That's my point... I don't want a backdrop image, I want the image to attach itself to the drawing grid (as it does in C7) so that when I pan the camera across the  image in one of the Ortho views (front  or side views) using Alt+LMB, my plotted curves and the drawing grid remain locked in position according to the reference image
But to answer your question, i start in a 4 view and I end in a full side or front view to plot the details.  It doesn't seem to matter if I start in the full vertex modeller or if I drop a vertex object in the assembly room and then load up my reference images.
I'm using a number of computers, 32 and 64 bit, Xp Pro and Windows 7.
As mentioned previously, C7Pro works flawlessly and I have absolutely no problem using reference images in the Vertex Modeller on any of my workstations.  I just can't seem to get the reference images to behave as such in the C8Pro Vertex Modeller.