During their first incarnation (1976–79), X-Ray Spex were "deliberate underachievers" and only managed to release five singles and one album. Nevertheless, their first single, "Oh Bondage Up Yours!", is now acknowledged as a classic punk rock single and the album Germfree Adolescents is widely acclaimed as a classic album of the punk rock genre.
Initially, the band featured singer Poly Styrene on vocals, Jak Airport (Jack Stafford) on guitars, Paul Dean on bass, Paul 'B. P.' Hurding on drums, and Lora Logic on saxophone. This latter instrument was an atypical addition to the standard punk instrumental line-up, and became one of the group's most distinctive features. Lora played on only one of the band's records. As she was only fifteen, playing saxophone was a hobby and she left the band to complete her education.
X-Ray Spex's other distinctive musical element was Poly Styrene's voice, which has been variously described as "effervescently discordant" and "powerful enough to drill holes through sheet metal". As Mari Elliot, Poly had released a reggae single for GTO Records in 1976, "Silly Billy", which had not charted. Born in 1957 in Bromley, Kent, of both Somali and British parentage, Poly Styrene became the group's public face, and remains one of the most memorable front-women to emerge from the punk movement.[19] Unorthodox in appearance, she wore thick braces on her teeth and once stated that "I said that I wasn't a sex symbol and that if anybody tried to make me one I'd shave my head tomorrow".[20] She later actually did at Johnny Rotten's flat prior to a concert at Victoria Park. Mark Paytress recounts in the liner notes for the 2002 compilation, The Anthology, that Jah Wobble, Rotten's longtime friend and bassist for his post-punk venture PiL, once described Styrene as a "strange girl who often talked of hallucinating. She freaked John out." Rotten, known more for his outspoken dislikes and disdain than for praise and admiration, said of X-Ray Spex in a retrospective punk documentary, "Them, they came out with a sound and attitude and a whole energy—it was just not relating to anything around it—superb."
[Spotify] The Day the World Turned Day-Glo
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