Vermilion and the Aces, Rock Against Concrete 1979 photos

Vermilion and the Aces, Rock Against Concrete festival, London 7 July 1979

The singer on this photo I took is Vermilion Sands from the USA. Singing at the Rock Against Concrete festival, London, 7 July 1979.

Vermilion Sands was not her official name. It is from a science fiction book by J. G. Ballard.

She was born in Alabama. Later, in California, she sang in Mary Monday And The Bitches, And she edited the punk fanzine Search & Destroy; see her T-shirt on the upper photo.

She moved to London. There, she was Search & Destroy correspondent; and editor of Ripped & Torn fanzine.

She founded the band Dick Envy. They made this record:

This is the Vermilion song Angry Young Women.

Later, she formed another band: Vermilion and the Aces. The Aces were the instrumentalists of London punk band the Menace after their singer Morgan Webster had left. On the top photo, left to right: Charlie Casey, bass; Noel Martin, drums; Steve Tannett, guitar. Vermilion and the Aces are also mentioned at the Menace site, but with the years 1980-1981 where there should have been 1979.

Charlie Casey and Vermilion, Vermilion and the Aces, Rock Against Concrete, 7 July 1979

This is the Vermilion and the Aces song I Like Motorcycles. In 1979, together with the song The Letter, it was a single. Later, it was reissued on the ´Heroes Of The Nights’ compilation, part of the Feminist Music Library fund.

This is the video of the Vermilion and the Aces song The Letter.

Steve, Vermilion, Charlie, Vermilion and the Aces, Rock Against Concrete

Like Steve Tannett, Vermilion also was an Illegal Records employee.

She talked to me about ‘those fucking record companies’ with their conservative anti-punk views in the USA. She gave me a review copy for my fanzine of the Gravest Hits EP by the Cramps.

Apart from seeing Vermilion at Illegal Records, I might have seen her with her band the Aces four, even six, times in London in 1979, but in fact, I only saw them three times.

Nashville, London, Brian James and Vermilion 1979 ad

The first time, they were on the bill to open for Brian James and the Brains in the Nashville pub on 1 May 1979 (Vermilion wrongly spelt with double l in the advertisement). But that gig was cancelled, I did interview the Brains that day.

The second time, really the first time I saw them playing, was a few days later, opening at the first real gig of Brian James and the Brains in the Music Machine. That concert was reviewed by me in Pin, and by Chris Westwood in the Record Mirror.

The third time might have been this gig at the Nashville.

The Cramps and Vermilion and the Aces in the Nashville

But I was not in the UK on 22 June 1979. The headline band, the Cramps, were (in the UK) labelmates of Vermilion. Vermilion had given me the Cramps’ first EP, Gravest Hits, for reviewing in Pin.

The fourth time might have been this gig at the London Marquee.

Vermilion and the Aces, Marquee, London, 23 June 1979

But I was not in the UK on 23 June 1979.

Then, the fifth time, really the second time: the Rock Against Concrete festival. Apart from her Aces set, Vermilion there also sang the first song of the headline band at that festival: Nik Turner’s Inner City Unit. She sang a cover of Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock.

UK Subs and Pure Hell and Vermilion and the Aces, London Lyceum, 15 July 1979

UK Subs, Pure Hell, Vermilion and the Aces

The sixth time, for me really the third time, was the 15 July 1979 gig in the London Lyceum, of Vermilion and the Aces, Pure Hell from the USA, and the UK Subs.

When Vermilion and the Aces opened, I thought: ‘Every time they are better than their concert before this.’

Then, at the end of their set, the song GLC became a lethal issue for the band. GLC was a Menace song against the Conservative party majority then in the Greater London Council, which wanted to ban punk concerts (their London party leader Bernard Brook Partridge advocated killing the members of the Sex Pistols and the other punk bands).

GLC was a favourite among London punks. At the end of the earlier Vermilion and the Aces concerts, Steve and Charlie had sang it as an encore.

At the Lyceum, Vermilion wanted Steve to again sing it as an encore. But instead, their roadie Andy Riff Socrates sang GLC. The Lyceum hall exploded into a seething mass of pogoing fans. Vermilion did not like that, and sacked the band on the spot.

There was talk of her forming another band, but it never happened.

In the 1980s, she would do artwork for bands like Chelsea, work for ZigZag, and manage Oi! band the Business.

Then, she mysteriously disappeared. Was it involvement with a criminal motorcycle gang which harmed her? Did she go back to the USA? Did she die? Did she live on under her official name, or under a new pseudonym?

I would so much like to know, but I don’t know.

Stay tuned for my photos of another band at the Rock Against Concrete festival, Alternative TV, aka the Good Missionaries, of Sniffin’ Glue founder Mark Perry.