A version taped on 2 April 1977 at one of the band's earliest public performances had already been issued on a live compilation album, The Roxy London WC2, in June.

[2] Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex's songwriter as well as lead vocalist, had been motivated to join the punk scene like many others as a result of attending a Sex Pistols concert—her first encounter with the band, when she still went by Marianne Elliot-Said, was in Hastings in early July 1976.

[8] Whitby's "freeform" style on her horn, writes Maria Raha, often yielded "staccato wails that faded quickly, like those of a sax player whizzing by in a car".

"[10] Richie Unterberger describes the single version's brief setup and raucous payoff: "Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard," Poly Styrene solemnly intones.

Fuzzy power chords and careening saxophone bleats fight it out with Styrene's half-chanted, half-sung vocals, a mixture of glee and rage that periodically trails off into caterwauling shrieks.

[11]Steve Huey describes it as "one of the most visceral moments in all of British punk",[12] though Al Spicer considers the studio single recording a "fairly lacklustre" version.

In this one utterance, Styrene transformed a seemingly masochistic plea into an indictment of consumer culture, denouncing the blind impulses of the mainstream shopper.

[15]Logic later gave her view of the band leader's vision: "I think Marianne felt that everyone was in a type of bondage—restricted, crushed, and alienated by modern materialistic society.

"[16] Banned by the BBC,[17] the single was very well received by critics, and though it failed to register on the charts,[18] it made the band a subject of extensive media interest.

[14] Retrospectively, John Dougan identifies it, alongside the early recordings of the Sex Pistols and The Clash, as "one of punk rock's defining moments".