Saxophonist Lora Logic made a name with punk band X-Ray Spex, then vanished from music for 40 years—now, she’s back.

Punk saxophone legend Lora Logic has returned with her first album in over four decades, hitching a UFO ride to Stepney with her band, Essential Logic.

Not many punks have wielded a saxophone. Lora Logic (born Susan Whitby) is the archetype. She’s best known for her raw, innovative sound as part of the band X-Ray Spex in the 70s. 

After an eventful forty-odd years during which she took an extended break from music, Logic’s tunes are once again gracing our eardrums. Her single Alien Boys, now remixed by David Audé, crash-lands her back in the East End.

With lead singer Poly Styrene’s Stepney roots and a famous ‘Rock Against Racism’ performance in Victoria Park, X-Ray Spex was in the 70s ecosystem of the East End’s punk-rock scene. It was one of the few punk bands on the UK scene with a female lead, and the only one defined by its saxophone – an instrument which becomes thrillingly electric in Logic’s hands. 

Logic’s time with the band began and ended with a tumultuous relationship with frontwoman Poly Styrene, who brought Logic on board. 

The daughter of a Somali-born Stepney dock worker, Styrene was a stark contrast to a largely white and male punk crowd. Her big curls and thick braces set her even further apart.‘I said that I wasn’t a sex symbol and that if anybody tried to make me one I’d shave my head tomorrow,’ she once said in an interview with NME magazine.

In 1981 Styrene saw a UFO after a gig in Doncaster, which she described in a later interview with the Independent as ‘a bright ball of luminous pink, made of energy – like a fireball.’ The sighting led to a psychiatric misdiagnosis of schizophrenia, although it turned out later on she’d been bipolar. 

Possibly as a result of poor mental health, Styrene had booted Logic from the band by 1978, feeling threatened by reports that Logic’s saxophone was stealing the show. Logic split off to form her own post-punk band, Essential Logic, which let her instrument shine.

Logic would squat in Hackney for the next three and a half years while making music for Essential Logic. ‘There was a whole culture [of squatting] at the time and it was easy for artists,’ she said, ‘It was a political statement as well, because of empty housing.’ 

By the early 80s, Logic was disillusioned by the music world and joined Hare Krishna – a branch of Hinduism – where she found more peace. Eventually, this led her and Styrene, who had joined Hare Krishna for similar reasons, to cross paths again.

Logic ultimately moved to India, got married and had a child. Her relationship with Styrene softened and healed. Although it was never perfect, they kept in touch over the years before Styrene’s death of breast cancer in 2011. 

Living in the Hare Krishna movement, Logic’s life was markedly low-tech. Digital music production, social media and the internet passed her by vaguely. Motherhood filled her up creatively, taking her away from music. 

Around the time of Covid, Logic returned to the UK with her husband, Eric Murphy – Logic’s life partner and a UFO enthusiast. Her daughter, now an adult, encouraged her to revive Essential Logic. 

Land of Kali, released in 2022, was only Essential Logic’s second album – with a gap of more than forty years in between. ‘It’s a very different world now to make music,’ Logic said. ‘To make a record then, it was a big privilege to have someone pay for you to go into a recording studio.’ 

‘I didn’t even have a computer before I started on [the new album],’ Logic said, ‘I didn’t have a phone. I was on another planet! I hadn’t really listened to contemporary music for two decades either.’ 

Logic’s daughter opened her an Instagram account, plugging her back in. ‘After she did that I started getting all these messages from people who were still listening to my music,’ Logic said, ‘I just got so much warmth and encouragement.’ 

Along with Logic’s iconic saxophone arrangements, the album blends influences ranging from electronic pop to Hindu mantras. Perhaps because Logic was tuned out of the music industry for so long, it manages not to sound like anything else.

Alien Boys is one of Land of Kali’s most lighthearted songs, recorded during lockdown in Logic’s bedroom. The song draws on mixed feelings towards the Covid lockdowns and technology in general. With Logic’s saxophone carrying the tune she sings: 

‘Early one morning on Stepney Green

I was up and polishing my washing machine

When a ray of light took me by surprise

There was a craft full of alien boys outside’

A new version of Land of Kali called Rekalibrated was re-released in 2024. It includes a remix of Alien Boys by Grammy Award winner David Audé, which amps up the electronics into a potential club track. 

Threads of Logic’s story echo in the catchy electro-pop. Alien Boys evokes the early days of X-Ray Spex and Essential Logic, Styrene’s UFO sighting and Logic’s willingness to let creative passion take her somewhere completely unknown. 

In the lead-up to the release of the Alien Boys remix, Logic’s husband Eric Murphy got in touch with The Slice to promote the song and share her story, bringing our attention to the Bethnal Green alien sighting. Sadly, he passed away shortly after. 

This article is dedicated to Eric Murphy,  without which Land of Kali and Lora Logic would have never landed in our office.

If you liked this read Reviving the cold case of the 2009 Bethnal Green UFO spotting