Poly Styrene

Poly Styrene
Background information
Birth name	Marian Joan Elliott Said
Born	1957
Genres	Punk, Rock
Occupations	vocalist, songwriter
Years active	1976–present
Labels	United Artists, Receiver
Associated acts	X-Ray Spex

Marian Joan Elliott Said, better known by the stage name Poly Styrene, is an English musician, best known as the singer of the punk rock band X-Ray Spex.

Biography

Said was born in 1957 in Bromley, Kent. Her mother, who raised her alone, was an English legal-secretary.^[1] Her father was a dispossessed Somali aristocrat.^[2]

As a teenager, she was something of a "barefoot hippie". At age 15, she ran away from home with just £3 in her pocket, and hitchhiked from one music festival to another, staying at crash pads. She thought of this as challenge to survive. The adventure ended when, possibly hallucinating, she stepped on a rusty nail and had to be treated for septicaemia.^[1]

In 1978, after a gig in Dorchester, Said had a vision of a pink light in the sky and felt objects crackling when she touched them. Thinking she was hallucinating, her mother took her to the hospital where Said was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, sectioned, and told she would never work again. Although she missed playing at the time, in hindsight, Said feels that getting out of the public eye was good for her. She was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which has kept her in and out of the hospital.^[1]

Music career

Said is best known for her vocal performances for X-Ray Spex.^[1] She has been described by Billboard as the "archetype for the modern-day feminist punk" who, because she wore braces, was heavyset, sported a gaudy Dayglo wardrobe, and was of mixed-race, was "one of the least conventional front-persons in rock history, male or female".^[3]

After seeing a Sex Pistols concert in Hastings, Said was inspired to start a music career beginning with X-Ray Spex.^[1].

In the 1980s, she joined the Hare Krishna movement and recorded at their recording studios. Said recorded a solo album, Translucence, in 1980. The album abandoned X-Ray Spex's loud guitar work for a quieter and more jazzy sound that anticipated the 90's dance band Everything But the Girl.^[4] In 1986 she released the EP God's & Godesses [sic] on the Awesome record label. A solo album, New Age Flower Aeroplane, followed in 2004.^[1]

In 2008, Styrene made a guest appearance at the 30th anniversary concert of Rock Against Racism in Victoria Park, London. She also fronted the reformed X-Ray Spex for a live show at London's Roundhouse on September 6, 2008.

That same year, she dueted with Goldblade's John Robb on a remix of Goldblades's City Of Christmas Ghosts.^[5]

In March 2009 Styrene joined with other members of PRS for music in criticizing Google for allegedly not paying their a fair share of royalties to musicians. This followed Google's removal of millions of videos from YouTube because of a royalties dispute with the organization.^[6]

Personal life

Said describes herself as "an observer, not a suffering artist writing from tortured experiences. I was playing with words and ideas. Having a laugh about everything, sending it up."^[1]

As of April 2008, she was living alone in a terraced house in St Leonards, East Sussex.^[2]

Said's daughter Celeste Bell is the frontwoman for the music group Debutant Disco based in Madrid, Spain.^[7]

In March 2009, Styrene took part in the inaugural Instigate Debate night. The nights theme was modern day consumerism. Other current events issues were also discussed.^[8]

References

External links

• Poly's Punky Party, personal site
• My secret life: Poly Styrene, Singer, 51

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