Lora Logic was the 16 year old saxophone player in X-Ray Spex, playing with them from their formation in 1976 through to the end of 1977. She left the band before they recorded their seminal LP “Germfree Adolescents”, although has since said that most of her sax arrangements were used during the recording.
“Poly saw that I was getting a little too much of the spotlight and I was just replaced without any notice after a year. They even used all the sax parts I worked out for the album (Germ Free Adolescents) with a new player”.
It was unusual to have one stroppy, out-spoken women in a band, but even more unusual to have two. The saxophone wasn’t an typical punk band instrument either, but Lora somehow made it one, so much so that now it’s hard to imagine the original X-Ray Spex sound without one . In an interview with online music magazine perfectsoundforever in 2003, she tells interviewer Jason Gross:
“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.”
After X-Ray Spex, Lora formed the band Essential Logic and also played on sessions with The Raincoats, The Stranglers, and Swell Maps.
After releasing a solo LP “Pedigree Charm” on Rough Trade in 1982, Lora joined the Hare Krishna religion, and gave up recording and touring until she performed with X-Ray Spex again when they reformed in 1995.
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