Saturday 24 November 2007

Is This How Rumours Start?

Imagine my excitement when one of my Google alerts included the statement that X-Ray Spex were getting back together for a reunion gig at the Roundhouse on 6 September 2008 (yes, it was that specific).

Now, I love Poly and the Spex and this blog is named in honour of one of their songs. I was talking with Chris following the Pistols gigs about which other 'impossible' gig I'd like to go to and X-Ray Spex were name-checked. 'Impossible' in the sense of not even dreaming it might happen, just like the Pistols gigs came out of the blue.

'Germfree Adolescents' is 30 years old next year, so wouldn't a reunion be fab? I've still got my copy of the original vinyl as well as on CD. It's been re-released on CD several times, both as a stand-alone album and as the basis of a compilation, and it's been re-released again as a digi-pack edition. I was a big fan back in the day and still am - Poly was ahead of her time in her songs about consumerism and the environment.

I also love 'Conscious Consumer', the reunion album from the '90s that I only discovered a couple of years ago. It's not the raw Spex of the '70s (and why on earth would it be?) but there are some great songs on there, with Poly's words and Lora's sax wailing away. 'Party', the closing track on the album, is one of my favourites, a simple little song that does it for me everytime, putting a smile on my face and making my feet twitch.

Poly's solo work is few and far between but well worth tracking down, 'Transluscence' and the 'Gods and Goddesses' EP. She still sings occasionally - most recently on a duet with Brian James on his latest record - and turns up around the place whether it's on Don Lett's 'Punk' DVD a couple of years ago or backstage at the Pistols gigs at Brixton a couple of weeks ago.

Not sure I've ever mentioned it on here, but I also tracked down a Lora Logic compilation CD from Canada. I bought Lora's 'Essential Logic' EP back in the day and it was great hearing that again on the CD.

Hhmmm... a Spex reunion.... now, wouldn't that be a fab thing?

1 comment:

David said...

That would be so cool if it happens