Fred Vermorel - Sex Pistols: The Inside Story

Fred Vermorel was McLarens friend and confidant from earliest art college days and introduced him to Vivienne Westwood. Judy Vermorel met and married Fred when they were studying mass media at the Polytechnic of Central London. Sex Pistols: The Inside Story was their first book. They subsequently co-wrote several outrageous pop anti-biographies and Starlust (1985), a source book about pop fans hidden desires and obsessions with an introduction by Pete Townshend. Fred and Judy also co-write songs and are signed to Chappell Music.

MALCOLM McLAREN: Destroying record companies is more fun than making it.

JOHNNY ROTTEN: read Keats and Brighton Rock for O level.

SID VICIOUS: I shall die before Im 21.

PAUL COOK: his school report warned of bad influences.

STEVE JONES: Give my love to mum.

GLEN MATLOCK: too posh for the Pistols.

SOPHIE, THE SECRETARY: opened her secret diary for this book.

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD: from schoolteaching to Sex fashions.

JAMIE REID: from politics to punk.

The story is told at first hand through interviews, diary extracts, quotes and documents. A checklist of people interviewed appears .

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ALAN EDWARDS: Rock n roll had got very boring. I hadnt been listening to it or going to concerts for my own amusement for a long, long time. And I used to, just for drinks and just for fun, go round to places like the Nashville in fact, the Nashville was my local pub. And I used to go to the Marquee and the 100 Club. But I think it was at the Nashville I noticed the first changes. The Sex Pistols played there, the Stranglers played there. And they were radically different to anything that Id ever seen.

In fact, when I went to see the Pistols it made me feel like a really old man. I mean I was only 20 at the time, it made me feel like I was 50. And I was shocked. And I just hid in the corner, literally, drinking Double Diamond, wondering what was going on all these people with amazing make-up, fights and God knows what. And I completely rethought my whole attitude after seeing them. It called for a total revising of ones opinions on music and it made one feel that maybe music had some sort of relevant part to play in ones life, which in the last couple of years it hadnt really at all.

And so I got involved with the Stranglers, started doing a few bits and pieces of publicity from last summer. And then suddenly in October the whole thing exploded and a complete scene came out of almost nowhere. And there were bands like the Vibrators, the Damned, the Clash, they were all formed within a matter of weeks of each other. And suddenly it was 50 punk bands playing in London which had happened overnight. But it hadnt actually happened overnight. All those people were kids who had been hanging around, really bored, feeling there was nothing to do

Q: When did you first become aware of punk?

TRACIE: Well, I used to live in Bromley and I used to go round with Siouxsie and Steve, Simon, Berlin, people like that, and Simon went to see the Sex Pistols at a college in Bromley when they played. It was about one of their first gigs, and he just sort of like came back and said: Oh, Ive seen this group and theyre really good and theyre different and that, you know. So we started going to see them at places like the Nashville, and then they played the El Paradiso Club, which started off as a strip club in Soho. Then my friend Berlin had a party last May and he invited the Pistols. By then wed seen them quite a lot and they had started to get to know us. And they all came along. I suppose that was the first time I got to know them like on a social level, not just like seeing them as a group on stage and that.

Q: Can you remember what your reactions were when you first saw them?

T: I dont know. I just kept looking at Steve Jones and he had these two nude women on his guitar and I just thought it was a bit funny. And I just thought John was a bit mad, you know what I mean? But it was exciting and that was what was good about it. I suppose you just sort of wondered what hit you at first because like in those days John used to do things like he used to swear a lot at the audience. The equipment used to pack up and stools used to break and all stuff like that, and so he used to stand there and swear at the hall and throw beer at people and tell them they were stupid and things like that.

Q: What did it make you feel like?

T: Well, I just thought it was good. I thought: Christ, someones actually doing something thats a laugh, you know what I mean? Its just good fun. I mean I liked other people before but you could never go and see them. I used to like people like Alice Cooper when I was about 13, and you could never get to see them because you didnt really have much money and they played the big places in London and it cost loads of money to get in. So, you know, thats what was good about the Pistols. You always knew they would play in places that didnt really cost much to get in. You could go along, you could say what the hell you wanted, dress how you wanted and no one cared.

At the beginning you used to get a lot of hassle, like those old hippies that used to hang around with things like drugs destroy flowers and stop people living on planets, things like that, on their T-shirts, and they used to say that the Pistols were horrible and destructive and you shouldnt really go and watch them. They tried to convert you into peace and love and all that, which made you just like them all the more. But I suppose its just because they were different, different from everyone else. They were the first proper punk band. There was no one like it before the Pistols.

Q: Can you tell me a bit about how you and Steve started the group?

PAUL COOK: It wasnt our doing really. It was this bloke called Wally. Like he used to go to our school he was in the same year as us. And we didnt used to play anything when we was at school or anything. He was interested in it and we just used to go round to his house, towards the end when we was just leaving school. And we used to bunk off, go round his house and sit in his garden like. See, his mum and dad were out and they didnt care anyway. In the summer we just used to go round there cos it was near the school and sunbathe and that. And at the time we didnt know John there was me, Steve, this Wally geezer and a couple of our other mates. And I think it was after we left school, Wally he used to play guitar he said lets start a group.