X-Ray Spex

by John Dougan One of the great English punk bands of the late 70s, there is only one thing wrong with the careers of X-Ray Spex and lead singer Poly Styrene — they didnt record enough music. Formed in 1976 by school friends Marion Elliot (Styrene) and Susan Whitby (saxophonist Lora Logic), X-Ray Spex exploded onto the punk scene with one of the eras great singles, the feminist punk rallying cry Oh Bondage, Up Yours. With Logics sax stating the melody semi-tunefully and Jak Airports guitar laying down a wash of distorted chords, Styrenes vocal, especially on the chorus, is a marvel. Along with the early Sex Pistols and Clash singles, this was one of punk rocks great moments. So, too, was X-Ray Spexs debut LP, Germ Free Adolescents, which was great in spite of Oh Bondage not being on it (a situation that would be rectified with the 1993 CD reissue). Lora Logic was gone (to form Essential Logic), but her replacement, Rudi Thompson, played in as rudimentary a fashion, but stayed in tune a little more. The songs were guitar-driven punk-pop that combined outrage and aggression with a sense of alienation and disenfranchisement about rampant commercialism and an increasingly sterile and artificial world. Styrenes songs were more likely to be about drowning in a sea of corporate-designed consumer fantasies than straight-out attacks against the government. This didnt mean the songs were any less political; they simply attacked the zeitgeist from a different vantage point. Tragically, there was no immediate second X-Ray Spex record. But there was Poly Styrenes only full-length solo record, Translucence. Abandoning completely the loud guitars of X-Ray Spex, Translucence is quiet and jazzy in a way that anticipates the work of Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn in Everything But the Girl. Its a bit of a shock coming after Germ Free Adolescents, but its a beautiful album, and Styrenes singing, though not as exciting and unhinged, is frequently stunning. Consistent with her career up to this point, Poly Styrene dropped out of music entirely shortly after the release of Translucence and joined a London-based Hare Krishna sect. She emerged from retirement in 1986 with a wonderful EP titled Gods and Goddesses. In late-2006, the Spex got deluxe treatment from Sanctuary Records with the release of Lets Submerge: The Anthology, a two-disc collection that features pretty much the bands entire recorded output and then some.