Poly Styrene

Poly Styrene was the singer and songwriter who fronted British punk band X-Ray Spex. Born Marion Elliot, she worked with clothes and ran a stall at Beaufort Market before forming the band in 1976. Songs including Identity and The Day the World Turned Day-Glo brought questions of consumerism, appearance and manufactured identity into punk.

Styrene’s musical life also included solo work, among it Translucence. Her writing and public presence have remained significant to discussions of race, gender and self-expression in British music. The documentary Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché draws on the archive explored by her daughter Celeste Bell. Styrene died in 2011.