AccuRadio Song Of The Day-X-Ray Spex

Artist:X-Ray Spex

Song:Oh Bondage Up Yours!

Album:Let's Submerge: The Anthology

Though the British punk band X-Ray Spex only released one album and a handful of singles, they were influential on the bands that followed. For one thing, they had a female lead singer named Poly Styrene. She wrote all the songs so I will start with her. She was born Marianne Joan Elliott-Said July 3, 1957 in Bromley, England but she grew up in the south London area of Brixton. Her mother was a legal secretary and her father was a Somali born dock worker. As a teen, she ran away from home and hitchhiked to music festivals. She recorded a demo in 1976 as Mari Elliott. It was a ska song. It was released as a single on GTO Records. Then she attended a Sex Pistols concert and placed an ad in the music papers looking for "young punx who want to stick it together". And before you laugh, many bands in those days were formed that way. She got the name Poly Styrene from the Yellow Pages. The other main member of X-Ray Spex was guitarist Jack Stafford AKA Jak Airport. He wrote the music for Poly Styrene's lyrics. Plus they had a saxophonist. Susan Whitby AKA Lora Logic was the first sax player hired because the band's manager liked the idea of two girls fronting a punk band. She answered the ad but she didn't know how to play. So Rudi Thompson played sax most of the time. That's him in the video. Other members were Paul Dean on bass and B.P. Hurding on drums. X-Ray Specs were a sensation in London at the time because it was the only punk band with a female lead singer. Not that Poly Styrene could sing. It wasn't necessary in a punk band. They signed with EMI and Oh Bondage Up Yours! was released as a single. Then they released the album Germfree Adolescents in 1978. They even played a couple of weeks at the New York club CBGB's. And they appeared on the all star Rock Against Racism concert. It all ended when Poly Styrene was exhausted by touring and decided to quit the band in 1979. She went on to record solo and reformed X-Ray Spex in 1988. You can get all her recordings on this comp which is available as a digital download. Poly Styrene died of cancer on Apr. 25, 2011 at age 53. Here's X=Ray Spex performing Oh Bondage Up Yours! on Top Of The Pops 1978.