Fac 198 Vermorel Stereo/Porno 1988
Fred and Judy Vermorel were writers and music journalists. Together, they waged a tactical campaign at Britain’s national publishers association, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the policing mechanism that seeks to control pop music in Britain. Factory (who were not members of the BPI) released Vermorel’s Stereo/Porno single, Fac 198, ‘specially commissioned for the BPI Awards 1988’. A poster, Bums For BPI, bearing the Factory number Fac 199 also appeared.
Fac 198 Vermorel Stereo/Porno 1988
The single is a great piece of electro/orchestral melodrama and has a brilliant lyric with vocals from Ginny Clee, who also became to the cover star of Fac 198. She recalls “My publishing company of the time Warner/Chappell put me together with a writing duo called The Vermorels. They were a husband/wife team who had made their name as pop commentators having written a book on the Sex Pistols. I could talk for hours about this partnership as it was almost the end of me but this page isn’t long enough. The good that came out of it was a single on Factory Records called Stereo/Porno. It wasn’t a hit but it did end up in The Victoria and Albert Museum in their Best Record Covers of all Time exhibition. The designer was Peter Saville, the photographer Fred Vermorel and the naked ass... mine!”
Fact 30 The Sex Pistols The Heyday 1980
The Sex Pistols – The Heyday, Fact 30, is billed as ‘A Factory Records Documentary Cassette’, it contains interviews by Fred and Judy Vermorel with Sid Vicious, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, Johnny Rotten and Malcolm McLaren’s Grandmother. The cassette comes in a black vinyl pouch with either golden, black or grey cassette. The label on the cassette reads: ‘Would everybody wash their hands before...’ A card came with the release: ‘From the city that brought you Strangeways. Seasonal Greetings and a seasoned cassette. Love, Factory.’
