Oh cancer, up yours! Poly Styrene RIP

[Geoff Woad]

My punk admiration was mainly confined to the Clash for their outward looking ways, going beyond the obvious and seeking new musical influences. But digging into things, I couldn't fail to admire Poly Styrene - the voice and the attitude that possibly carried further than my little sister's, and that you couldn't help but notice - I think the following sums it up - could anyone fail to be taken aback?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6BHh_0pX_4

While I can't call myself a fan of her newer stuff on listening:
http://www.poly-styrene.com/

I feel I insulted her memory because I only skim-read this article, and thought I'd just come back to it at a later date:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/ma ... NTCMP=SRCH

And now she's gone. But you have to love her obituary on her own website, only 8 days after, obviously knowing she was dying, they put out a headline talking of "The Return of Poly Styrene":

We can confirm that the beautiful Poly Styrene, who has been a true fighter, won her battle on Monday evening to go to higher places.

RIP

[Geoff Woad]

OK, seems like I'm the only BSP and X-ray Spex fan then, but I'm currently listening to a 6music interview with Poly, and honestly, the bravery and lack of complaints from her - you can hear how every word she says is painful from her struggling voice, but the positivity is heart-warming...

[HiL]

I used to love a single she released in the mid-late 1980s, “Trick of the Witch”. Don't think it received particularly good reviews tho. V. different from her punk stuff – kind of fitted into the Danielle Dax/Into A Circle/ Rose of Avalanche jangly, “mystical,” goth-pop vibe of the time.

[redc]

OK, seems like I'm the only BSP and X-ray Spex fan then,

I don't think you are, just they haven't got much to say on here about it.

I wouldn't call myself a fan, but I feel she was one of, if not THE defining voice of punk and a distinctive and pervasive element of the contemporary music scene. Her music always had more promise about it than most of her dead-end comtempoaries such as Sex Pistols & Clash, and certainly more in common with the post-punk & new wave music that was to come.

[m1573r_g4v]

gutted. we've lost some true individuals in recent times, but what is there to say?

[kate o]

I'm really saddened that Jenny Conlee of the Decemberists is the latest musician I adore to be hit by cancer. I still imagine these people to be immortal.