Fanfare in the Garden

Popcorn Boy

Lora Logic (born Susan Whitby c. 1960)  a British saxophonist, singer and songwriter. Joined Poly Styrene in 1976, age 15, to form X Ray Spex. A year later she assembled ESSENTIAL LOGIC , a post punk band, with Phil Legg /guitar,Rich Tea/drums, John Oliver/bass and Dave Wright on sax. Virgin records released a debut EP named" Wake Up". The next 3 years saw the recording of 6 singles and 1 album " Beat Rhythm News " , released on Rough Trade Records. During this post punk era , Lora also moonlighted with the Red Crayola, touring Europe and appearing on 3 singles and 2 albums, "Kangaroo" and "Soldier Talk". Her sax and daring vocals lent a unique quality to the bands she guested with. The Raincoats, The Stranglers ( "Black and White "LP), Kollaa Kestaa ( a Finnish band) , Boy George and  reggae artist Dennis Bovell ,amongst others , invited Lora's contribution .  In 1981 she collaborated in setting up an 8 track recording studio in Brixton, recording a solo album "Pedigree Charm". there. After a personal "meltdown",She left the music scene in 1981, along with Poly Styrene, to embrace a Hare Krishna lifestyle. spending time at Bhaktivedanta Manor, a spiritual ,country retreat , donated to the Krishnas by George Harrison. In 1995, X Ray Spex reformed to record "Conscious Consumer" . 2003 saw the release of " Fanfare In The Garden", (on Kill Rock Stars record label), a double CD anthology ,consisting of early Essential Logic, numerous home recordings and new songs from 1997 featuring Martin Muscatt, bassist Dave Farren( ex Bad Manners),Nick Pretzel on drums and Gary Valentine from Blondie. After 15 years of apparent silence, Lora is propelled onto Instagram in 2019 by her 21 year old daughter, Malini, with a bulging folder of fresh songs. She meets Jorge Morales, an Argentinian one man band. Sensing that nothing is an accident, they launch into sketching out a new album with the working title "Land of Kali". Lora meets up with Martin "Youth "Glover, who coincidentally produced Poly Styrene's album "Generation Indigo". Youth enjoys the new sketches and enthusiastically accepts Lora's invite to collaborate. December2019 sees Lora and Youth meeting at Abbey Road studios to complete "We Got Something", a previously unreleased composition , co arranged with Poly Styrene in the early 1980s . 2020 sees the new album unfolding and Lora diving into the world of lockdown video production ...