Artist

I VERMI

Mauro Schellino (vocals, keyboards)
Dario Bosio (guitar)
Pier Michelatti (bass)
Luciano Vescovo (drums)

Just one single with a long track split on the two sides for this group from the Vercelli area in Piedmont, active since 1966. The original name was Vermi 52, the number representing the total age of the musicians, all very young.
After leaving the band in 1968, bassist Michelatti joined it again in 1971 replacing Beppe Forte who had taken his place and it was the original line-up that recorded in Turin their only single, issued on a label called S.B.V.M. (from the initials of their surnames).

Issued in a few hundred copies and with a recording quality and production not surely professional, yet the single contains a very nice long track split in two parts, with an organ intro in the best Italian prog tradition.
In mid-1972, after many concerts in their area, the band broke up; three of the members, Schellino, Michelatti and Vescovo, with guitarist Roberto Bellis and the new name Magma, kept playing for a few months, splitting towards the end of the year.

Only the bass player Pier Michelatti stayed in the musical field, with a long professional career that took him to play with Fabrizio De Andrè, Giorgio Gaber, Adriano Celentano and many other popular names of the Italian music.

The original single is very rare, issued in 500 to 1000 copies and only locally distributed.
It was reissued in a limited pressing in 2015, with the same cover as the original and inserts with pictures and information.

Click on pictures to enlarge

I Vermi - promotional picture 1972

I Vermi - Studio 1972

Thanks to Fabio Marchignoli for information and pictures