Poly Styrene, British Punk Icon, Is Celebrated In New Biography

“Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard/But I think "oh bondage, up yours!” Those are the opening lyrics to the 1977 song “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” by the British punk rock group X-Ray Spex, led by singer-songwriter Poly Styrene–who in her lifetime certainly made herself heard. A woman of color, Styrene was known for her stirring voice and prescient songwriting amid the white male-dominated genre of punk. Along with other British female-fronted punk groups such as the Slits and the Raincoats from her era, Styrene paved the way for future generations of women rockers, including the 1990s Riot Grrrl movement in America. “If her work wasn't there,” said Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, “I'm not positive Riot Grrrl would exist.”

Styrene, whose real name was Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, died at the age of 53 in 2011 from cancer. Almost a decade later, her life has now been chronicled in a recently-published book, Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story, co-written by Styrene's daughter Celeste Bell and Zoe Howe. This oral biography draws from archival interviews with Styrene augmented by recent reminisces from X-Ray Spex’s Paul Dean and Lora Logic; the Raincoats' Gina Birch and Ana da Silva; the Slits' Tessa Pollitt; Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore; and others. “I was surprised mainly by the people I had never met myself,” says Bell, “but whose lives had been so deeply affected by my mother and her work. Hearing these stories was rewarding, to say the least.”

The idea of the book started when Bell was surveying her late mother's collection of lyrics, diary entries, letters and artwork. “She was always writing, recording and performing,” Bell recalls of Styrene. “However, it was not until I was a teenager and started to listen to her music properly, and more specifically her album Germfree Adolescents, that I was able to fully appreciate how prolific an artist she was.”

“Poly Styrene was always very lovable during the times I met her,” Howe, a music journalist, adds. “She had a bright and childlike energy which was charming, but that impression of naivety that people often commented on belied the depth of what she had achieved in so many respects. This is why it’s been, overall, such a joy to put this book together because we can really present all aspects of her work and her character.”

Born to an English mother and Somali father, Styrene navigated through a difficult and rebellious adolescence growing up. “My mother never fully made peace with her identity,” Bell explains. “She was constantly searching for a sense of belonging in a world where she had always felt an outsider. My mother struggled more than most in her brief life; she struggled with mental illness, physical and sexual abuse, racism and poverty – yet it was these difficulties at a young age that formed Poly Styrene and gave her such a unique perspective.”

For Howe, there were many aspects of Styrene's life she discovered while working on Dayglo. “One of the things I found poignant was her crush on John Lydon [a.k.a., Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols], and how frustrating it was to feel unacknowledged by him in that way, although he would often talk affectionately about Poly Styrene in later years. It was interesting to learn more about her background in theater, something that clearly fed into her stage performance and vocal power, not to mention a love of dressing up! I think it was also a surprise to learn that she was so keen to be famous!”

Styrene founded X-Ray Spex in 1976 after seeing a Sex Pistols performance. She and her band recorded the empowering punk rock anthem “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” in 1977, followed a year later by the release of Germfree Adolescents, now regarded as one of the seminal punk albums of all time. Visually, Styrene was the focal point of the X-Ray Spex with her energy and unconventional fashion sense, highlighted by her wearing braces. As a songwriter, she was an astute commentator on such topics as feminism (“Oh Bondage Up Yours!”), consumerism (“The Day the World Turned Day-Glo”) and technology (“Genetic Engineering”). Says Howe: “She was very ahead of her time, indeed. What is interesting though is that she wasn’t really critiquing, she was satirizing or even just observing, kind of shining a light on what was happening and what it might lead to.”

Although she achieved popularity during punk, Styrene never really identified with that movement but rather saw it as a vehicle to express her ideas. “She was very much a hippie at heart,” says Bell. “She liked the energy of punk but could never subscribe to the nihilism within it, she was to the last a dreamer and an optimist.”

At the height of X-Ray Spex's fame, Styrene left the band in 1979 with a desire to branch out stylistically. It led to her first solo record, the soulful Translucence, a sonic departure from X-Ray Spex that didn't catch on with the public. Starting in the early ‘80s, Styrene joined the Hare Krishnas, a period during which she gave birth to Bell. “Becoming a Hare Krishna was both positive and negative,” Bell says of her mother. “Her spiritual life was a real source of comfort during a difficult period in her life; it gave her a sense of purpose and meaning. On the other hand, she tended towards fanaticism and the rigidness of life in the movement often exacerbated her anxieties and neurosis.”

The '80s and '90s saw Styrene dealing with mental health issues. In 2008, she reemerged by performing at a reunion concert with X-Ray Spex at the Roundhouse in London. Three years later, she put out her third and final solo record, Generation Indigo, on which Bell appeared on. “I remember writing “Black Christmas” with my mother and recording the track with her,” says Bell. “We had so much fun doing it; neither of us took it very seriously and I just remember a lot of laughter. I was very lucky to be able to share those moments with my mum.”

Howe interviewed Styrene shortly before the singer's death for a piece that was published on the British website The Quietus. “I was humbled by her generosity and the positivity that was carrying her through,” Howe remembers of that conversation. “What I found to be the most memorable part of that interview – and I think of it a lot – is the spiritual aspect of it. I was fascinated by her spirituality and her strong faith, and the light it brought her.”

In the years after her death, Styrene has undergone a renewed appreciation in retrospective articles and books such as Vivien Goldman's Revenge of the She-Punks. Meanwhile, a documentary about Styrene directed by Paul Sng (which involves both Howe and Bell) is currently in production. “Its angle is more of a communication between daughter and mother,” Howe says of the film, “with the story unfolding via letters from Celeste to Poly amid interviews threaded throughout. Some of the interviewees appear in both projects, some exclusively were for the book. The letters also appear in adapted or expanded forms in the book, too.”

As for her Styrene's legacy, Bell wants people to recognize her mother as a hugely inspirational and influential cultural figure. “My mother was way ahead of her time in terms of her lyrics and world-view,” she says. “She had an uncanny ability to tap into the zeitgeist of the time and draw conclusions as to the direction society was heading towards. Many of the issues she was writing about in the late seventies such as consumer culture, identity, gender politics, post-modern romance, etc., are issues that are more relevant today than they ever were. I also think that people are only just starting to appreciate the barriers my mother was breaking at the time, as one of the first women of color to lead a rock band.”

“Poly is as important as ever as a figure to look to,” adds Howe. “We need to know about these figures to draw inspiration from them, so that’s where projects like this come in, it’s about passing on a light and making sure these stories don’t get lost. 'In this era of filters and fillers, looking like yourself as a woman is becoming an increasingly radical act. You only have to look at Instagram to see an ocean of anxious women and girls trying to basically look like each other. Poly is a touchstone figure to look to when we need reminding that we are at our most magnificent and beautiful when we are absolutely ourselves, with everything that means, flaws, fears and all.'