Germ Free Adolescents

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The first incarnation of X-Ray Spex existed from mid-1976 to 1979, during which time they released five singles—"Oh Bondage Up Yours!", "Identity", "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo", "Germfree Adolescents", and "Highly Inflammable"—and one album, Germfree Adolescents. [17] [32] One retrospective review described the singles as "not only riveting examples of high-energy punk, but contained provocative, thoughtful lyrics berating the urban synthetic fashions of the 70s and urging individual expression". [33] On 28 April 2008, Poly Styrene gave a performance of "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" in front of more than 10,000 people at the Love Music Hate Racism free concert in Victoria Park, East London. [ citation needed] Hiljaiset Levyt: PUNKNET 77 - X-Ray Spex". Hiljaiset.sci.fi. Archived from the original on 4 March 2012 . Retrieved 29 June 2014.

Christgau, Robert (26 April 2011). "Poly Styrene, Punk Pioneer, Dies at 53". NPR . Retrieved 23 October 2020. The album was not a large commercial success, and never charted, however it was critically praised, with the prolific Robert Christgau of the Village Voice regretting the fact that Poly Styrene’s “irresistible color” was not released in the US, rather released only in Britain by label EMI. The album was also produced by Falcon Stuart, who also housed all the band’s members, advertised, and even photographed for them. Stuart would also go on to spawn Adam Ant’s career, and others. In keeping with its subject, the new film Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliche is not your average music documentary. It shows Poly struggling to deal with fame at a young age, disbanding X-Ray Spex and abandoning the limelight to live in a Hare Krishna commune. It thoughtfully reflects on themes of creativity, identity, spirituality, motherhood, loss and mental health. The central voice is that of Poly’s daughter, Celeste Bell, confronting the difficulty of mourning the loss of a mother who had been so loved, yet so complicated. Through archival footage and interviews, the film examines the uneasy line between how the music press categorised and celebrated Poly Styrene as a rebel and a figurehead, overlooking the vulnerability of Marianne Elliott-Said. Gardner, Steve (1996). "Hiljaiset Levyt: 100 Best Punk singles". Archived from the original on 24 August 2014. Revolt-in-plastic punk. Weird arty stuff with saxophone Strong, M.C. (2003). The Great Indie Discography . Edinburgh: Canongate. p.184. ISBN 1-84195-335-0.

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The Guardian (November 2007). 1,000 Albums To Hear Before You Die . London. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) In late September 1977, a studio recording of "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" was released as a single. Today, the 45 is regarded as their most enduring artefact, both as a piece of music and as a sort of proto-grrrl catchphrase. [26] [27] Opening with the spoken/screamed line, "Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard but I think— oh, bondage, up yours!", the song could be interpreted as a premonition of the riot grrrl movement 15 years later, although Styrene herself insists it was more intended as an anti-consumerist/ anti-capitalist jingle, and was not exclusively feminist in nature. From Concrete Jungle Festival to X-ray Spex live at the Roundhouse". symondlawes.blogspot.co.uk. 19 March 2011 . Retrieved 20 October 2015. BOFH: Oh Bondage Up Yours! (article demonstrating the use of the song title as a catchphrase)". The Register . Retrieved 23 May 2008. Live @ the Roundhouse London 2008 (November 2009: Year Zero, YZCDDVD01); CD and DVD of live recordings from September 2008

In an age of burgeoning A.I. and rampant outsourcing, the sci-fi poetry of “Genetic Engineering” is even more prophetic, as Poly declares that “genetic engineering could create the perfect race… could exterminate/introducing worker clones/as our subordinated slave.” Her grim propositions have lost none of their daunting edge. Punks were screaming “NO FUTURE,” and fair enough, but Poly went further, deeper; her songs dared to imagine just how bad hellish normalization could be. And here we are. Oh Bondage Up Yours!" / "I Am a Cliché" (September 1977: Virgin Records, VS 189); also released as a 12" single (VS 189–12) X-Ray Spex: Germfree Adolescents". Mojo. p.131. The band's entire studio output in just over an hour... Thompson, Dave (2000). Punk . Ontario: Collector's Guide Publication. p.102. ISBN 1-896522-27-0. It was a tremendous record… Whatever else X-Ray Spex might achieve, Oh Bondage had already done more than most groups manage in an entire career Long-running California punk band NOFX has performed a cover version of Germfree Adolescents live. [24]

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a b c Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19thed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p.612. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 354 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. [23] Cover versions and cultural references [ edit ] When you look in the mirror do you see yourself?/Do you see yourself on the T.V. screen?/Do you see yourself in the magazine/When you see yourself does it make you scream? In July of 1976, Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, a Scottish-Somali girl from London’s inner-city Brixton district, celebrated her 19th birthday by going to see the Sex Pistols. Marianne dropped out of school at age 15, and had spent the last few years drifting between music festivals, crash pads, and recording studios in an attempt to get her music career off of the ground. She had even released a single, a novelty reggae song called “ Silly Billy,” with Donna Summer’s U.K. distributor, GTO Records. But she was frustrated—frustrated with not being taken seriously as a musician, and frustrated by the racism, sexism, and classism that seemed to make achieving her dreams impossible. Due to this obsession, she sees in a boy “cleanliness,” and is attracted to him for that reason. Cleanliness in this song denotes the expectation of physical and sexual “purity” for women and girls. This could also signify the subject’s age; puberty is often thought of as gross, and society deems bodies and bodily functions as inherently dirty or disgusting. The song hints towards the girl’s abnegation of her body as it is changing and growing.

Oh Bondage Up Yours!" featured on The Roxy London WC2 (24 June 1977: Harvest Records SHSP4069) – No.24 UK Albums Chart [41] Dolan, Jon (May 2001). "The 50 Most Essential Punk Records – 5. X-Ray Spex: Germfree Adolescents". Spin. Vol.17, no.5. p.108 . Retrieved 23 October 2020. X-Ray Spex played at 'Front Row Festival', a three-week event at the Hope and Anchor, Islington in late November and early December 1977. [24] This resulted in the band's inclusion, alongside the likes of Wilko Johnson, 999, The Only Ones, the Saints, The Stranglers, and XTC, on a double album of recordings from the festival. Then, in February 1978, before the release of their second single, X-Ray Spex recorded the first of two sessions for John Peel at BBC Radio 1. [31] Their profile was further enhanced by playing a fortnight's residency at New York's CBGB's, even though the album Germ Free Adolescents was not released in America until 1992. When we first did the RS 500 in 2003, people were talking about the “death of the album.” The album —and especially the album release — is more relevant than ever. (As in 2003, we allowed votes for compilations and greatest-hits albums, mainly because a well-made compilation can be just as coherent and significant as an LP, because compilations helped shaped music history, and because many hugely important artists recorded their best work before the album had arrived as a prominent format.)

a b "Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex frontwoman and punk icon, subject of new documentary". 29 March 2017.