X-Ray Spex singer Poly Styrene r.i.p.

well you're goingto want to have some kind of recognisable tag. Were people graffiting band names in places at teh time?
THink I was seeing mod revival names getting tagged in places or at least things like bus stops.
JUst adds a little something when you're doing your best to get noticed.

Though you do want to not look gimmicky and you also don't want to look like you sold out to the man by it all looking too utterly professional.
Underground artists are useful and can add credibility not that you're own shouldn't be enough. Badge of honour and the company being kept. Also presumably the understanding taht an underground comic artist isn't selling out to the man by doing that.

I definitely think of X-Ray Spex as a punk band, their noise and velocity and Poly’s immortal yawp all very much scan as punk (as opposed to, say, Essential Logic, who seem post-punk even tho “Aerosol Burns” is indisputably a punk classic).

never heard Translucence before, this is wonderful

X ray spex are/we're punk because they split before they 'moved on' with their sound, "Highly Inflammable" excepted

They're somewhere between punk and new wave without really being post-punk.

they are 100% "class of 77" punk to me, the LP is a bit more filled out in sound but all the lyrics are like ur-punk Rosetta stones

can I watch this now btw? where?

I guess the (excellent) title song of their first album is sort of new-wavey, but I count them as ground-zero punk, just like everyone else on the The Roxy London WC2 album, even if some of them like the Buzzcocks and Wire proceeded in different directions.

xpost upthread:

If you are outside the UK you will be able to watch the film very soon; we are working with international partners to bring the film to the US, Europe and beyond. As soon as we have more information on international screenings as well as DVDs and Bluray DVDs we will let you know (an email will be sent to check we have your current address). The film will also be screened at several film festivals around the world throughout 2021, the first of which will be SXSW, March 16-20. We will announce the full festival line-up very soon.

That said one wonders if VPNs could help with this:

https://www.modernfilms.com/polystyrene/watch

Sky Arts showed it last night in the UK which might mean it gets a repeat in the middle of the night over teh next couple of weeks, Might not. Worked with the Rob lloyd film anyway

it's on again friday (along with the Rock against Racism thing that was shown after it which also features Poly and was worth a watch if you needed reminding how racist the late 70s were)

I think I taped the 2 of those and teh damned thing taht was on after the RAR . Haven't checked tehy all came out yet though. may be low on space

The Rock Against Racism one looked a bit like it was produced by the propaganda wing of the SWP but was useful for showing that, despite what a lot of people seem to think now, punk and punk rockers were, for the most part, very much on the right side of history. As did the Poly Styrene doc.

My sister was at the Victoria Park gig... but so were a lot of other people!

Translucence is on Spotify. Probably never looked for it or under teh name Poly Styrene until now.
There's also a much later solo lp up there.
The Pre X Ray Spex single was included on ana anthology some years ago too so may be up there somewhere too.

That newer one, Generation Indigo, was released right around when she died. It's pretty good!

Just rewatched this and liked it a lot more. I think I was feeling too restless to appreciate it fully last week.

The archive footage and photography in general is very good. There’s something about a lot of the voices that still feels a bit flat and lifeless.

i liked that they broke away from the normal talking head presentation these docs usually have and didn't show the heads. it didn't feel flat to me but perhaps that's what made it seem flat?

US screening is happening! Online via the SFFILM Festival, get a ticket now

https://sffilm.org/event/poly-styrene-i-am-a-cliche/

Excellent doc!

Now streaming!

Amazing

Amazing

connection issues, sorry for double post.

One post for each strand of the double helix.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/arts/music/poly-styrene-i-am-a-cliche-documentary.html

I liked this, but I may have built up unrealistic expectations over time. I was surprised, checking my email, it was only 2017 when they started crowdfunding--feels like farther back than that. I know her daughter initiated, wrote, and directed the film, but I didn't find her segments especially compelling. I found the 40-minute BBC documentary, Who Is Poly Styrene? (still on YouTube), more moving. On a positive note, I spent the first half wondering why they hadn't used the amazing Top of the Pops clip of "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo," then almost the whole thing turned up. And although this was the second documentary in a row I'd seen with Thurston Moore holding court (right after Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child), his "Oh Bondage" story is a good one.

Thurston Moore is the alt-Bono.

Indeed