Women of Inspiration: Poly Styrene

Benjamin Forrest on 18 March 2021

Poly Styrene, in many ways, has fallen into a certain degree of obscurity since her band X-Ray Spex split in 1979. Prominent figures within the New Wave punk scene in the UK during the late 1970s , X-Ray Spex produced some of the greatest, most profound, lyrics of that era. Despite this, the music press only seems to remember the Sex Pistols – the punk equivalent of a manufactured boy band – and the likes of Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex are largely forgotten, or so it was thought. Clearly many people still remember the force of nature that was Poly Styrene (or Marianne Joan Elliot-Said, to use her birth name) as a documentary film, called I am a Cliché, telling her story was recently crowdfunded (before receiving funding from Sky) and aired on Sky Arts.

The film follows Celeste Bell, the only daughter of Poly Styrene, as she retraces her mother’s steps and tells the incredible, at points heart breaking, story of her life. The story is of the first woman of colour to front a successful rock band in the UK, a tortured genius, and undoubtedly one of the coolest people of the 20th century, but mainly of a mother and how her relationship with daughter Celeste progressed over the course of Poly Styrene’s career. The story of the documentary is told mainly through diary entries (voiced by Ruth Negga), personal accounts from Bell and interviews with fellow musicians and those who knew her. The visuals of the film are simply stunning; the shots of Celeste looking through her mother’s personal belongings are cut together with an unbelievable amount of brilliant archive footage, photographs and artwork – of which Poly Styrene created most. It truly is a visual treat to watch. 

The influence of Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex cannot be overstated, and this is shown within the documentary if only through the people who speak within it. Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill/Le Tigre/The Julie Ruin), Pauline Black (The Selecter), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Rhoda Dakar (The Bodysnatchers, The Special AKA) all testify to how influential the work of Poly Styrene was to them and the greater music scene – without her influence over Kathleen Hanna it is entirely possible that the Riot Grrrl movement would never have happened. The film also features contributions from iconic figures of the period, including Vivienne Westwood and Don Letts, interspersed between the monologue of Celeste Bell and Poly’s personal diary entries. 

A stand-out point within the documentary was the period of time which X-Ray Spex played a series of shows at the iconic CBGB club – famed for spawning such bands as The Ramones, Blondie, Television and Talking Heads to name but a few. Spending time in New York, the film reveals, Styrene was astonished by the huge prevalence of advertisements and consumerism. These themes were obviously prevalent within her lyrics (for instance, “It’s 1977 and we are going mad / It’s 1977 and we’ve seen too many ads”, from ‘Plastic Bag’). Many of the observations made in her diary entries, read aloud within this film, correctly predict how advertising has shaped or damaged the lives of people in the modern day. 

Thankfully, the documentary is not confined only to Styrene’s time with X-Ray Spex – though that section of her life is undoubtedly fascinating – it also deals with her childhood as one of the first waves of mixed raced children in the UK and how outcasted that caused Marianne to feel. The prevalent racist attitudes in the UK during 1960s and 70s with regard to the rise of the National Front and Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ hate speech are not often covered from a biracial perspective, however this documentary deals with the topic in a very informative way. It is an important story to be told in terms of the social history of the UK and is far too often glossed over. 

Her struggles with her own mental health, her unsuccessful (or rather: unappreciated) solo career, her dedication to the Hare Krishna movement, and her glorious early 00s comeback are all detailed within the film. Aside from being a story about a pioneering and gifted poet and lyricist, it is simply a very interesting and important story; the fact it is finally being told and Poly Styrene is finally receiving the credit she is due is a cause for rejoice. I am a Cliché is one of the most interesting and well put together music documentaries in recent time. If you are a fan of the band, feminism, music history or social history in general you will likely enjoy this film. As stated by Pauline Black in the film “The world is playing catch up with Poly Styrene, not the other way around”. 

The B-52’s: Pioneers of LGBTQI+ activism in the New Wave scene

Benjamin Forrest on 28 February 2021

The punk and new wave scene of the late 70’s and 80’s is often seen as dominated by the angry voices of straight white men. The bands from that era usually picked out by the mainstream music press would certainly reflect that theory. In 1976, however, a band formed in Athens, Georgia, over a fishbowl cocktail, that would go on to become, not just one of the greatest bands to come out of that scene, but one of the greatest LGBTQ bands in history. The B-52’s, over the course of their history, have created some of the most brilliantly original songs of the 20th Century. Borrowing from a plethora of genres such as doo-wop, surf, psychedelia and everything in-between, The B-52’s are a true original – which is pretty rare to find. 

The B-52’s are far too often viewed as a mere novelty band; judging the B-52’s solely on ‘Rock Lobster’ or ‘Love Shack’ (their most commercially successful singles) is like judging The Cure based only off ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, or writing off the entire Devo discography after listening to ‘Whip It’. Their first two albums, in particular, consist of some of the strongest tunes to come out of that era of New Wave music. From the high energy of ’52 Girls’, to the experimental fever dream of ‘Quiche Lorraine’, to the 50’s surf inspired ‘Give Me Back My Man’. Do yourself a favour: listen to a B-52’s album in its entirety – you will come out of that experience a better person.

Throughout their entire history (1976-present) the B-52’s have been fearlessly themselves, going against the grain of the punk scene which acted as the catalyst for their creation. The art school kids from Athens swapped mohawks for beehives, bondage trousers for vintage dresses, and it was all the more defiant. Their kitsch and campy sensibilities endeared themselves to LGBTQ audiences in a way which was not really seen by many other New Wave bands – at least, not the same extent. By the time they released their first album in 1979, ‘punk’ had become a conformist fashion trend, much of the new music being released had congealed into the same boring sound concerned with cliched macho adolescent anger. The B-52’s, however, never bought into those ideals to begin with – they were always unapologetically non-conformist. 

Four of the five original band members identified as being a part of the LGBTQ+ community, the band certainly embraced their sexuality, but they were never defined by it. In fact, vocalist, lyricist and player of the organ (mainly) Kate Pierson said they never considered themselves to be a “queer” band, “We just thought of ourselves as just plain queer — as in eccentric,” which might explain why the B-52’s are so criminally overlooked when exploring the history of LGBTQ within music. 

After losing founding member Ricky Wilson to health complications related to HIV/AIDS in 1985, the band took it upon themselves to spread awareness about the crisis, producing a public service announcement for AMFAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) called ‘Art Against AIDS’ featuring a plethora of other notable artists of the time. The AIDS crisis was peaking during this time and the criminal treatment of the disease from Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the US meant that very little was being done to curve the crisis. Even basic information on AIDS was still fairly scarce in 1987, homosexuality in general was often still seen as perverted or just generally wrong – you need only look at the headlines of The Sun newspaper around this time to distinguish just how bad thing were. The B-52’s, therefore, by standing up, speaking out against AIDS, and providing information to a countless number of people were doing an incredibly important service. 

The impact of the B-52’s on the LGBTQ community, and pop culture in general, is profound and long-lasting. More recently, fearlessly flamboyant frontman Fred Schneider appeared on two separate albums by Jinkx Monsoon, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5. Iconic drag queen Juno Birch also recently shared a lip sync video of ‘Give Me Back My Man’ which is well worth your time. The history of the LGBTQ community and the history of the B-52’s are woven into each other, they definitely deserve more credit than being seen only as the creators of ‘Love Shack’. 

The B-52’s have always been, and should be remembered as, an indescribably incredible band who embraced, but were never defined by, their sexuality and have constantly supported the LGBTQ community and all those who identify with it. Pierson, speaking to Lesbian/Bisexual women’s publication AfterEllen, puts it best in the quote: “One of the things the B-52s wanted to accomplish was for people to embrace their difference and encourage people to be who they are and accept themselves.”.