I Am A Cliche: the story of Poly Styrene, feminist punk

Poly Styrene performs with punk band X-Ray Spex at the Roundhouse, London in 1978. Photo / Redferns

A poignant new music documentary tells the story of Poly Styrene - one of the most imaginative, witty singers and songwriters who gained the world then lost it - is told through the eyes of her daughter, Celeste Bell. She talks with Garth Cartwright about "having a mother not like other mums".

Have you heard about the woman who was Poly Styrene? Her story could be that of an adult fairy tale, so bright and creative was she. Instead, Poly's brilliant, too brief life was lived out in London and southern England over the late 20th to early 21st centuries and it is only now that her legacy is really being examined. Essentially, Poly Styrene was Marianne Elliott-Said, a mixed-race girl (English mother, Somali father) who grew up with her mum and siblings in Brixton, south London, armed only with a vivid creative imagination.

Marianne left school aged 15, hitchhiked to music festivals, living wild and free before she started creating remarkable jewellery/handbags/jackets out of plastics and other materials most people would consider "waste" and that she sold from a stall on the King's Road. Aged 18 she released a reggae 45 then, having witnessed the fledgling Sex Pistols on her 19th birthday, threw her lot in with the then-nascent punk rock movement, calling herself Poly Styrene, because she was looking for "a name of the time, something plastic".

English punk band the X-Ray Spex in 1978. Photo / Getty Images

Poly placed an advertisement for "young punx who want to stick it together" to form a band, quickly becoming leader of X-Ray Spex. Here she blossomed into one of punk's most imaginative, witty singers and songwriters, described retrospectively by Billboard magazine as the "archetype for the modern-day feminist punk"; because she wore dental braces, rebelled against the archetypal female sex object of the 1970s, sported a gaudy, dayglo wardrobe, and was of mixed race. She was, Billboard noted, "one of the least conventional front-persons in rock history, male or female".

X-Ray Spex made an immediate impact with their debut single Oh Bondage, Up Yours!, which opens with the spoken/screamed line, "Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard but I think, oh bondage, up yours!" Four more singles and a brilliant debut album, Germfree Adolescents, demonstrated how Poly possessed a unique critique of consumer society, the teenage psyche and the patriarchy. X-Ray Spex won great reviews and strong sales but Poly's time in the spotlight would prove to be brief as the stress of touring and being the centre of attention proved too much.

Diagnosed as schizophrenic (later correctly recognised as bipolar), mental health problems plagued her and she would hide away for many years on a Hare Krishna commune. In better health earlier this century she reformed X-Ray Spex to much acclaim, then died of metastatic breast cancer in 2011 at the age of 53.

If I now inform you that Poly's life and artistry are celebrated in both a stunning hardback book (Dayglo) and a feature-length documentary (I Am A Cliche) you are entitled to nod and note how biographies and docs on dead rock stars are plentiful. Well, yes, but these two efforts stand head and shoulders above the genre. This is because they are both helmed by Poly's only child, Celeste Bell, so come with an insight and tenderness most lack. Also: as Poly's time as a punk pop star was very brief, the biography and documentary look way beyond music. Creativity, race, female emancipation, mental health, religious cults, mother-daughter relationships and much else is discussed.

Poly Styrene with daughter Celeste. Photo / Tony Barrat

Bell, who was born in 1981 and whisked away to the Krishna commune at 3 months (Poly left her new husband, never to return, after an argument about their apartment's decor), grew up in circumstances most children thankfully never have to endure: the Krishnas kept parents and children apart, then, once back in London, Poly's mental illness meant she would neglect feeding/caring for her daughter, leading to Bell spending her adolescence with her grandmother.

Speaking with Bell, I find there's no bitterness towards her late mother, more a great tenderness.

"I didn't expect my mum to pass away so young," she says when I ask what inspired her to become her mother's biographer. "I knew she had wanted to publish her diaries and that was the initial idea I had for the book, to dive into her artwork and diaries. I quickly realised that would be quite short, so Dayglo developed into something much richer, more biographical, with many perspectives from many voices. I think it gives a more well-rounded picture not only of who she was but what was happening around her at the time."

Bell wrote Dayglo with music journalist Zoe Howe and Howe introduced her to documentary-maker Paul Sng. He and Bell agreed to co-direct a documentary and I Am A Cliche tells Poly's story alongside that of Celeste as she tries to comprehend her brilliant but damaged mother. While very much "a women's film", Cliche's focus on creativity and madness and parent-child relationships ensure it has universal resonance. A book and documentary about a punk rock singer whose brief heyday was 40-plus years ago might appear redundant in our age of superstar DJs and pop divas but Poly's unique vision means younger generations continue to discover and embrace her.

Poly Styrene with novelist Jackie Collins (left) and conservative campaigner Mary Whitehouse (right) at London's Women of the Year lunch in 1979. Photo / Getty Images

"People are always discovering Mum's music," says Bell, "especially younger people, thanks to YouTube and the digital realm. Poly exists today as an inspiration for many youths, especially young women of colour, because she lived on her own terms and was fearless in her creativity.

"The film takes her story to a much wider sector of society. A lot of people got in touch after watching the film because it transcends music - or it transcends the 'music documentary' - because there's a mental health story alongside the story of growing up in the UK as a mixed-race person during a very difficult time.

"It's also a story of spirituality and her search for meaning in life. The wider societal changes my mother witnessed in her lifetime and how this has continued today – indeed, intensified in many ways - social, economic, political changes, women being creative and expressing themselves unhindered by expectations of having to look pretty or act sexy or behave conventionally means people can look at her and think, 'Well, she's she's just so relevant.'"

Dayglo is published by Omnibus. I Am A Cliche will be premiering on Rialto Channel on Sunday, February 13 at 8.30pm.