{{short description|British saxophonist and singer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}} {{Use British English|date=September 2016}}
{{Infobox musical artist | name = Lora Logic | birth_name = Susan Whitby | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1960}} | alias = Laura Logic | origin = Wembley, England | instrument = {{flatlist| *Saxophone }} | website = {{URL|https://www.essential-logic.co.uk/}} }}
'''Lora Logic''' (born '''Susan Whitby''' {{circa}} 1960) is a British saxophonist, singer and songwriter from Wembley, London.<ref name="Autobiography">{{cite web |url=https://www.essential-logic.co.uk/bio |title=Lora Logic - A Life in Words and Pictures |website=Essential Logic |access-date=21 November 2022}}</ref> Logic was a founding member of London punk band X-Ray Spex, and wrote the saxophone parts for their debut album, ''Germfree Adolescents''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/one-of-punk-s-true-originals-germfree-adolescents-is-a-1829767876 |website=AV Club |title=One of Punk's True Originals, ''Germfree Adolescents'' Is as Fresh Today as It Was in 1978 |author=Rife, Katie |date=October 23, 2018 |access-date=November 21, 2022}}</ref> After leaving X-Ray Spex, Logic founded her own band, Essential Logic, which released one album in 1979. Logic has been called "one of post-punk's most notable atypical girls."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/2892-fanfare-in-the-garden-an-essential-logic-collection/ |website=Pitchfork |title=Essential Logic: Fanfare in the Garden: An Essential Logic Collection |date=August 27, 2003 |access-date=November 21, 2022 |author=Raposa, David}}</ref>
==Career== Susan Whitby was born in Wembley to a Finnish mother who worked as an air hostess and a British father. She attended an all-girls school. Her mother encouraged her and her brother to learn piano and violin, which she disliked. When she was thirteen, she asked her parents to buy her a saxophone after hearing it on several David Bowie records.<ref name="Spex" /> In her early teens, she was a fan of David Bowie, Roxy Music and stage musicals. In 1976, at age fifteen, she saw an advert placed by Poly Styrene in the ''Melody Maker'' that read "young punx who want to stick it together". Whitby, at that point, was unfamiliar with the word punk, but telephoned Styrene asking to audition. She recalled later that she didn't play a note at the audition, but was hired by X-Ray Spex manager Falcon Stuart because he liked the idea of two young girls fronting a band.<ref name="Spex">{{cite web|url=https://www.loverboymagazine.com/lora-logic/|title=Lora Logic: 'I Was Fifteen When I Joined X-Ray Spex.'|first=George|last=Alley|website=Loverboy|date=2023|access-date=3 April 2024}}</ref> Logic was only briefly a member X-Ray Spex, and had left the group by the time they recorded their first album, ''Germfree Adolescents'', which nevertheless used her uncredited saxophone arrangements.<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=Virgin Books|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|page=769}}</ref>
A year later, she formed Essential Logic. This group recorded one self-titled EP, five singles, and an album, ''Beat Rhythm News (Waddle Ya Play?)''. During the recording of the second Essential Logic album, the group broke up, and Logic finished the recording as a solo album, ''Pedigree Charm''.<ref name="Larkin"/>
Logic was briefly a member of Red Krayola, appearing on two singles and the albums ''Soldier Talk'' and ''Kangaroo?''. Her saxophone lent a unique quality to the bands she was in.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.comnet.ca/~rina/lora.html |title=Lora Logic |access-date=25 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518043913/http://www.comnet.ca/~rina/lora.html |archive-date=18 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> She also played on recordings by The Raincoats, The Stranglers, {{ill|Kollaa Kestää|fi|Kollaa kestää (yhtye)}},<ref>{{cite web |url=https://levyhyllyt.musiikkikirjastot.fi/kollaa-kestaa-jaahyvaiset-aseille-klassikko-ja-joutsenlaulu/ |language=fi |title=Kollaa kestää: ''Jäähyväiset aseille'' – klassikko ja joutsenlaulu |trans-title=Kollaa kestää: ''Jäähyväiset aseille'' – A Classic and a Swan Song |author=Väntänen, Ari |website=MusiikkiKirjastot.fi |date=17 February 2022 |access-date=21 November 2022}}</ref> Swell Maps, and later, Boy George.<ref name="Essential Logic"/>
In 1982 she appeared in Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen's film ''Crystal Gazing'', playing the character Kim; the film was named after a song from ''Pedigree Charm''.
Along with former X-Ray Spex bandmate Poly Styrene, she left the music industry in the early 1980s to join the Hare Krishna religion. Both had been taking a lot of drugs and the move turned their lives around. She spent some time in Bhaktivedanta Manor, a mansion donated to the Hare Krishnas by George Harrison.<ref name="Essential Logic">{{cite web |url=http://www.furious.com/perfect/essentiallogic.html |title=Essential Logic - Lora Logic interview |author=Gross, Jason |work=Perfect Sound Forever |date=July 2003 |access-date=14 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070413004902/http://www.furious.com/perfect/essentiallogic.html |archive-date=13 April 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1984, she had an arranged marriage at the Krishna temple, and she and her husband have two children.<ref name="Burgundy Blog">{{cite web |url=http://www.spiderbomb.com/blog/?p=1289 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180321130714/http://www.spiderbomb.com/blog/?p=1289 |url-status=dead |title=Lora Logic – if the drugs don't work |work=The Burgundy Blog |date=1 January 2012 |archive-date=21 March 2018 |access-date=10 March 2018 |author=Godfrey, Rob}}</ref><ref name="Essential Logic"/>
In 1995, she rejoined X-Ray Spex when Styrene reformed the group, but it was brief as their egos clashed again.<ref name="Burgundy Blog"/> In 2003, the Kill Rock Stars label reissued most of the early Essential Logic material, alongside newer recordings by Logic under the Essential Logic name, as ''Fanfare in the Garden''.<ref name="Burgundy Blog"/><ref name="Essential Logic"/>
In 2022, a second Essential Logic album, ''Land of Kali'', was released.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070413004902/http://www.furious.com/perfect/essentiallogic.html 2003 interview] * {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p17354}}
{{X-Ray Spex}} {{The Raincoats}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Logic, Lora}} Category:1960 births Category:English women singers Category:British women punk rock singers Category:Living people Category:English punk rock singers Category:Converts to Hinduism Category:English Hindus Category:English Hare Krishnas Category:Red Krayola members Category:X-Ray Spex members Category:People educated at the City of London School for Girls Category:British women saxophonists Category:English saxophonists Category:English people of Finnish descent