Lora Logic : The John Robb interview

Lora Logic : The John Robb interview

Lora Logic is the brilliant sax player who added a magical twist to X Ray Spex despite only appearing on one single – Oh Bondage Up Yours.

But what a single and what a sax part!

Her distinctive style was stamped very quickly. In those few months she spent with the band, she didn’t just write the driving sax blast on ‘Oh Bondage’, she also wrote all the sax parts for the band’s classic debut album, which were then played by someone else after she had been removed from the band and yet her sax parts have stood the test of time to become part of the soundtrack from the iconic period.

In that brief flurry of activity, she managed to make the sax one of the key instruments in punk rock  – her brilliant style reinvented the instrument and made it contemporary at the time.

In the early photos of X Ray Spex, the then 16-year-old Lora in her headgear, sax and plastic mac has the same kind of charismatic style as Poly, and the pair of them, under the spotlight, is a powerful statement of intent reframing music and style and it’s a shame it didn’t last.

She talks about being in the band and her swift exit in the interview and much more like her session with the Stranglers where she played on Hey! (Rise of the Robots) on the band’s classic 1978 Black and White album (a track she performed live with the band on stage at Rebellion for the first time since 1978 following this interview). She also talks about her own band – the recently resurrected Essential Logic, where she had two saxes and sang and who were one of the first post-punk bands to find a new way out of the wreckage of punk. The recently reformed Essential Logic are on fire and well worth checking out.

Lora Logic : The John Robb interview