Poly Styrene
| Poly Styrene | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Marianne Joan Elliott-Said |
| Born | 3 July 1957 Bromley, Kent, England |
| Died | 25 April 2011 (aged 53) Sussex, England |
| Genres | Punk rock, new wave, downtempo |
| Occupation(s) | Vocalist, songwriter |
| Years active | 1976–2011 |
| Labels | Universal, EMI/Virgin, Future Noise Music |
| Associated acts | X-Ray Spex |
Marianne Joan Elliott-Said (3 July 1957 – 25 April 2011), known by the stage name Poly Styrene, was a British musician, singer-songwriter, and frontwoman for the punk rock band X-Ray Spex.
Styrene was born Marianne Joan Elliott-Said in 1957 in Bromley, Kent, England, and raised in Brixton, London. Her mother, who raised her alone, was a Scottish-Irish legal secretary. Her father was a dispossessed Somali .
As a teenager, Styrene was a hippie but also trained in opera. At age 15, she ran away from home with £3 in her pocket, and hitchhiked from one music festival to another, staying at hippie crash pads. Thinking of this as a challenge to survive, her adventure ended when she stepped on a rusty nail while bathing in a stream and had to be treated for septicaemia.
After seeing the Sex Pistols performance at the Pier Pavilion Hastings on the south coast of England on 3 July 1976 (her 19th birthday) she decided to form the punk band X-Ray Spex.
Styrene recorded her first demo album in 1975, when she was 18 years old. Her manager enlisted Ted Bunting to produce the record. According to Bunting, the album's punk rock sound allowed Styrene to tap into her lyrical talents, writing words that resonated directly with the period's youth.
In 1976, Styrene released her first single under her real name, Mari Elliott. Titled "Silly Billy", it was a reggae track, with some touches of the then popular ska style. She co-wrote the B-side "What A Way" with the record's producer, Falcon Stuart. The single came in a GTO Records sleeve.
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