Punk icon Poly Styrene dies

X Ray Spex, with Poly Styrene, right, recorded just one album before splitting up Punk singer Poly Styrene, former singer with the band X Ray Spex, has died. She had been suffering from cancer.

 

With unbridled energy, unpolished vocals and infectious rallying cries against consumerism and environmental destruction, she was one of the first female punk icons.

 

Her band gained a place in punk history after releasing just one influential album, Germ Free Adolescents, in 1978.

 

Real name Marion Elliot-Said, she had cancer of the spine and breast.

 

She formed her band after watching the Sex Pistols perform on Hastings Pier on her 18th birthday.

 

X Ray Spex's signature tune was Oh Bondage, Up Yours!, a riotous rejection of social and gender norms that began with Poly Styrene's spoken line: "Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard."

 

After the band's debut album came out, Poly Styrene released a more subtle and subdued solo album, Translucence, in 1980, before retreating from the music industry to join the Hare Krishnas.

 

She moved into a Krishna temple in Hertfordshire with her daughter, and struggled with bipolar disorder.

 

Boy George - who once tried to break her out of the temple - was among those paying tribute on Twitter.

 

He wrote: "I was a fan of Poly before I got to know her, she was a Krishna follower too, oh bless you Polly you will be missed! Legend!"

 

She occasionally re-emerged into the limelight, and released her third solo album, Generation Indigo, last month.

 

"I know I'll probably be remembered for Oh Bondage, Up Yours!" she told BBC 6 Music last year. "I'd like to remembered for something a bit more spiritual."

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13193968

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh Bugger!

 

R.I.P. Poly

Very sad news :( I remember her more for Germ Free Adolescents than for Oh Bondage Up Yours.

 

RIP Poly Styrene

R.I.P. Poly :(

 

X-Ray Spec 4 hit singles in 1978/9

 

Day The World Turned Dayglow #23

 

Identity #24

Germ Free Adolescence #19

 

Highly Inflammable #45

I'd be lying if I said I even know who she was but R.I.P. anyway :(

An icon - XRay Spex were one of the first bands I really really loved... this is very sad news..... and so young too... awww...

I had known she was was ill for sometime, so not exactly surprising but still very sad, and awful news.

R.I.P. Poly Styrene, god has another angel up in Heaven

 

 

RIP Poly Styrene

 

I bought "The Day The World Turned Dayglo", quite possibly the first punk / new wave single to chart that featured a sax. It was, and still is, a brilliant song. The B side, "Iama Poseur" was also excellent

 

Edited April 27, 201114 yr by Robbie