Sad News: Poly Styrene Dies at 53

Poly Styrene (a.k.a. Marianne Joan Elliott-Said) died of breast cancer yesterday. One of the first, most important and coolest women on the U.K. punk scene, Poly Styrene formed the X-Ray Spex in 1976. Styrene and her contemporaries the Slits were the undisputed queens of UK punk, with a live resume that includes early gigs at the Roxy, the landmark Rock Against Racism concert of April 1978 and renowned shows with the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Buzzcocks and Wire, among many others. On vinyl, the band is most famous for the single "Oh Bondage, Up Yours!" and the classic album Germ Free Adolescents, a touchstone of U.K. punk and one of the most influential punk albums of all time.



Poly Styrene

At age 18, in addition to forming X-Ray Spex, Styrene also opened a fashion boutique on Kings Road, a street that was also home of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's famous shop (where the key characters in U.K. punk first crossed paths and began exchanging ideas of fashion, music and art that would give rise to the most potent counterculture in modern British history). Styrene was not just a vocalist, she was one of the punk movement's true visionaries, helping shape the scene's cultural landscape.

But even looking only at Styrene as the frontwoman of the Spex, it would be hard to overstate her importance. As a band, the Spex were more fun than their contemporaries. However, despite not taking themselves as seriously as most of their contemporaries, the band was highly political, radically feminist and pivotal in changing preconceived ideas about who could play music. In addition to being female, Styrene was also of mixed race. In the late 70's, skinheads, fascists and neo-nazis were gaining traction in the wake of a floundering economy and the conclusion of most of Britain's colonial activities. Against this backdrop, Styrene cut a controversial and fascinating figure, and on a personal level, Styrene was a hurricane, even managing to freak out king of the freaks John Lydon with her unpredictable antics.

In addition to her battle with cancer, Styrene faced a life-long battle with mental illness. After leaving the X-Ray Spex in 1979, she mostly retreated from the public eye, eventually becoming a Hare Krishna. Aside from a small handful of public appearances and solo releases, her music career took a backseat to her spiritual quests. Before her death, she recorded one last solo album. Today is the official U.S. street date for Generation Indigo.

Styrene is survived by her daughter and by an enduring legacy that will continue to shape rock music for generations.

News: Malcolm McLaren Died

Malcolm McLaren died today at age 64. According to the NY Times, he had cancer and was in Switzerland when he died.

McLaren was the manager of the Sex Pistols and in many ways, the architect of British punk. He has received harsh criticism - much of it rightly - for using people around him simply as a medium for his own ambitions. But his ambitions were artistic - he saw the activities of youth like the Sex Pistols as part of a populist movement to live one's life as art and to make that a vehicle for social protest and ultimately social change. He recognized the potential of Johnny Rotten and London's other disaffected youth and helped nurture their genuine desire to create and express. Through his background in visual and performing arts, he contextualized punk and help it create a cohesive and lasting effect on British culture.

Sadly, as the story goes, McLaren's obsessive commitment to his artistic vision caused him to lose all perspective and forget he was dealing with human beings - and often teenage kids at that. If it weren't for McLaren, Sid Vicious might still be alive - but the man didn't introduce Vicious to heroin either. And just as true, if it weren't for McLaren, our own understanding of popular music would be radically different. With a handful of others, from Warhol to Sonic Youth, McLaren explored the intersection of fine art, popular culture and radical social protest, a nexus that has proved the source of the greatest artistic movements of the last half century.

McLaren may have departed the universe of UK punk, and eventually the universe itself, with for more enemies than admirers, but he made a mark in our cultural history and I, for one, believe we're the better for it.

If you're interested in learning more, read England's Dreaming by Jon Savage. For a good story about reading England's Dreaming, click here.

Live: The Slits

When: 12/14
Where: Highline Ballroom

The only time I really research anything music-related is when I'm writing a review, so often, I check out albums and concerts with really no idea what to expect. So at the Slits show at Highline, I didn't realize only singer Ari Up and bassist Tessa Pollitt were still in the band from its heyday. I thought Viv Albertine was playing with them again, but apparently, that was a one-off deal earlier this year. Bummer that.

However, Ari Up's personality is so huge that even the absence of my favorite Slit wasn't that glaring. Ari was in fine form. Despite her apologies, she really did sing well, and as for the dancing, well, she's still got it! Pollitt seems a little worse for the wear, but she's still a great bassist - just a little stiff in her stage presence.

The Slits choice in band members was certainly interesting. Hollie Cook (the daughter of Sex Pistol Paul Cook) is listed as the keyboard player, but the woman I saw was definitely not Cook. Whoever it was, she was the best of the non-original members. She seemed so genuinely swept up in the moment that she'd often forget to sing/shout her backup vocals into her microphone, being too busy jumping up and down and yelling at the top of her voice. Despite being the newest member, she owned her parts. She even did a clumsy dance with Ari and attempted a solo on train-whistle. I'm not sure I've ever seen someone have so much fun on stage. And if you're playing with the goddamn SLITS you better be having fun!

Drummer Anna Schulte also proved herself up to the task. It must be tough coming into a legendary band, and especially for a drummer, who is ultimately the person with the most control over the music. But Schulte didn't waver - her reggae beats were authoritative and flawlessly executed and she seemed well amused by her bandmates' antics. On guitar, Michelle Hill didn't do so well. She's a great guitarist, but watching her, it was obvious she was playing music she didn't write. That may be true, but Schultz and the unnamed keyboardist/back-up vocalist both made the music their own, not by hijacking anything but by putting their own personality into every note. Hill played well, but she seemed more like a session player than a Slit.

The set was mostly reggae, as I expected. Reggae and dub, of course, evolved in tandem with punk in the late 1970's and early 1980's, especially in the UK, and many of the original UK punk bands went in an increasingly reggae-inspired direction as they progressed as musicians. The band did balance their reggae numbers with some punk tunes, including the Slits classic "Typical Girls." At one point, the venue threatened to kick the band off the stage - apparently there was a mix-up about the set time - and Ari Up told them what was what. Despite it all, though, seeing the Slits today is definitely not at all the same as having seen them in 1977. But they are still a great band, and for anyone with an interest in UK punk, anyone who's ever read England's Dreaming*, it's still amazing to see Ari Up in person. She's as crazy as ever. Maybe even more so.


*Okay, I have a funny story, and this seems like as good a place as any to share it. One time, I was reading England's Dreaming on a bench on the Upper East Side. There were two very elderly women sitting next to me and the one closer to me suddenly struck up conversation, which went something like this:

Old lady: What are you reading?
Me: It's called England's Dreaming.
Old lady: What?
Me: England's Dreaming! It's about punk. Punk rock.
Old lady: England's dreaming??? I'm from England! I'm still dreaming!
Me: Oh, how long have you lived here?
Old lady: Since 1962! Where are you from?
Me: I'm from Chicago. [FYI, I tend to lie about where I'm from]
Old lady: Chicago? I've never been to Chicago.
Me: It's a nice city.
Old lady: [Pause] You're from England?
Me: No, I'm from Chicago. You're from England.
Old lady: Oh...

At this point, she tries to look at my book, but she clearly can't read and doesn't have glasses with her, so I flip to the pictures in the middle of the book.

Old lady: What's that?
Me: It's a band.
Old lady: What's that? I can't read it.
Me: It's a band. It's the Sex Pistols. A punk band. Punk.
Old lady: What? I can't hear!
Me: It's the Sex Pistols.
Old lady: What?
Me: It's the Sex Pistols.
Old lady: What?
Me: It's the Sex Pistols.
Old lady: What?
Me: It's THE SEX PISTOLS! THE SEX PISTOLS! SEX PISTOLS!

At this point, I realized I'm sitting on a bench yelling "sex pistols" repeatedly at a 92-year-old woman I just met. And I'm getting some pretty funny looks from passers-by. Meanwhile, the other old lady is cracking up - I think she was following the conversation much more lucidly. Anyway, I said it was nice to meet them and excused myself before someone called the cops.