X-Ray Spex - Artificial

This performance of 'Artificial' from the Old Grey Whistle Test was used as part of the UK punk episode in the BBC2 series Sounds of The Seventies in about 1993.

We watched Sounds Of The Seventies as a family on a Saturday night, much as we had with Sounds Of The Sixties a few years previously. When it came to the punk episode though, mum and dad quietly left the room and got on with other things. They returned about 25 minutes later to find us cross legged on the floor in front of the TV, singing along to Joy Division's 'Transmission', a song we'd never heard before but had got the gist of as it went along.

Unfortunately, when the series was repeated, they had to lose about five minutes from every episode, meaning a song got cut each week. It became a kind of game to try and remember each week which one we'd lost. When it came to the repeat of the punk episode, it was this clip that found itself on the cutting room floor.

Paying tribute to punk women, by punk women

It's always nice when artists you like make art you not only like but that also pays sweet tribute to those who have gone before.

Recently, we've seen Ex Hex, whose 'Don't wanna lose' is currently out as a single, providing a video salute to the cult 1982 film Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains!

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains! tells the story of Corinne Burns, a teenage fry chef sacked live on TV who goes on to form an all girl punk band with her sister and cousin, the eponymous Stains. The film charts the bands rise from bedroom band to ramshackle support act, to rock pop superstars via the power of TV.

A couple of years ago Corin Tucker's 'Neskowin' also had  a video that harked back to the late 1970s, and referenced punk, particularly X Ray Spex.

Given that both X Ray Spex and Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains! were formative influences on Riot Grrrl, it's a nice example of passing the compliment now that the grrrls are grown up now and playing in post riot grrrl, post ladyfest punk bands.