X Ray Spex - Live @ The Roundhouse London 2008

  by John Clarkson

published: 21 / 10 / 2009

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“It’s been a long time,” says Poly Styrene at the end of ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours!’, her band X-Ray Spex’s first song at the Roundhouse. From anyone else this would come across as a cliché. In the case of Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex, it, however, could not be more true. It is only X-Ray Spex’s second gig in the thirty years since their original demise, the last being eighteen years ago in 1991 at Brixton Academy. During the three decades since X-Ray Spex’s break-up in early 1979 just six months after they released their debut album ‘Germ Free Adolescents’, Poly, as she revealed in an extensive Pennyblackmusic interview in 2005, has lead a life of soap opera proportions. She had a breakdown in the dying days of the band, and was sectioned and misdiagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia. Upon being released, she became involved in the Krishna movement, with which she maintains ties and spent several years living in a temple. A subsequent attempt to reform X-Ray Spex after the Brixton gig led to a second album, ‘Consumer Conscious’, in 1995. The reformation ended, however, in disaster when Poly fell out with her band mates and shortly afterwards was run over by a fire engine in central London. Her subsequent recuperation in hospital over several months put paid to any attempts at promotional work or touring the album. X-Ray Spex always stood out from other punk bands of 70s in that they used a saxophonist, as well as the more traditional two guitars and drums. While other acts and musicians of the era were preaching anarchy and hate, Poly, attracted to the movement by its focus on individuality and self-expression, was as much a flower child as she was ever a punk, and was more concerned in her lyrics with both green and environmental issues. Of the original members of X-Ray Spex, only Poly and bassist Paul Dean remain. Guitarist Jak Airport died from cancer in 2004, and drummer BP Hurding and saxophonist Lora Logic and her replacement Rudi Thompson are all also gone from the line-up, their places in the band being filled out by the Gt.Saxby on guitar, the mohican-headed Sid Truelove on drums and Flash on saxophone. ‘Live@the Roundhouse, London 2008’ is not without flaws. As with many other concert CDs and DVDs, its sound and camera footage is sometimes shaky. There are times in particular when Dean and Saxby’s guitar work is drowned out in the mix by Styrene’s trademark foghorn vocals and the exuberant Truelove and Flash’s feisty drum and saxophone work. It, however, has much to recommend it. In the band’s hour long set, the ‘Germ Free Adolescents’ album is played almost in its entirety, including such classics as ‘Art-i-ficial’, ‘Warrior in Woolworths’, ‘Identity’ and a stunning version of ‘The Day the World Turned Day-Glo’. The under-rated ‘Consumer Conscious’ album is represented by a smattering of songs such as ‘Melancholy’, ‘Junk Food Junkie’ and ‘Cigarettes’, and there is even a new track, peace anthem, ‘Bloody War’. The band, Poly Stryene ever smiling, and its equally energetic 3000 strong audience are clearly having a fantastic night. The evening is topped off as it all began with a parting shot of ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours!’, this time featuring Styrene’s daughter, Celeste Bell, and friend, Zillah Minx from the 70s group Rubella Ballet, on vibrant backing vocals. Thirty years on, while many of the other early era of punk bands seem dated, X-Ray Spex and Poly Styrene’s songs still carry weight and a clout, her eco messages now sounding no longer just prophetic and ever more urgent. It is good to both hear and see this often misunderstood punk icon and her band back after so many years’ absence, and on such dynamic form.

Track Listing:-

1 Oh Bondage Up Yours!
2 Art-i-ficial
3 Obsessed With You
4 Warrior In Woolworths
5 Crystal Clear
6 Let’s Submerge
7 I Am A Cliché
8 I Can’t Do Anything
9 Identity
10 Melancholy
11 Genetic Engineering
12 Highly Inflammable
13 I Live Off You
14 I Am A Poseur
15 Germ Free Adolescents
16 Junk Food Junkie
17 Bloody War
18 Cigarettes
19 The Day The World Turned Day-Glo
20 Encore – Oh Bondage Up Yours!

Band Links:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Ray_Spex

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