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POLY STYRENE

It was on a rare English heatwave during the summer of 1957 when a punk-rock icon was born. Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Catford Teddy Boys terrorized the genteel streets of Bromley, a leafy post-war South London suburb. The headlines were dominated by the 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 multiculturalism. Poly Styrene was a product of this new and decidedly modern Britain. Born Marian Elliott, the child of a Somali father and a British mother, Poly would become the first woman of color to head a punk band. 

 

She 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?

 

“I wanted adventure, fame, financial independence, all the things a starry-eyed young girl could wish for”.

 

But unlike most teenage dreamers, Poly was determined to make her dreams a reality.

 

She started by setting up her own boutique in Beaufort Market, on the Kings Road, in Chelsea. It was indeed the name of the fashion label that she used for her homespun autographed couture, that would give her the art-i-ficial pseudonym and punky-trade-marks that she would later adopt as front-woman of X-Ray Spex.

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Poly Styrene was born.

 

“I started with nothing but a few melodic lyrics and a lot of determination. I got a band together and within a very short space of time we were internationally famous and in the charts!”

 

Such overnight success was not just down to luck. Poly and her band injected a much-needed burst of color and fun into a punk scene that was increasingly nihilistic and destructive. Although not lacking the necessary anger and energy to make it on the scene. X-ray Spex never took themselves too seriously, and soon distinguished themselves by their difference to the rest.

 

Poly herself wasn’t the archetypal pop princess. This unconventionally pretty youth with short hair, tooth-braces and a war-helmet perched cockily on her head was the tank-girl-rebel long inspiring a horde of riot-girl queens to this day.

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Poly Styrene was a trailblazer across many disciplines; a stand-out frontwoman, prolific writer, visual artist, and designer. 

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Her life and work were recently celebrated in the definitive biography Day Glo: The Poly Styrene Storywritten by her daughter, Celeste Bell, and writer Zoe Howe. 

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A film documentary, Poly Styrene: I am a clichè co-directed by Celeste Bell and Paul Sng was released in the UK in 2021, via Modern Films and Sky Arts. 

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THE POLY STYRENE ARCHIVE

The Poly Styrene Archive is launching its first public touring exhibition of the personal and artistic archive of Poly Styrene; artist, punk icon and lead singer of the historic punk band X-Ray Spex. 

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In May of 2019 Poly Styrene’s daughter, Celeste Bell and curator Mattie Loyce co-curated and produced the first exhibition of this work with a show entitled Identity! A Poly Styrene Retrospective, hosted 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning in Brixton, London, UK where Poly Styrene was born and raised.

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​The archive consists of over 200 personal artworks and documentation. This includes but is not limited to: original drawings and sketches, album artwork drafts and final artworks, collages, personal and band (X-ray Spex) photography both print and transparency film, archive video footage of performances, original lyric pages, original promotional materials (label produced press releases, biographies), original press clippings, archive clothing, archive original 45rpm and 33rpm vinyl pressings, original band paraphernalia (stickers, pins, etc), personal notes and letters.

CONTACT

For all queries pertaining to the Poly Styrene (X-Ray Spex) estate including licensing please contact Celeste Bell.

For all film-related queries please contact producer Matthew Silverman 

Thanks for submitting!

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©2024

 by X-Ray Spex.

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