R.I.P. Poly Styrene

 

I know I am a little late with this but nevertheless Poly Styrene’s death from cancer is still making me come to terms with both getting older and wondering who will be next to go  amongst people who have had at the very least a musical influence on me.

 

Poly’s band X Ray Spex were the first band I ever saw live. I was 16 years old and had discovered John Peel and punk. 

It was 1977 and half term. Me and my mate Michael decided to go for a day out in London . Reading NME on the way in we learned that X Ray Spex would be playing at The Marquee that night. I had heard  Peel play the  debut X Ray Spex 12”  ( Oh Bondage Up Yours! b/w I Am  A Cliché )in his shows several times so I knew what sort of music we could hear.

It was 75p admission and we figured if we skimped on paying the train and Tube fares and didn’t eat much we could afford it. So we rode the train the twenty or so miles into London dodging the  guard , walked confidently through the tube stations and found ourselves in Leicester Square and  as night fell made our way up Wardour Street . 

This was pre id , pre obsession with under age drinking days so we got in without as much as a second glance even despite not looking remotely like punks ( I was still wearing flares for god sake as my parents wouldn’t shell out for new jeans)

 

We bought ourselves a pint of something or other ( it was supposed to be beer but to this day I’m not so sure) and waited amazed that here we were in the famous venue waiting to see a real proper punk band. The club was half full of  punks, the sound system played all the new punk standards and then  X Ray Spex came on.

 

It wasn’t the best gig I've ever been to ,the band weren’t the most proficient  but the energy and chaos shown by both them and the audience had a profound effect on me and Mike. Poly’s voice was powerful and full of raw emotion and soared above the music effortlessly. They were short of material and played some songs twice. The whole set couldn’t have been more than half an hour long.

 

 I was hooked on  music and live music especially  from that point on.

 

We missed the last train home and I was grounded for a few months but it was worth it. It was also the first of many visits to The Marquee over the next two years. 

Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons in The Boy Looked At Johnny reckoned Poly was the future of music. For whatever reason she wasn't . That doesn't matter because  although I never met you Poly  you left a  impression on me that remains as clear  to me today as it was all that time ago. And Mike if you're reading this, I hope you remember that night as vividly as I do. 

The world is poorer without people like Poly.  RIP