Born Susan Whitby, she changed her name to Lora Logic upon joining her first band, X-Ray Spex, when she was all of sixteen. Armed with her trusty saxophone, Lora proceeded to make a distinct mark for herself in the tenebrous reaches of the London punk scene during her fairly short stint with the Spex. In fact, the sounds of the Spex was distinct from other bands of that period for two reasons: Poly Styrene's peel-the-paint-off-the-wall screech and Lora Logic's raunchy, slightly-but-not-quite-completely off-key sax. Driven by a fast-paced, energetic rhythm section, the Spex proved a winning combination. According to one source, however, Lora eventually was "persuaded" to leave this band after she started receiving too much attention at the expense of Poly - in any case, Lora had left the Spex by 1978.

After the Spex, Lora went on to form the five piece outfit Essential Logic in 1978. Although perhaps not "punk" in the traditional sense, the band never-the-less was born in and of the times of the 1970's punk zeitgeist ("spirit of the times"). The music was characterized by a ramshackle sax-driven rhythmic style, and although the group dutifully provided a number of singles and EP's, they ultimately enjoyed very limited commercial success and ended up disbanding in 1979.

After the demise of Essential Logic, Lora produced the solo EP Wonderful Offer in 1981 through Rough Trade and followed up with the album Pedigree Charm in 1982 (recorded with her fellow band-mates Charles Hayward (drums), Rich Tea (drums on Brute Fury and Wonderful Offer), Ben Annesley (bass), Phil Legg (guitars and bass on Rat Alle). She also went on to guest with bands like Red Krayola, The Raincoats, The Swell Maps and Kolla Kestää from Finland (Lora's mother was born in Finland, where Lora is now known as "The Godmother of Punk").

Interesting tangent on Finland, from a note sent to me on by Jarmo Haapamäki (Sweden): Kollaa Kestää took their name after a Finnish book about the Second World War. Kollaa is a small Karelian village in south-east Finland, near the Russian border. During the war, when the Russians pushed and pushed toward Finland there were some brave and tough Finnish soldiers who held back the Red Army in Kollaa. I don't know the whole story but roughly "Kollaa Kestää" means "Kollaa holds on".

However, after these solo and guest projects, Lora left music entirely to join the Hare Krishnas, re-christening herself as Shyama Manjari in the process (as did her former Spex bandmate Poly Styrene, who changed her name to Maharani). Likely punk didn't provide any spiritual enlightenment, possibly it was disillusionment with the music business, or maybe Lora was just getting sick and tired of the whole scene. During the 1980's and early 1990's, during Lora's time with the Krishnas, she continued to write and perform music on a smaller scale. She also got married in 1984 and had 2 children; she and her husband are still together after 20 years.

From Lora's recent interview with Jason Gross:

Poly joined the Krishnas and we met up for the first time in years. She had been going through a lot herself and I understood. We formed a reggae-ish band with other Krishnas called Juggernaut and played a few gigs at the Glastonbury Festival (1983) but that didn't last long [...] I living in a manor that George Harrison had given to the English Krishna people where I set up a studio that I shared with Poly and others - I'd always been writing and rehearsing (I always saw that as my service to Krishna and share that) but nothing really came out. I did the odd session work like singing for Boy George (Bow Down Mister, 1991) and appearing on Top of the Pops for that.

Little was heard from her again until 1995, when Poly came out of retirement to reform X-Ray Spex once again. Together with Lora and bassist Paul Dean as well as a couple of newcomers, the ressurrected Spex released a brand-new CD called Concious Consumer in October 1995 and completed a tour of England and Japan during the fall of 1996.

Lora Logic with her children

(circa 2003)

Lora was interviewed by Jason Gross in 2003; the full interview is available at Perfect Sound Forever

Essential Logic...music is a better noise

Classic Essential Logic photos by Philippe Carly (part of the New Wave Photos by Philippe Carly Website)

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