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Anorak News | RIP Poly Styrene: ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours!’

RIP Poly Styrene: ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours!’

by | 27th, April 2011

RIP Poly Styrene, aka Marianne Elliot Said. Cue the nostalgia. But Poly was not always accepted. She was once the anti-fashion rebel. She was the screeching voice of X Ray Spex, a band that if you blinked you missed. But they mattered. At their pomp, the punk bands were everything the Establishment hated.

When in 1977, Poly told the press, “Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard, but I say … Oh Bondage, Up Yours!”, you gasped. Now you don’t bat an eyelid. But without that, you would not get Lily Allen calling you a “cunt” on Twitter and holding her own with the boys.

Times move on – and every movement needs a female voice to rally around – and, yep, the female voice is now, thanks to Poly and her ilk, more powerful than the male’s.

As Poly said: “My life in seven words… I’m a poseur ‘n’ I don’t care!

As she also said:

“The moment that changed me for ever…was seeing a Day-Glo UFO in Doncaster one night after a concert. It was a bright ball of luminous pink, made of energy – like a fireball. Everyone else thought I’d lost the plot.”

Pop music isn’t all about Britney clones and Cheryl Cole drones, hair extensions and Auto Tune – it can be about change, power and making yourself heard. Poly Styrene did that.

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Carole Channing (left), punk singer Poly Styrene (centre) - who discarded her punk image - and novelist Jackie Collins at the Savoy Hotel, London, when they attended the "Women of the Year" luncheon in aid of the Greater London Fund for the Blind.



Posted: 27th, April 2011 | In: Music Comment | TrackBack | Permalink