Poly styrene
Poly Styrene (born July 3, 1957 in London Borough of Bromley , Kent , England ; † April 25, 2011 ; born Marianne Joan Elliott-Said) was a singer-songwriter and lead singer of the punk band X-Ray Spex .
youth
The real name of poly styrene was Marianne Joan Elliott-Said. Her mother was of Scottish-Irish descent and her father was a displaced Somali nobleman. She grew up with her mother, who worked as a legal assistant. They lived together in Marianne's birthplace, Bromley, in the south of England, until her mother decided to move to Brixton , a suburb of London . She already had an affinity for music in her youth. She wrote her own protest songs.
Marianne Joan Elliot-Said ran away from home at the age of fifteen and attended various rock festivals in England. She was not tied to a specific location and stayed where the opportunity arose. She lived this free lifestyle for two years until she was brought back to London for treatment for a sepsis from a rusty nail.
On her 19th birthday, Elliott-Said attended a Sex Pistols performance at Hastings Pier and decided to become a singer. Before starting her career, she opened her own boutique called Poly Styrene in Beaufort Market, Kings Road , where she designed and sold clothing.
Career as a musician
In 1975 she recorded her first demo tape, which was produced by Ted Bunting. With the Reggae -Single Silly Billy was at GTO Records contract taken, but flopped the single, which was released in 1976 on the market.
In the same year, Elliott-Said, who went by the stage name Poly Styrene , placed an advertisement in the British music magazines New Musical Express and Melody Maker with the headline: Young punx who want to stick it together .
In 1977 the band X-Ray Spex was finally formed , which was signed to EMI . This band was composed of the members:
- Poly Styrene (Marianne Joan Elliott), front singer
- Jak Airport (Jack Stafford), as a guitarist
- Paul Dean, as a bass player
- Paul BP Hurding, as a drummer
- Lora Logic (Susan Whitby), as a saxophonist
The band's genre was a mixture of punk and new wave . The band became famous in 1978 with their single Oh Bondage! Up Yours! and their debut album, Germ free Adolescents , which made it to number 30 on the UK album charts .
Poly Styrene was considered a feminist cult figure in the punk scene. Her trademarks were her braces and her unconventional clothing style. Her girlish stage presence was in contrast to her unbridled singing voice.
The band X-Ray Spex performed in 1978 at Rock Against Racism , in Victoria Park ( Hackney ) along with other rock greats. The aim of the festival was to use popular musicians to send a message against racism. In 1979 the band broke up and Poly Styrene began a solo career as a singer. She kept her stage name.
In 1995 the band X-Ray Spex reunited. With their second album Conscious Consumer they hoped for a comeback, but the success failed, which is why the band broke up for the second time.
Solo career
In 1980 she recorded her first post-punk solo album, Translucence, on the United Artist Records label, produced by Ted Bunting. Compared to Germ free Adolescents, the album has more jazzy elements. From the album came the single Talk In Toytown , which was released in the same year as the solo album.
Poly Styrene experimented with different styles of music, but punk dominated their music. In 1986 the LP Gods and Goddesses was released under the record label Awesome Records, which combines electronic components with punk rock.
In 2008 she performed at the 30th Rock Against Racism Festival in Victoria Park, London, where she sang Oh Bondage, Up Yours with Drew McDonell and David Wright . In the same year she worked on the album City Of Christmas Ghosts , together with Goldblade's John Robb.
In 2010 she released the single Black Christmas , which was created through the collaboration with her daughter Celeste. The background story of the song Black Christmas is about a gunman from Los Angeles who had dressed up as Santa Claus.
In 2011 she released her last album Generation Indigo , which she also recorded with her daughter and was produced by the Killing Joke musician Youth. In the same year the single Virtual Boyfriend and No Rockefeller followed .
Private life
In 1978 Elliott-Said had hallucinations after appearing in Doncaster , whereupon she was taken to a clinic. There she was wrongly diagnosed with some form of schizophrenia . In 1991 she was correctly diagnosed with bipolar disorder .
In 1983 she joined the Hare Krishna movement and lived from 1983 to 1988 at Bhaktivedanta Manor, a Hare Krishna temple in Hertfordshire , England.
Her daughter Celeste Bell-Dos Santos is the lead singer in Debutant Disco , a Spanish band from Madrid.
death
In late 2010, Elliott-Said was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time of diagnosis, the cancer was already in an advanced stage. She continued to give interviews from her bedside. She died on April 25, 2011 of complications from cancer.
Discography
Albums
- Translucence (1980)
- Flower Airplane (2004)
- Generation Indigo (2011)
Singles
- Silly Billy (1976)
- Talk in Toytown (1980)
- City Of Christmas Ghosts (2008)
- Black Christmas (2010)
- Virtual Boyfriend (2011)
- Ghoulish (2011)
LPs
- Gods and Goddesses (1986)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Felix Bayer: Punk icon Poly Sytrene is dead . Spiegel Online , April 26, 2011; Retrieved December 16, 2012
- ↑ a b The Telegraph newspaper , April 26, 2011
- ^ The return of punk's first lady. In: The Independent. February 11, 2011, accessed March 9, 2018 .
- ↑ Miranda Yardley in the music magazine Terrorizer , April 26, 2011
- ↑ a b P-P Hartnett: Official website of X-Ray spex. Writer of Rock'n'roll Suicide , September 2003; Retrieved December 15, 2012
- ↑ Online database: www.omdb.org
- ↑ YouTube video
- ^ Rock Against Racism
- ↑ Chart Attack website ( memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 23, 2013
- ^ Internet site NME.com accessed on January 23, 2013
- ↑ Generation Indigo Audio CD, 2011 (Poly Styrene Album)
- ↑ discogs.com. Retrieved December 16, 2012
- ↑ TopNews.in , July 27, 2009, accessed on January 13, 2013
- ↑ Internet page about the Debutant Disco group ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 13, 2013
- ↑ Punk icon Poly Sytrene dies at 53 . BBC UK Online, April 26, 2011; accessed December 15
- ↑ poly's solo activity. In: x-ray spex official site. Retrieved March 9, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Styrene, poly |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Elliott-Said, Marianne Joan (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 3rd July 1957 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London Borough of Bromley , Kent, England |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 25, 2011 |