtually no publicity.

Pete left to join the UK Subs soon after and Kenny also left the band to join as bassist in Fingerprintz. Others who passed through the band included Robert Crash, the guitarist/bassist in The Maniacs, and Mark Ryan who Johnny Bivouac replaced in the Ants.

The band then comprised of stalwarts Fritz Clutch, Dick Spanner and Peter Ridged though they also all departed fairly quickly. A final gig at the Red Cow was done to fulfil a booking with a hastily assembled band featuring Bill Osborn from Fritz’s first band Vehicle and an unknown girl drummer. The gig and some insights into Vermilion are recounted in detail here by Bill Osborne.

Bill Osborn So when Vermilion came on for the set proper, things sounded quite good, and Vermilion did her thing with the leather jacket flashing her titties. The Angels liked it. 

The gig was really only a way to fulfil an obligation – Dick Envy was now dead. We would all go our separate ways, and Fritz would die the following year.

The longest serving member Fritz departed too to rejoin friend Johnny Bivouac before going through a succession of bands.

Johnny Bivouac We briefly played together in a band called Cheapstars after I’d left Adam and the Ants. After Vermilion and Cheapstars he had another band – The Voyeurs – with a female lead singer, female guitarist, French drummer and Fritz on bass. They were pretty good and did a few gigs.

Fritz finally ended up in an outfit called the Innocent Bystanders which was a more biker punk looking style of music and they released one single with him called Where is Johnny/Debutantes in late 1979 before sadly dying of a drugs overdose in November 1979. 

Johnny Bivouac Fritz had always liked a drink and a good time but he had around that time been getting into drugs a lot more, to the point where a few of us were a bit concerned. Mind you, in those days everyone was at it and we all believed we were invincible so it wasn’t like we tried to intervene or anything… He was in his early 20’s. I don’t remember the funeral, it’s all a bit of a blur. Just a very, very sad and unnecessary loss.

But by November 1978 her band had ground to a halt. She revealed as much in a Ripped & Torn feature in issue 15 November 1978 in an open letter article to editor Tony D while reasserting her strange mix of punk, biker and female power thoughts – “I had a band called Dick Envy. They abandoned me.“

Vermilion also appears singing backing vocals on a song Shoe Fever a song written and recorded some time in 1978 by Mark Ryan (Gaumont) and featuring past members Pete Davies, Johnny Bivouac.

You’d have to wonder why she never hooked up with another very similar female countrywoman which was Chrissie Hynde. Chrissie also had a love of rebel biker philosophy, Hell Angels, punk and rock’n’roll. Hynde wanted a “motorcycle club with guitars’ which is pretty much what Vermilion wanted.

Hell they even dressed similarly in denim and leather! She’s mentioned in Hynde’s autobiography Reckless: My life as a Pretender as  “…one of the chicks who hung out with the heavy bikers in London” and she herself was also doing the same.

It probably came down to Vermilion wanted to be the clear leader in front and Hynde wanting to be part of a band with no front person. Strange though that they never tried something as their paths continually crisscrossed!

So with Dick Envy defunct, a chance to get a ready made and established backline sounded like an opportunity to get some continuity and progress. Menace were an early punk band who had released a few classic singles and had split up following the release of their last single Last Years Youth. Guitarist Steve Tannett, had also started working at Illegal where Vermilion worked and the idea came to start a band Vermilion and The Aces and a further single followed.

Steve Tannett (Menace) Morgan Webster [Menace vocalist] had gone so we had split effectively. I may have just started working for Miles and he had an idea to draft bus in to do the Vermilion record and it was a ‘why not?’ kind of thing; we’ve got nothing else to do.

Noel Martin (Menace) So when Menace ended Miles then put together Vermilion with us as her backing band and we chose the name The Aces because it was half of Menace so made sense. We needed a new name because we weren’t Menace anymore. It could have just as easily have been Vermillion and The Men! (laughs). We probably shouldn’t have used the name The Aces as that was already a soul band.

We heard her records, and we thought ‘Yeah they’re alright.’ We wrote for her as well; it wasn’t just all herself. So she had one called The Letter and I like Motorcycles but I can’t remember the ones we wrote for her. Oh God the single we did with her was pretty bad! But we were doing a job. We considered ourselves to be session musicians and this was a means to an end. I thought if we if we don’t do something, we’re likely to drift apart so it kept us together. We did of course enjoyed it and when we played it was fun to play in front of people but it was a different audience and it wasn’t Menace people but people knew who we were.

Charlie Casey (Menace) She had a really good voice. Wasn’t that keen on the motorcycle Nazi slut bit (check out the back of The Letter single sleeve and the dedication to N.M.C.S.L.E) but she was all right and a real character. The songs we recorded were ok but didn’t suit her voice but I thought there was something there. A good blues and angry punk voice and that was it. It was something for us to do.

There’s some debate over what happened in the event that killed off the association in two minutes when Vermilion and The Aces were bottom of the bill at the Lyceum on 15th July 1979 supporting Pure Hell and the UK Subs. It all kicked off at the end of the set and its whether what happened next was sanctioned or a spontaneous surprise. Andy Riff, Menace and V&A roadie thinks its the first.

Andy Riff Socrates (Roadie) The crowd were shouting out for GLC and Screwed Up and Tannett was going ‘no we’re not doing it; we’re not that band’. Vermilion didn’t go badly but they wanted Menace. At the end Vermilion says tell Steve to do GLC and I said he won’t do it and she said tell him I said so. I sang GLC. Bosh! We blew the UK Subs off that night. Charlie Harper came up to me and said how are we going to follow that. I says you don’t!

But the band think the latter.

Noel Martin (Menace) We were getting to the end of the gig and the last  song and our act would be she would throw the mic down like a rock star and walk off while we were still playing then come back on and pick up the microphone.  She used to come on the same way with us playing first or she would come running onto the stage and I would catch her with both hands by the waist and lift her up and then hold her up with one hand.

There was a lot of Menace people there that night because of the UK Subs and it was a punk gig so there was constantly through the set shouts for ‘GLC GLC!’ from the back which was pissing her off  We were on first but there was a good few people in there; not rammed but there were hundreds at the bar and there three or four rows, getting their places down the front ready for the headline bands. So when she went off and we continued to play we came to the end and we stop and then Steve just goes Bam! Bam! Bam! the opening chords to GLC after having said we wouldn’t be doing it throughout the set and the place absolutely erupted! Everybody from the bar just fucking piled down to the front.

Vermilion was waiting to come out for some kind of encore, saw what was happening and basically went ‘that’s it!’ She was going to get another band but that never happened.

Charlie Casey (Menace) I don’t think the gig had gone down very well for us. I think it was a combination of her maybe going off thinking that’s it and we might have launched into GLC. There was an encore. Steve would have just gone ‘dahn! dahn! dahn!’ and that was it we would have been off. Steve obviously had to work with her; I think we just went our separate ways after. It just finished and we knew that was it because we’d crossed the mark. But what we did was better than what we were doing and people went mad for it. I think it just sort of happened, we didn’t talk or plan it and there was a great reaction.

Steve Tannett (Menace) She used to do her thing and then drop the mic and walk off. And so this night we were at the Lyceum and the UK Subs were headlining and Vermilion walked off and I hit the chords to GLC and the place fucking exploded. , I mean it was a big place and I saw the fucking Clash, Joy Division and so many bands there. It’s still there but a theatre now, but back then when I hit those chords the place was fucking going nuts, pogoing and stuff. And yeah it was like, ‘we’ve still got it; we can still turn it on’ and it that’s when I realized that GLC really was a classic, because people love that song.

Band wise that was it for Vermilion though it must have been an interesting next day at the Illegal office for Vermilion and Steve Tannett when they bumped into each other! Rumours were she was going to get another band together but never did.

A strange advert in Ripped & Torn in 1979 nestling among the pages looking for entrants to an ‘Outlaw Miss London’ though you would struggle to work that out unless you read it very carefully and even then be not sure! Considering R&T’s audience it’s no surprise there were zero entrants.

And then strangely she took over fanzine Ripped & Torn from editor Tony D for 18th and last issue in Christmas 1979 which was also published by Miles Copeland’s Insult Design company (who also did her single)

This magazine came to me outside a pub in Portobello Road. Tony D packed his suitcase and severed connections after 17 issues of punk bits and pics collected in the pages of London’s popular Ripped & Torn. My only other experience in writing that I care to mention was for yet another journal to the New Wave, San Francisco’s Search & Destroy which informed the street for 11 issues. This Christmas memorial issue is a new concept for previous Ripped & Torn readers. I have experimented away from all the exceptional in live performance and encourage each contribution to decide on the inf-or-photo herein. Vermilion Issue 18 Ripped & Torn

Indeed it was experimental but more on the side of mental… 41 years late re-reading this I still have absolutely no idea what the fuck anyone is talking about in this issue and it must have been a shock to your regular R&T reader!  It was also professionally printed and the last Ripped & Torn.

Or was it? Was there an issue 19 planned for 1980 that never happened? In Issue 4 of the fanzine, The Story So Far from December 1980 is a rambling letter (see above right – click for larger image) sent from Vermilion to Marts thanking him for an article for issue 19 of Ripped and Torn on 60’s punk! Perhaps more poignantly, a clearly downbeat Vermilion very eloquently sums up life in a band, record deals and sales, independent labels, the whole industry and the changing face of music. As someone in at the start of Miles Copeland’s empire and who had watched the rise of said empire and the success of The Police, she was best placed to comment.

She certainly stayed on in music in one form or another for some time in Miles Copeland’s empire. Indeed she is credited with layouts and art direction on some fine singles including ones by the Cramps, Lords of The New Church and Chelsea through the early eighties.

The last recorded mention is a bizarre one as recounted in the book Hoolies: True Stories of Britain’s Biggest Street Battles by ex-Sounds music writer Garry Bushell which sees her temporarily take over OI band The Business as Manager!

A member of the band recalls this incident.

She and Mickey [Fitz] had a dalliance let’s put it that way and she wanted to be our manager at some point. So to put her off, we thought we would interview her in a sex cinema just off of Wardour Street, and in those days there were hardcore movies playing. It did anything but put her off though and backfired on us. She became our manager for a couple of months and helped out. This was at the end of the first run of the band, and we were falling apart by then because the album had come out way too late.  She had a soft spot for Mickey.

But then she suddenly disappears and the answer may be one of personal safety as her friend and housemate for a time Annette Weatherman (fantastic Punk Photographer) revealed in a Facebook Post. Vermilion had kept in with the Hells Angels and was still seeing Goat, whose bike she was photographed astride for her single. This was the same Goat that famously charged onto the stage at a Johnny Moped gig and threatened Moped that if he didn’t remove the Hells Angels tattoo on his arm he would cut it off! Only the intervention of Lemmy and Moped getting a parakeet cover over (apparently the only thing the tattooist could fit over the original design) stopped the situation getting worse and the Hells Angels were satisfied.  Leaving the Hells Angels is a much harder thing to do as it has its own set of rules and ethics so disappearing may have been the best thing as the Angels have chapters all over the world.

Annette Weatherman (Photographer) She disappeared at that time because she ran off with a motorcycle gang. I talked with her a couple times after that and didn’t like what I was hearing about this outlaw motorcycle group. I urged her to leave them but she was hellbent determined to stick with them (motorcycles were one of her fetishes as was black leather). After that I never saw her again. At least one person thought she had returned to the States, but I had no idea where to look. It was a sad ending to our friendship. Facebook 2022

So the trail understandably goes cold. Unlike everyone else, even remotely involved in the times, Vermilion hasn’t surfaced over the years and effectively disappeared. Hopefully somewhere she is well and safe and still brimming with revolution!

In short a pioneer of the time, and a unique character complete with contradictions but whose music was never going to go the distance but deserves some recognition for her part in the times.

Last words to Johnny Bivouac who I think sums her up perfectly.

I really liked her and have fond memories. To be honest, she was fairly intimidating – you didn’t get to meet many women like her in those days – but fun to be with once you got to know her. Good sense of humour. She swore like a trooper. Like all of us, she had her contradictions – she came across as a strong, independent person who would take shit from no one (which was true) but was also an ‘old lady’ to a biker (called Goat if I recall) who treated her like his property. There’s a tale that she got her record deal by standing on Miles Copeland’s desk and demanding it. I’ve got no reason to doubt it is true. I like to think of her as a hard core Chrissy Hynde – probably a bit too hard core for any sort of mainstream success but uncompromising and hurrah to that. Punk77 Interview May 2020

Angry Young Women | Nymphomania | Wild Boys
Illegal Records 1978

Her first single sees her billed as Vermilion, but not Dick Envy whose musicians play on the single. There are also no pictures of the band members. The songs are co-credited to V. Vale founder of US fanzine Search & Destroy and Johnny Bivouac the original Dick Envy guitarist.

Johnny Bivouac (Guitarist) Vermilion and I wrote Angry Young Women. We may have written a couple of others, I honestly can’t remember. Song/sound-wise I suppose we were aiming for a Pistols/Stooges vibe. The single (which I didn’t play on) didn’t really capture that, but it used to sound pretty cool live/in rehearsal. Punk77 Interview May 2020

Interesting picture sleeve opting for a Motorhead style cuter graphic of a bat and on the reverse name-checking the musicians while showing Vermilion astride a giant chopper belonging to Hells Angel boyfriend Goat (sic). Drummer Pete Davies recalls recall recording around February 1978:

I can remember recording the demo but can’t remember recording the single itself. The Demo was recorded on a Revox in one take, a live recording in on old former night club on Charing Cross Road.

It was three tracks; my idea. Angry Young Women, Nymphomania (which were both quite short) and Wild Boys [ride their Bikes] on the B side. Miles Copeland at Illegal records seemed to be happy with it.

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 The Letter | I Like Motorcycles (Illegal 1979)

Her second and last single and produced by legendary Deviant, Pink Fairy and all round man of the alternative hippy biker scene Mick Farren. Her backing band was The Aces aka Menace without the singer. I’ll be honest here and say the cover is terrible and the song The Letter is not much better. If this was the best that the Illegal in-house design team (Insult) could do then Vermilion was pretty much sunk. No pictures of her or the band just … well the above!

The PR describes it as ‘Combining the hardcore tearaway stance and motorcycle songs with the searing pogo beat of menace power’ which if it was true would be a brilliant combo.  What do you think?

The B side is ‘I Like Motorcycles’ and more like it! Scuzzy biker rock in the mode of Larry Wallis Pink Fairies, early Motorhead and Chris Spedding ‘Motorbikin’ and was co-written by Vermilion with Greig Van Cook out of the Electric Chairs and Robert Crash out of the Maniacs.

Steve Tannett (Menace) I’ve just put up I Like Motorcycles. The single is terrible; it’s so weak! It’s got a credit for us so maybe we did write it. Funny time. I think we did write the music because we rehearsed with her and she had some songs – I think she had I Like Motorcycles we were shown how to play it  and I think the 3 of us wrote The Letter and she wrote the lyrics. Cover has a  weird picture of a bird flying out of her stomach – its wild.

The producer, and I don’t remember this, was Mick Farren – leading light in counterculture Pink Fairies and the Deviants. First time I’ve set my eyes on this for 40 years – SGS Crystal Palace – I don’t even remember fucking going there! I don’t remember a fucking thing about that recording session! Wait.. my brain is starting to see myself in the booth and I can see Vermilion but I can’t even remember going there  – we might have gone on the bus. Do you know what NMCSLE means? It’s Nazi Motorcycle Sluts London England – Steve chuckles -what’s that all about?  – I think it was nothing to do with the political end of it. It was all that weird counterculture like Lemmy used to have Iron Crosses.

Noel Martin (Menace) Oh God the single we did with her was pretty bad! But we were doing a job. We considered ourselves to be session musicians and this was a means to an end. But yeah, the record was crap. It wasn’t very good and I don’t go out of my way to listen to it. People do ask about it though and there are people who like it!

Above – PR inserts for The Letter Single – Click for larger images

Hi – I was pleased to see my old band Vehicle mentioned by Johnny Bivouac [or Beckett as he was then] in relation to your excellent piece on Vermilion on your site. 

My name is Bill Osborn, a guitarist, who formed the band Vehicle with Fritz [Leslie Field] who was three years older than me. I went to school with Fritz’s girlfriend, Diane, so that’s how I got to know Fritz who was then roadying for Johnny B, Mark Ryan and Dave Barbe. So I briefly got to play with those guys too. Diane was a good photographer and designer.

Vehicle began as a three-piece, but when we had the residency at the Nightingale with Desolation Angels [John Becket and Dave Barbe] we got a lead singer and became a 4 piece.

John Beckett, Dave Barbe and Mark Ryan were all Fritz’s friends – all from the Wood Green, North London area. I was from Dagenham, from an East London background, and so didn’t have a close friendship with them – simply because I didn’t hang out in North London like they did. I hung out in East London when I wasn’t up west with Fritz rehearsing in his print room in Holborn!

Also, to be honest, I had the impression that John, Dave and Mark didn’t regard Fritz as a musical equal to them. So I was with Fritz, not them, so to say. 

And Fritz and I tended towards hard rock, not punk. I think Fritz called Dick Envy ‘Motorwave’. I know Fritz loved The Damned’s New Rose, so it was at the hard rock end of punk. 

The photos below are from that era. The notes on the photos were made by me at the time.

While Vehicle were a metal band, you might be interested to know that after Dick Envy broke up in 1978, they had a prior engagement gig lined up in the summer of that year – I think it was at the Red Cow, Hammersmith [memory gets hazy]. I had finished school and had yet to start college so it would have been between May and August ’78.

PS I recall having a conversation with Mark Gaumont Ryan in a Wood Green pub after jamming with him in 1977. Mark Ryan was a very bright guy and he was trying to get me away from metal. He said, “Why do you like metal?” I said something like – “it’s the power!” And he said, ‘No – there’s no power in metal, it’s all overblown. I find much more power in Graham Parker than in any metal band’!

To preface my recollection; while Vehicle had been rehearsing at Fritz’s basement print room in 1977, he had been secretly rehearsing with Dick Envy on our nights off. When me and Charlie – our drummer – found out about it, we had a tremendous row with Fritz. Vehicle was over and so was our friendship.

Around summer 1978 I got a phone call from Fritz – he had a gig booked, but no guitarist, and wondered whether I wanted to fill in – there would be some rehearsals beforehand. I agreed, not least because I saw it as a good way of mending our friendship, although we had already grown apart a bit. 

Fritz’s band Dick Envy was led by Vermilion, who was a very loud personality, and seemed to be in her early 30s, which appeared old to me then, but I was only 18. I was also quiet, and so didn’t really hit it off with her personally.

For the first few rehearsals Vermilion didn’t turn up, nor did the lady drummer. It turned out that Vermilion didn’t get on with the drummer. The drummer did turn up for one rehearsal when Vermilion wasn’t there again [I remember meeting her and Pete Davies in the pub next door to Fritz’s print room], and we ran through the songs. 

The songs were written by Vermilion and a mysterious American man. Some of the bar lengths and repeats were odd, but – as Fritz explained – they had to be played that way because Vermilion insisted they not be changed. It wasn’t straightforward thrash stuff and I enjoyed the challenge. 

The next rehearsal Vermilion turned up, but not the drummer. There was only one rehearsal with Vermilion prior to the gig. The gig was at the Red Cow in Hammersmith [I think] in the summer of 1978.

For the one and only rehearsal with her, we met Vermilion at the pub next door to Fritz’s print room, and she really was obnoxious at first, as if testing me out. Fritz and I were sitting on one of the benches outside the pub and she ambled up. She looked quite disheveled in biker gear, messed up hair and a studied contempt for her surroundings. Fritz introduced us, and she immediately started to be semi-insulting – “Ooh, look at all that loong hair!” [I still had the heavy metal long hair]. I just kept quiet, which didn’t help as she obviously thought I was just a kid. 

After a few drinks, we went down to the basement print room to rehearse. At first she refused to sing, and said that Fritz and I should go through the numbers so she could hear what we had made of them. I could tell that she – grudgingly at first – liked my playing and became more respectful towards me and then started to get more abusive towards Fritz. It was clear she was using Fritz and treated him quite badly, and he took it.

While most of the songs were rockers, there was one ballad. I think that’s when she started singing. I did some bluesy guitar on it. At the end she said, “Yeah, Bill, that’s right – but I want you to play it with even more feeling”. As we ran through other numbers she started to take up papers from Fritz’s desk and randomly sing the words on them and then throw them on the floor. As it looked like she was going to wreck his office, Fritz called a halt to the proceedings. We were more than ready for the gig, anyway.

The day of the gig was interesting. Fritz and his girlfriend Diane [and her friend Joyce] were there, of course. The female drummer too, so we set the gear up, but Vermilion wasn’t there yet. 

The pub manager wasn’t happy – where was the support band? Apparently, there was supposed to be a support band. If there was one they had pulled out long before, knowing no doubt, that Vermilion’s band had split up. Vermilion arrived with a gang of Hells Angel bikers, These were seriously dangerous characters – not poseurs, but true hard-core types. They formed a line in front of the stage and intimidated everyone else. One Angel argued with his girlfriend and punched her in the mouth. Nothing was said. The pub manager was complaining about the lack of a support band. I suggested that me, Fritz and the drummer do the support set as a warm up, without Vermilion. Everyone agreed although Vermilion said that we weren’t allowed to sing [we hadn’t intended to!]

So when Vermilion came on for the set proper, things sounded quite good, and Vermilion did her thing with the leather jacket flashing her titties. The Angels liked it. 

There was one point in one song though, where the drummer suddenly halved the tempo – I don’t know why. Vermilion spun around, facing the drummer, pulled a water pistol out of her jacket and threatened to shoot the drummer with it, who shouted she’d better not. 

Apart from that, the gig went well. The best thing for me was at the end when the drummer said to me – “I liked the way you played – it was kinda smooth”. Yes, it flowed. None of the Angels approached me – thank god- although some came to Fritz. One asked Fritz who his favourite bassist was – Fritz replied; “Jeff Beck”!

The gig was really only a way to fulfill an obligation – Dick Envy was now dead. We would all go our separate ways, and Fritz would die the following year.

After this gig in 1978 I didn’t meet up with any of them again – going on to college I started to move with a different crowd and became preoccupied with college work. 

Diane did send me that mourning card about Fritz’s death in 1979, but I felt I didn’t want to intrude on the obvious grief of her and Fritz’s lovely parents who doted on him; he was an only child, I believe. I think I also felt guilty about our falling out, when I had used harsh words against him. Words said in anger, and not meant as he really was one of the greatest people I have known in my life. He was a guy who could make things happen and had a big heart. Those whom the gods love die young.

I must say that the sides that Fritz and Vermilion made still sound good today. I don’t know if Diane recorded the gig I did with Dick Envy, but I’d like to hear it!

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May 2021

Vermilion as we know, was the London scene reporter from US fanzine Search & Destroy. She also had an association with iconic fanzine Ripped & Torn written & edited by Tony D and had a couple of pieces in said fanzine. In fact she even came to oversee the last ever edition of it providing the strangest coda in the life of it. Tony D recounts to Punk77 how her involvement came about.

The Vermilion connection starts with Ripped & Torn’s affiliation with Mark Perry’s record label Step Forward. Back in 1977 Mark Perry’s label was based in central London and I used to visit their office regularly for a variety of reasons, one of which was to get adverts for the next issue of Ripped & Torn. Mark’s label Step Forward was part of a confusing array of label names to me, all operating out of one office, but through a person called Nick Jones. One or more of the labels would advertise in every issue of Ripped & Torn.

This confusion of labels and Nick Jones placing adverts continued as the parent company (basically Miles Copeland) moved to new premises around the corner from Rough Trade in W11.

Miles used to get upset that R&T would not feature Chelsea and threatened to pull all future advertising unless we did, but Nick always calmed him out of that and always placed ads regardless. However one day in their office Nick introduced me to this person called Vermilion, saying we should get on as she is a writer from Search & Destroy in San Francisco and we could write for each other’s fanzines; and by the way Miles had signed her to the label.

Vermilion was in her leather jacket but with a t-shirt underneath rather than the bare-breasted imagery; we went for a coffee in Mike’s café and I stuttered my way through this first date. As any editor will understand, I was eager for some one to write stuff to fill the pages of the next issue so when she offered concepts and I gave her thanks.

You show two quarter page images, but I think she managed to write at least one piece: though the ‘Outlaw’ one may have been her only offering. I can see my own handwriting in the other one and that was a quarter page.

From Ripped & Torn 15 November 1978*

It was Tony D’s belief that the magazine would become in essence a promotional vehicle for Mile’s labels and bands plus others leveraging R&T’s name and guaranteeing its continuity.

I thought she had the safest pair of hands to pass it onto. The reason being her connection to Miles Copeland and so Nick Jones financing the issues with the adverts. At this point she had a band signed to one of Copeland’s labels, so what could go wrong?

Once she got ownership nothing happened. I thought Nick and Miles would jump on the chance to take the name R&T then create a puff promotional magazine with Vermilion at the nominal helm and blast it nationwide promoting Police/Cramps/Chelsea or whoever.

In fact there were misunderstandings on both sides as Vermilion believed there was something more organised in place distribution-wise to take the fanzines.

At some point years later I have a conversation with Vermilion who complained that I never gave her any distribution or subscription details – and I explained that I told her at the time that apart from Rough Trade distributing them I took them round shops and gigs myself. She claimed I never told her that and left her in the lurch and in trouble with Miles.

I see her point of misunderstanding me , but at the stage of not having distribution or subs she could have turned me down at the time. But she didn’t so this weird issue came out.

And weird it is considering there was a professional design team behind it, a whole lot of R&T brand good will and a wonderful opportunity to sell Mile’s bands handed for free. Instead the paper equivalent of Metal Machine Music came out.

I really expected Vermilion to be a cover for that sort of take over; just pass it onto the promotions team. At that point remember they had signed The Cramps so were good guys. Instead she created one issue with random articles from her friends plus one fantastic piece by Genesis P Orrige.

I expected a lot more out of a person selling herself in London as a Search & Destroy journalist (and more) with Miles Copeland’s backing, though the fact her competition in R&T got no responses plus that she had no interest if there had been any should have been a clue. I made a mistake there, but at least we have Gen’s article to make it worthwhile plus I created the new fanzine called Kill Your Pet Puppy rather than work out what to do with Vermilion.

It’s likely another issue was planned as mentioned in a fanzine letter from Vermilion in late 1980 but it never came to pass. If there’s an irony here then for me it’s that this issue is perhaps the perfect ending to the Ripped & Torn story and it’s a shame it can’t be in the Compendium of issues published because it finished the story perfectly and into legend. Tony D and R&T had run out of steam and what a way to go out. Tony D goes to Paris and Vermilion co-produces a last issue so different from everything that went before it that it enables a clean break and another fanzine legend to be born in Kill Your Pet Puppy.

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*Excerpted from ‘RIPPED & TORN: THE UK’S LOUDEST FANZINE’ by Tony Drayton
Published by Ecstatic Peace Library. Distributed by Omnibus Press.