THE RETURN OF X-RAY SPEX
Poly Styrene and co prepare to rock London’s Roundhouse on September 6th 2008.
Who could forget Poly Styrene’s rallying cry of ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours’? Well, get ready to yell along once more as punk icons X-ray Spex are back to celebrate over 30 years of punk rock in style.
Poly and the band will be giving a plethora of X-ray classics an airing, including ‘Germ Free Adolescents’ from their hit 1978 album of the same name, ‘I Am A Cliché’, ‘I Am A Poseur’ and of course, ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours’.
And with the Camden Roundhouse being a venue, which has not hosted an X-ray Spex gig since the height of the punk rock era, In 1978. The venue witnessed some of the most iconic bands of what was to become a worldwide movement (it’s the place where Patti Smith sang to an audience consisting of, amongst others, The Clash, the Slits before they were the Slits and many other burgeoning punk luminaries,) it is the perfect venue to stage an X-ray Spex celebration of 30 years of Germfree Adolescents.
Over time Poly Styrene and X-ray Spex featured a number of musicians in a co operative, some playing on live shows, others on record, but the legacy remains and has influenced many bands right across the globe ever since. A truly iconic British band
X-ray Spex were one of the first bands, labeled as punk to get signed to a major label – Virgin – and despite not being considered a radio-friendly band at the time, rapidly built up a massive worldwide following, from their blistering live performances and sessions on John Peel’s legendary Radio 1 show in the late ‘70s. They also landed a residency at the iconic punk dive CBGBs in New York – making a deep impression on New York’s New Wavers such as Blondie and (a rather smitten) Richard Hell, later onto kurt Cobain. Independent and determined to be taken seriously alongside her male counterparts, Poly Styrene once stated she would “shave her head” if anyone tried to make her a sex symbol. And she did. So there.
Being a female of mixed race at a time of much political and social unrest, X-ray Spex took part in the unification of British youth in the rock against racism events of the mid 70's turbulent London
After X-ray Spex disbanded in 1979, Poly joined the Hare Krishna movement, being very active in food for life, both with fund raising and physically feeding London's homeless. And musically, worked on solo material, culminating in 1980 album ‘Translucence’ and the EP ‘Gods and Goddesses’ in 1986.
Fast forward to today, and the band which brought us that raucous, high octane sound are firmly ensconced in our hearts as punk legends with Poly at the helm, fighting sexism and consumerism with her famous lyrics and feisty persona. ‘I made a commentary of society how I saw it, and I thought it was getting really plastic. Most songs for women then were very romantic and I wanted to write about other things. So I wrote about genetic engineering.” Inventive, original, fiercely bright and fun, X-ray Spex are back to shake us up and show us how it’s done.
Don’t miss X-ray Spex Live at the Roundhouse
6th September – 7pm
Ticket information and full details www.concretejunglefestivals.com
For interview requests / press list please contact Symond at symond@concretejunglefestivals.com
OFFICIAL X-RAY SPEX MERCHANDISE WWW.CONCRETEJUNGLEFESTIVALS.COM
OFFICIAL X-RAY SPEX MERCHANDISE www.concretejunglefestivals.com
I am looking at an NME review dated May 20th 1978 by one Ian Penman of the Roundhouse gig with X-Ray Spex, the Automatics and Adam and the Ants. Mr Penman describes Adam as "A penguin in bondage". The Automatics are on "remote control" and Spex "fail to sweep him off his feet".
Just before Christmas I attended a bash at the Britiah Consul General's house in L.A. where an NME editor was talking about how their august publication was responsible for breaking punk in the UK in the 1970s. The truth is that most of their reviewers who wrote about punk in the day were recruited from the ranks of Prog rock bands that were swept away by punk music and most of their reviews were mean spirited to the last degree.
Anyway....let me tell you what that review could never tell you- let me tell you what that gig was actually like:
Adam was up first wearing an old mac and bondage pants and kicked off with a catchy little number called "Bathroom Function". There was not much indication of the swashbuckling MTV uberdude he was to become a few years later. In truth he seemed a little shy.
My well documented modesty prevents me from describing the Automatics set except to say that we really got the crowd up and on the moshing floor. "When the Tanks Roll (Over Poland Again)" was just about to be released on Island Records and this would probably have been about the first time the London fans had heard it. We encored by playing it again!
X-Ray Spex were really one of the very few punk groups who were in the first division of Punk and I had seen them very early on playing the local pub with the unlikely name of the Nashville. The air had always electric around that band. They definitely had the zeitgeist securely in their zipper pocket and over time I had become friends with Rudy and Tex. When they last played the Nashville they were supported by a local punk band called the Police who had been booed off by the fans!
Now the moment the crowd has been waiting for and the band comes out. The girls come out from different sides of the stage. From the first downbeat of the wailing sax line of "Oh Bondage- Up Yours" the mosh pit exploded in energy. This was the bands coronation- an elevation from that world of borderline violence and the dark pubs that had been the lot of us punk bands and the world that the rest of us still inhabited. The crowd danced with wildness and abandon cheerfully throwing pints around like a benediction. Perhaps Mr. Penman was in another bar. More likely he had already gone home.
Many years have come and gone and I could not tell you what songs they played or in what order anymore than I could remember the Automatics set but I can tell you that it was one of the most memorable gigs I have ever attended and that as I stand on the lawn of the Consol Generals standing next to Peter Asher and nursing a soda water listening to the NME editor drone on about inventing punk I am still thrilled by the thickness of that energy and the wildness of it all on that early summer evening three decades ago.
Last I heard Adam was on lockdown at a psyche ward, Lauras a devotee of buddism, Tex runs a high-end restaurant in Vegas and this month the Automatics are on the playlist in America for the first time. Life has had its way with all of us but I hope that if you can get to the Roundhouse to see the Spex show you will raise your glasses briefly to all these players from a time before computers or ipods or videos or skateboards, a simpler time when it was still safe to dive dick first into disaster and the music....ah, the music....somehow it still mattered.
Dave Philp
The Automatics.
L.A. 2008
X-RAY SPEX 1976 -1978
Snapshot surveillance by P-P Hartnett,
author of ROCK 'N' ROLL SUICIDE(Sceptre, 2003). -1-
ONCE UPON A TIME...
It was in the hot summer of 1976 that Poly Styrene placed an advert
in the British music papers NME and MELODY MAKER which started
with the grabbing header of 'YOUNG PUNX WHO WANT TO STICK IT TOGETHER'.
The ad worked like a magic magnet. Jak Airport, Lora Logic and Paul Dean
were first through the doors to audition.
Poly thought they were talented plus cute, perfect for the X-RAY SPEX dream.
X-RAY SPEX gave their debut performance at London's Roxy in Covent Garden
after just six rehearsals in their manager's front room. Energy galore,
but a little shambolic - as can be heard on the LIVE AT THE ROXY album.
TWINKLE TWINKLE...
Poly Styrene was sitting in her 'POLY STYRENE'
boutique in Beaufort Market, King's Road, when the manager of local pub named
MAN IN THE MOON came in and picked up a snazzy, slim-line, day-glo tie. His focus,
however, was on the girl with braces on her teeth: Poly.
Having read in the local Chelsea newspaper that Poly also had a band,
this entrepreneur offered a residency at MAN IN THE MOON, the now infamous World's End pub
and theatre space in Chelsea between Vivienne Westwood's notorious shop then named Seditionaries
and Beaufort Market. The answer was "Y-E-S."
X-RAY SPEX Played every Wednesday night, on the lower ground floor of MAN IN THE MOON,
thus making them a very tight band. Admission was a mere £2 to cover costs.
They soon became the darlings of the arty Chelsea set, a handful of music journalists... and
fans who'd spotted them early on. Poly also gave other bands a break at MAN IN THE MOON,
among them ADAM AND THE ANTS, THE SWANK and ANNIE LENNOX AND THE TOURISTS.
X-RAY SPEX started to get a following as they played small venues all over the UK.
Word had spread about the fresh appeal and raw power, which resulted in a
swift signing to Richard Branson's Virgin Records for a one-off single,
the infamous OH BONDAGE UP YOURS!.
SWEETNESS AND ROTTEN...
Poly Styrene, remembers Rotten's envy, when X-RAY SPEX later signed to EMI
as the Sex Pistols had been dropped, for upsetting Her Majesty by depicting the Queen of England
on the front cover of their single GOD SAVE THE QUEEN with a safety pin rammed through
her nose with a lyric declaring:
'She made you a moron
She ain't no human being'
JOHNNY said to Poly, "At least you're on a proper label",
as Virgin were then viewed as a successful independent and 'cool' company.
FAST FORWARD TO FAME...
X-RAY SPEX made several television appearances in the UK and Europe. Poly gave interviews on the radio,
but X-RAY SPEX at the time were not considered to have a radio-friendly sound.
Their following mainly came from their live performances. They did play live on the John Peel sessions,
however, a highly-esteemed Radio One late night show that had more of an underground appeal.
NEW YORK, NEW WAVE...
X-RAY SPEX got lucky, playing twice a night for two weeks at CBGB'S in New York City.
Many of the New York New Wave set turned out in style.
Among them members of BLONDIE and RICHARD HELL from the VOIDOIDS, who wanted to date
Poly, but her heart was elsewhere.
OSMONDS?
On returning to the UK, the venues got bigger and bigger, culminating in a tour of all the Odeon's in the UK,
with Hammersmith Odeon as the Grand Finale.
The drummer from the SEX PISTOLS, PAUL COOK, and KEITH MOON of THE WHO,
were often spotted at the front of stage checking out the competition. MOON,
the wild man of drums would be sweating amongst the pogoing kids, shouting out "Osmonds!"
concrete jungle promotions's Friend Space (Randomized)
Poly Please im begging you please come to Houston or austin Teaxas My frends and people and i REALLY want to see you i have too see you before i die XoXoX Spinellie
Debutant Disco coming soon. Support this band and look out for activity this year, a brand new act. Some of you may know the band as the opening act for the X-Ray Spex show at Camden roundhouse, which received great critical acclaim.
Featuring ‘Celeste’ the daughter of Poly Styrene.
For all booking details and enquiries please contact symond@concretejunglefestivals.com
Please join the myspace friends and show your support. We will be offering first chance tickets to our loyal supporters
confirmed for the stavenger festival norway, 15th may 2009
