BIOGRAPHY OF Mymumwasnot yourtypicalpunk washeralterego
The daughter of a punk icon has made a film of her talented mother’s colourful but troubled life in the anarchic music world of the 70s
WITH braces on her teeth, red eyebrows and wild curly hair, Poly Styrene was not a typical punk. The lead singer of X-Ray Spex never really gelled with the shoutier, spikier end of the youth movement that turned the 70s upside down.
There was one album, Germfree Adolescents, before she crashed and burned, had a breakdown and joined the Hare Krishna movement. Unlike other icons of the era, she never advertised butter or toured her greatest hits to pay for a divorce. She died of breast cancer in 2011, aged 53.
Now Poly Styrene’s daughter, Celeste Bell, has made a film about her mother’s life. Called I Am A Cliché, it reminds the world what a talented, troubled one-off she was.
Celeste said: “My mum was always on the outside of everything. It was a tragedy but it was what made her stand out. It made her special, it enabled her to be a true individual.
“She was on the outside in punk, doing something quite different. It wasn’t just her look, it was the type of songs she was writing. She brought a really pop sensibility to punk – colourful, playful, catchy, melodic.”
The film, which gets its premiere at the online Glasgow Film Festival tomorrow, started life as a book. Scottish director Paul Sng helped Celeste pull archive performances, news footage and interviews into a moving biography of a woman who was way ahead of her time.
Marianne Joan Elliott-Said grew up in Brixton in the 60s. Her white mother was a single parent, her Somalian father was not around. She was a wild child who decided to form her own band after seeing the Sex Pistols play on her 19th birthday.
Punk was a useful umbrella but Poly was not a snarling nihilist in a spiky dog collar. She wore what we now call vintage clothes in bright colours, often accessorised with children’s plastic toys. She was fascinated by the man-made materials and consumerism that were shaping the end of the 20th century. Her punk name was plucked from the Yellow Pages.
Celeste said: “She was creating a character – Poly Styrene was an alter ego. David Bowie was a big inspiration, there were not any female artists doing that.
“She made a conscious not to do the sexy thing. She was going out to parties and doing all sorts at 12 and 13. She had her time of wearing hot pants and platform shoes and trying to look hot.
“She outgrew that very very quickly - by the time she was in her late teens definitely didn’t want to play on that.”
Her songs – Artificial, Genetic Engineering, Plastic Bag – looked to the future while being nervous about the present. Oh Bondage Up Yours did have
shock value – it was not played on the BBC – but it wasn’t about getting sexual thrills from tying up a partner.
Celeste said: “She was fascinated with ideas of identity and what it means to be human. She was grappling with deep philosophical ideas.”
The music industry of the time was a brutal place for a young woman. When the album Germ Free Adolescents was released, with pictures of each of the band in a test tube, Poly was furious that her photo had been altered to make her look thinner. It’s clear from the clips of interviews in the film that Poly had no media training. And there was not a lot of support from her contemporaries. Celeste unearthed pictures of her mother at John Lydon’s house looking bored and miserable. She said: “Mum did tell me some Sid Vicious stories. He once took a knife to her at a party – always had a knife in his hand, he was the kind of guy who played with knives.
“Another time he locked her in a cupboard. She was looking for the toilet. That was worse – it symbolises a lack of respect from someone she admired.”
X-Ray Spex only made one album. Suffering from hallucinations, Poly was sectioned and misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. That was the end of the band. She was only 21.
Looking at it now, Celeste sees her mother’s breakdown as a reaction against the music industry. “She hated touring more than anything. She came to hate the machine of fame and celebrity and the superficiality of that world. Even at that age my mum was operating on a very deep level. She thought she would meet a lot of like-minded people in that world but she didn’t really, she wasn’t associating with anyone on her level.
“She felt she had let the rest of the band down. Without my mum there wasn’t a band. Things started to fall apart, the whole band fell apart and that was the dreams and hopes of other people.”
Her attempts to reinvent herself as a non-punk performer were a brutal failure. By the time she had Celeste, aged 24, she had put the music world behind her. Her aesthetic was more Laura Ashley and she and her little girl dressed up in matching outfits.
Poly discovered Hare Krishna and lived in a commune in Hertfordshire. Celeste was brought up by her grandmother.
It took her well into the 21st century before she even thought about playing music again. But Poly made an album in 2010 and played a show not long before her death.
The book and film are part of Celeste’s bigger plan to rehabilitate her mother’s reputation. It’s working – FKA Twigs says Germfree Adolescents is her favourite album of all time.
Celeste said: “It was tough to lose a parent, I was only 28, I was an only child, I didn’t have a close relationship with my dad. I felt like an orphan. I felt sorry for myself for a long time.
“In fact I’m very privileged. Everyone loses a parent but not everyone can have their memories as vivid and alive as mine.
“She followed her own path and didn’t worry about what people thought. That’s what I take from her life.” ●Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché is on at Glasgow Film Festival tomorrow – www.glasgowfilm.org
The nationwide virtual cinema release is on March 5, via www. modernfilms.com
Without my mum there wasn’t a band. Things started to fall apart