X-Ray Spex took on conformity and consumerism with the wild eyed wail of this pubescent punk propaganda pursuit. The group was started by Poly Styrene (Marianne Joan Elliott-Said) and manager and producer Falcon Stuart after seeing the Sex Pistols perform. Stuart recalls: "Energised by the Rotten crew, Poly started to write some more radical lyrics and music exploring the dynamics of consumerism and techno development, laced with teen irony, romance and rebellion. And so it was I started to man the project that was to become the X-Ray Spex."
Styrene would explain: "I didn’t actually choose that name. X Ray Spex was my name, but Poly Styrene wasn’t. I was writing about plastic and things like that in my songs and one day my manager said to me “I’ve got a name for you” and it was Poly Styrene. It was very funny, because he could also call me Polly Put the Kettle On for a joke, so that’s where the name came from. I thought “Well, I’ll have it” and then I started using it for my fashion label really, not for my personal name, but my manager kept calling me that and eventually I just embraced it and started using it. X Ray Spex was my name, but Poly Styrene wasn’t. It was a tongue-in-cheek name, a joke, but I did quite like it when he came up with it ... I was looking in a porno magazine, and I saw an ad for these spectacles that you can see nude ladies through and they were called X-Ray Spex: that's why."
They put ads in Melody Maker and NME and formed the first lineup of the group with Jak Airport (Jack Stafford) on guitars, Paul Dean on bass, Rich T on Drums, and Lora Logic (Susan Whitby) on saxophone. Logic remembers: "I took a few saxophone lessons then practiced a lot on my own and busked a bit. I joined a folk band for a few weeks but didn't really like that. I was really rebellious and I wanted to do something different with my life and get into another world. Around autumn '76, I saw an ad in Melody Maker looking for 'punk' musicians. I didn't even know what punk was but I just showed up. The manager for X-Ray Spex liked the idea of having another woman in the band with Poly so I made it. We got on so well, really hit it off and rehearsed a lot. It was like a dream."
Their addition of saxophone to the punk sound was unique at the time. Styrene: "They say...'Oh you can't have a saxophonist in a punk band', and they see it work, then everybody likes it." They played several successful gigs at the Roxy and were offered several record deals. Styrene reveals: "We had a one off deal with Virgin Records but in the deal they offered, they wanted too many albums in too short a space of time so we signed with EMI."
She was replaced for a brief time by John Glynn and then by Steve 'Rudi' Thompson. It took over a year for them to put out an album. 'Germfree Adolescents' was recorded at Essex Studios with Poly Styrene on vocals; Jak Airport on guitar; Paul Dean on bass; Rudi Thomson on saxophone; and B.P. Hurding on drums; with Ted Bunting on saxophone on "Identity" & "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo"; and Falcon Stuart on production and cover concept. Bunting says: "I got called in to do some playing. Why me? I was a versatile player and it was probably easier for me to record the songs. It was just an afternoon…The band were there and all the backing tracks had been done. It may well have been that Laura had recorded them and they told her they needed redoing. I wasn’t involved in any of the band politics and would have kept out of it. Laura’s always been fairly bitter about my involvement which I understand. My dealings with the band were very much mediated by Poly and Falcon. And I think I did more tracks than Poly reckons but I’m not bothered."
'Germfree Adolescents' reached number thirty on the UK album chart. The band folded less than a year after it came out when Styrene was committed. Styrene considered: "That was on tour in Doncaster. I saw a UFO. It was all around the same time. After that traumatic experience I was pretty hyper. Our roadies used to give us a little bit of marijuana before we went to sleep because after a gig you are really buzzed up. You can’t really sleep. You’re too excited, so they always used to give us a little bit of that when we went back the hotel. I don’t think they gave us anything hallucinogenic but that night I was really stressed. I had just come back from America and New York and I had gone straight into doing a tour, and then obviously I had that whole traumatic experience. Rather than deal with it, I went into denial and then ended up doing another tour, and after that I started to go into something else which was even more far out. ... It felt like a bad omen. Like I was doing something wrong, misguiding people. It made me think I needed to be careful before I put ideas out into the world. My mother thought I was hallucinating, and I was put in the Maudsley [Hospital]. Because if you see things and hear voices, you're considered to have schizophrenia. I really missed playing. But in hindsight, it got me off the treadmill. I'd been growing up in the public eye, with all my teenage angst ... I was dealing with a lot and then to be given a label like that, only to find out later that I wasn’t and that they had got it wrong, was really difficult. They said to me 'You’re a young girl who has got out of her depth and you will never be able to work again.' That is a very hard thing to be told at 21 ... I had to get away from it all... mostly I just rested... It's not true I went bonkers. It just got too much. there were plenty of pressures on me...I went to New York. It really turned my head. All that attention - they treat you like you're really different. It got to me...I was worn out and doing drugs...I was smoking a lot. People were all around telling me how wonderful I was. I didn't start to exactly believe it, but I started to get very insecure"
http://www.x-rayspex.com/
"Oh Bondage Up Yours!" was the band's first single, released in September of 1977.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogypBUCb7DA
Poly Styrene interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8hAqdx7g4M
'Germfree Adolescents'
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujrva0tiTqc
All songs written by Poly Styrene.
"The Day the World Turned Day-Glo" - 2:50
"Obsessed with You" - 2:26
"Genetic Engineering" - 2:46
"Identity" - 2:21
"I Live Off You" - 2:06
"Germfree Adolescents" - 3:10
"Art-I-Ficial" - 3:21
"Let's Submerge" - 3:23
"Warrior in Woolworths" - 3:03
"I Am a Poseur" - 2:30
"I Can't Do Anything" - 2:55
"Highly Inflammable" - 2:32
"Age" - 2:36
"Plastic Bag" - 4:51
"I Am a Cliché" - 1:52
"Oh Bondage Up Yours!" - 2:48
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