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.

Anarchy In The UK by Sex Pistols

After my post yesterday which talked about a day that changed my life in some ways. Here is a record that changed many people's lives and could even be argued to have changed the face of music and much else besides.

"Anarchy In The UK" wasn't the first Punk Rock single to be released, in the UK, back in those heady days of 1976 and 1977, but it was certainly the most influential.
The honour of being the first Punk Rock single probably goes to The Damned and their first release "New Rose", which came out about a month earlier. I will more than likely talk about "New Rose" at a later date, as it's still a big favourite of mine.

"Anarchy In The UK' was released on the EMI label on 26th November 1976 and reached number 38 in the UK charts. It was produced by Chris Thomas. But, the B Side of the single "I Wanna Be Me" was produced by Dave Goodman. I don't think that happened very often?
Both songs are credited to, in my mind anyway, the classic line up of Sex Pistols: Rotten, Jones, Matlock and Cook.
To be honest, i was never much of a fan of Sid Vicious, who joined after Matlock left the band in 1977 and i do get a little annoyed when Sid is mentioned above Glen Matlock most of the time. Especially when it was Glen Matlock who wrote most of the early and classic music that Sex Pistols produced.

Once again, i can remember buying "Anarchy In The UK" and once again, it was from 'Standens' in Tonbridge high street.
For some reason i didn't buy the single when it was first released. I'm not sure why, as i was well aware of the band and their music at that time. I was a voracious reader of the weekly music papers, especially Sounds and the NME. So, i knew all about this new musical movement called Punk Rock. In fact the NME is even mentioned in the lyrics of "Anarchy In The UK".
What i do know though is that i bought the single for only 40pence. It had been reduced in price, probably because of it's low chart position and was in a bargain bin!
It certainly was a bargain, as the single was deleted not long afterwards (see below for the reasons) and is now worth some money because of its rarity. I don't know how much it's worth, as i have no intention of selling it anyway.
At one time i thought i had lost my copy of "Anarchy In The UK", as i couldn't find it in my big box of vinyl singles. But, thankfully, it turned up recently in another box with some other of my rarer vinyl 45's. Phew!

Sex Pistols were dropped from EMI records in early 1977, after the all the "Filth and the fury" and the aftermath of the now infamous Bill Grundy interview on Thames TV on 1st December 1976.
I remember that interview well, although i didn't actually see it at the time.
I was at work and in another section of the building where i worked, when a young work colleague, who had seen the interview, rushed up and told me all about it. He obviously knew i'd be interested, which i was.

I think it can safely be said, that if you didn't know about this new thing called Punk Rock before 1st December 1976, you most certainly did on 2nd December 1976.

The rest, as they say, is history and what a history it is.

That period certainly changed my life, possibly because of my age? I was 18 in 1976.
Music was a huge part of that change, as it was a time when i probably bought more records than i have ever done since. Most of those records were 45rpm vinyl singles, like "Anarchy In The UK".
I even paid full price for most of them too.