I’m struggling for time, so have reproduced the post I made to one of my other blogs (Once Upon a Time in The ’70s,) earlier today.

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When it was recently suggested we celebrate International Women’s Day with a piece about one of our favourite female artists, I knew instantly who I’d be writing about.

No, wait. I thought I knew instantly.

Restricting my choice to The Seventies, it was easy to immediately opt for The Go-Go’s. That led me then to consider The Runaways, who I’d seen back in ’76.

But then, Suzi Quatro had been one of my favourite acts (male or female) in the heady days of Glam Rock. And I’d bought four early albums of Emmylou Harris, the result of watching her on The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Ah – but there was one candidate stood out above all those other wonderful women of music; a young lady (in the mid-Seventies) whose influence would not only impact the music scene, but the world of fashion and some years down the line, the ‘Riot Grrrl’ movement:

Poly Styrene.

Marianne Elliott-Said was born of a Scottish / Irish mother and Somalian father in 1957. She grew up in principally in Brixton, South London and left school aged just fifteen.

Initially, she took on a job selling sweets, but later trained as a clothes buyer, gaining experience in the trade that would later prove invaluable to the visual image she portrayed in X-Ray Spex.

However, the conventional, nine-to-five lifestyle didn’t suit Marianne and she left home to hitch-hike her way around the UK, hopping from one music festival to another.

Marianne’s own first foray into the music industry though was with a solo recording, under her abbreviated name, Mari Elliott. She was just seventeen years old and had signed with GTO Records.

‘Silly Billy’ bombed, but on hearing it these days, I have to say I really like it! There’s a charming innocence about it – a polar opposite of what would soon follow.

Interestingly, it was while with GTO Records, Mari recorded a demo of that now seminal punk anthem, ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours!’ Playing guitar on the recording was Gary Moore of Thin Lizzy.

“I thought he was a really good guitarist, but very sophisticated and not really right for what I wanted.”

Considering she was only seventeen years old and fresh in the music industry, it was immediately obvious Mari was one self-assured young lady!

This was in the early summer 1976. Shortly after, Marianne attended the infamous Hastings Pier gig on 3^rd July 1976 where she saw the Sex Pistols support Welsh heavy rock band, Budgie. (It seems a strange booking now, but back then I guess there weren’t many other bands around who could complement The Pistols.)

This was still five months before the also infamous (that word crops up quite a lot in reference to the Sex Pistols!) television interview with Bill Grundy. However, the disaffected youth of the country were already catching on and  at this point, as with so many kids of the time, Mari decided to form her own band.

Taking inspiration for her stage name from Yellow Pages, Poly advertised for band members, and in only their second public performance X-Ray Spex hit lucky.

The show was at London’s famous Roxy Club, and the band were recorded playing a raw version of what would later become their debut single, ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours!’

This was then released on a compilation album of live Roxy shows in 1977 and placed X-Ray Spex in front of a huge new prospective fan-base.

The band initially signed with the Virgin label but were rather surprisingly dropped after that first single failed to chart.

EMI though, having earlier ditched the Sex Pistols, were still keen to get in on the burgeoning Punk scene and offered a deal to X-Ray Spex.

Their first single for the new label followed in April of 1978. ‘The Day The World Turned Day-Glo,’ which peaked at #23, and racked up seven weeks in the UK charts. (The first 15,000 copies – shows the level of sales in those days – were pressed on bright orange vinyl.)

Their music, all written by Poly, was noisy and abrasive, featuring discordant saxophone that reflected the No Wave movement of downtown New York.

And it was to New York X-Ray Spex were headed – playing six weeks at C.B.G.B’s in the Spring of 1978.

Their debut album, ‘Germ Free Adolescents’ was given a UK release in November that year, with the title track becoming the band’s best charting single, reaching  # 19.

The album contained all the bands’ previous EMI singles (and B-sides) with a few additional tracks. All, I have to say, are absolute belters!

However, already Poly was becoming bored with the pop-star life and the band’s winter tour that year would be their last.

Post band, and over the ensuing thirty-two years, she did record a couple of solo albums which took on a more jazzy feel than she’d become known for. However, Poly would not have her troubles to seek:

• Following a breakdown, she was mistakenly diagnosed as schizophrenic and sectioned. Some years later this was re-assessed and acknowledged she was in fact bi-polar – a condition she was subsequently able to control with medication.
• Poly concedes to having made some bad deals in her hey-day, and consequently, there was little money around. And so following the breakdown of her marriage, Poly turned to Hare Krishna, joining the ladies ashram at Bhakadivedanta Manor, which was incidentally donated to the movement by George Harrison in the early Seventies.
• In 1995, she was knocked down and hospitalised by a fire engine racing to an emergency.
• The stock of a shop she owned selling Indian artefacts was all stolen.
• In late 2010, Poly was diagnosed with breast cancer, having suffered a sore back for about six months. By the time the cancer was identified, it had spread to her liver and bowel.
• Sadly, Poly passed away on 25^th April 2011.

Her years in the limelight were limited, as was her musical output, and yet Poly Styrene is revered to this day for trailblazing a route into not only Punk, but music in general for young women.

To say she was ‘unconventional’ would be an understatement; she was also way ahead on the issues of consumerism and climate-change (‘The Day The World Turned Day-Glo.’)

Billboard described her as an: ‘archetype for the modern-day feminist punk“; because she wore dental braces, rebelled against the archetypal female sex object of the 1970s, sported a gaudy Dayglo wardrobe, and was of mixed race. She was “one of the least conventional frontpersons in rock history, male or female.’

** I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Poly Styrene for Artrocker Magazine prior to the release of her final solo album, ‘Generation Indigo’ in 2011.

Sadly, we had to speak not in person, but over telephone, as Poly was in the Sussex hospice close to her home.

I had expected a brief chat about her forthcoming, final release, but despite her ‘angels’ (nurses) being ever present to keep her comfortable, we talked for about forty-five minutes.

She was lovely. So considerate and polite and was happy to talk ‘off topic’ at various points.

At the end of our conversation, she was so charming and thanked me for my time! I don’t mind admitting, I shed a wee tear after I put the phone down.

This would be one of the last interviews Poly would give, as sadly, she passed away a couple of weeks later. **

Poly’s legacy lives on in the spirit of individuality and invention … and in punk hearts the world over.

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