The Day The World Turned Day-Glo by X-Ray Spex

"Some people say little girls should be seen and not heard. But I think, Oh Bondage Up Yours! 1-2-3-4!"

And so starts the first ever single from the punk band X-Ray Spex, "Oh Bondage Up Yours!".
Not a bad opening is it, especially as the final part was virtually screamed down the microphone by the bands singer Poly Styrene.
This is something that had a profound effect back in 1977, as young girls just weren't supposed to act like that. It could be argued that this was the start of what became known as "Girl Power".
Punk Rock opened up doors for many people, especially for women, who were at the forefront of that movement and have not looked back since.

By the time of their 2nd single "The Day The World Turned Dayglo", X-Ray Spex were well established within the UK Punk Rock scene. The single was released in March of 1978 and got to number 23 in the UK charts.
The B Side was a track called "I Am A Poseur", which contained the lyrics, "I am a poseur and i don't care. I like to make people stare". There certainly were a few poseurs around in those days and especially in 1978.

X-Ray Spex were formed after Poly Styrene (Real name Marianne Elliott) saw the Sex Pistols on Hastings Pier on 3rd July 1976, supporting the Welsh rock band Budgie would you believe? A day that just happened to be her 18th birthday. Like many people who saw the Sex Pistols in those early days, it changed her life.
X-Ray Spex quickly established themselves on the London Punk Rock scene, playing at the legendary Roxy club and appearing on the "Live At The Roxy" album released in July 1977.

The main reason that "The Day The World Turned Dayglo" has been included here though, is because of the colour of the actual vinyl itself.

As you can see, it is indeed Dayglo!

In my mind, one of the great things about this period in British music is the revival of the 45rpm single.
Yes, they'd been popular for many years, but the Punk era kick-started a revolution in cover art and coloured vinyl. The whole singles market was revitalised and new, independent record labels started springing up everywhere. Partly because the mainstream labels weren't interested in a lot of the new music being created, a whole new Do It Yourself culture was started.
Singles became collectors items, with limited edition releases containing many shades of coloured vinyl, or special picture sleeves. Apart from the new record labels, new artists and designers were emerging to produce all that new and exciting cover art. Once again, the ripples from that era are still being felt today.
There will be more coloured vinyl, cover art and new record labels featured in future blog posts.

X-Ray Spex only released one album Germ Free Adolescents, which came out in 1978 and the band split up in 1979. They did reform, albeit briefly, several times, most notably in 2008 when they performed a sell out gig at the Roundhouse, in London. But, no new music was ever released.

Poly Styrene settled in my home town of St Leonards On Sea and lived, literally, just around the corner from my house. She, very sadly, died of breast cancer in a local Hospice on 25th April 2011.
I wrote a blog post, "Oh Cancer, Up Yours!" about her death at the time.

I think it can be safely said, that without the emergence of the Punk Rock movement in the mid 1970's, bands such as X-Ray Spex would never have been given the opportunity to record and release their music to a wider record buying public.
And what a lesser place this world would be without that music.