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From: Judes <judith_gibbons@ncet.org.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Factory Writings on Vinyl LP Records
Date: 10 May 1996 07:21:08 GMT

In article <joem-0905961533150001@fortean3.easynet.co.uk> Joe McNally, joem@johnbrown.co.uk writes:

>One of the most famous is a guy
>called 'Porky' who seems to have cut masters for almost every band in
>Britain at one stage. He tends to leave some sort of cryptic three or
>four-word message, along with the phrase 'A Porky Prime Cut'. It might be
>an entirely British thing, of course.

Extract from a two-page article in 'Q' magazine, August 1989

==BEGIN QUOTE==

Those mysterious messages explained!
(by Adrian Deevoy)

George Peckham, record cutter by appointment, and Porky are one and the same. 'It was a nickname I got in Liverpool during the '60s,' expands Porky in melodic Scouse, ''cos of all the old slagbags I used to chase and the ale I put away.'

Singer and guitarist with the Brian Epstein-managed '60s beat combo The Fourmost, Peckham left the group to work for Epstein's rather more famous charges when they opened the Apple studio in 1968.

<snip>

'The problem the lads were having was, they found they'd record something in the studio and it would sound completely different, really weak. So I said they should do an acetate on vinyl and log the information then transfer the spec when they cut the master.'

Obviously impressed by this rather technical-sounding jargon, The Beatles offered Peckham the position of chief Apple cutter and Porky was born.

<snip of teccie record-mastering stuff>

'Before you make the final positive,' adds Peckham, 'you have to put a matrix number in the middle, because as far as the factory is concerned it's just another disc. Then I sneak on the old Porky Prime Cut...'

Originally, the 'Porky' was a reference for the pressing plant should they need to contact the cutter.

'That was the main reason I only ever wrote Porky on The Beatles' records,' Peckham enlarges, 'but I was also scared to put any weird stuff on their records because their fans were that crazy about them that they'd read something into it.'

<snip about cutting George Harrison's and John Lennon's solo records>

Soon everyone wanted the now legendary Porky hallmark - preferably replete with cryptic message - on the run-off grooves of their records.

<snip about other cutting jobs for Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Stiff
Records...>

(UL tie-in alert)
'(Monty Python's) Matching Tie and Handkerchief album was a bit of a bastard,' he chuckles. 'Mike Palin came down and said he wanted to cut this one track with a double groove so you put the record on and depending which groove the needle fell into, you'd get one of two tracks. Ten goes that took. A right bugger of a red eye job. I think I wrote, 'Dear Mum, Please Send Another Cuppa Down, Still Cutting The Python LP, Love Porky XX' on that one.'

==END QUOTE==

A list of some of his quotes follows, including those on records by Joy Division, Squeeze, T. Rex and The Smiths and the previously-named artists, none of which are really interesting enough to waste more bandwidth on.