It was on a rare English heat wave during the summer of 1957 when a punk-rock icon was born.
Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Catford teddy boys terrorised the genteel streets of Bromley,
a leafy post-war South London suburb. The headlines were dominated by Cold War, Korea and the Canal.
British housewives had discovered Hoover, and the Empire docked in the harbours of Bristol,
bringing with it a warm alien breeze of multi-culturalism.

Poly Styrene, was a product of this new and decidedly modern Britain.
Her mother was a young legal secretary from the seaside town of Hastings,
who would seek out the bright lights of London, armed with an advanced knowledge of shorthand
and a typing-speed of 60 wpm. Her life took a dramatic turn
when she met Poly’s father, a young dispossessed Somaliland aristocrat who was a recent immigrant to Britain,
his English was poor and his income modest, but for Poly’s mother whose only contact with Africa
had been through childhood trips to the local cinema, the lure of exotic proved irresistible.

When a teenage Poly Styrene encountered the notoriety of the tabloids,
much was made of her mixed-raced parentage and it was assumed
that songs such as ‘Identity’ were autobiographical.
In the 1970’s Enoch Powell’s “River of Blood” warning against a multi-cultural England still permeated the
thought of much of white Britain and it was assumed that mixed-race meant ‘mixed up’.
Today Poly maintains, that despite the inevitable issues encountered as a mixed-race child in
what was then a very much whiter London than it may appear today, Poly remains resolutely proud of
her genetic heritage and ancestry:

“ I’ve always been happy, and well, rather intrigued, by a family tree that includes
Spanish Princes, Celts, Imams, Ancient Bretons and Somaliland tribal chiefs that descend from Abraham and Sarah”.

Just as Poly is quick to dismiss the stereotypes concerning race, so too does she view the tabloid obsession
with her ‘tough’ life of hardships and her so-called ‘wild youth’, with similar disdain.
Poly grew up in a tenement block in Brixton, though these were days before the ghetto was fabulous,
and unlike many of the young urbanites today, Poly never intended to play on her street cred:

“Mum was forced to leave Bromley because she felt it was too white and judgemental for me to grow up in
and that we could never be accepted. That’s why we moved to Brixton.
But although life was a bit austere, we were always well fed, clean and respectable –
mum was a legal secretary, and where we lived that was considered posh!”

Indeed, from a very young age, Poly realised she was destined for an artistic life of non-conformity.

“I was fascinated by Hollywood glamour. I went through a stage in my teens where I would model myself
on a golden era starlet. I always felt uncomfortable living in social housing
– it just wasn’t me, I was always fiercely independent”.

Poly does accept however that her upbringing did install her with
what her public school educated manager would later describe as a ‘puritanical work ethic’.
Poly was a young woman with considerable ambition and worked very hard to get to where she wanted.
But just where did Poly Styrene want to be?