archi

After watching a very early gig by the Sex Pistols in an empty hall on Hastings Pier, 17 year old Mari Elliott decided that “anyone could do what they were doing” and placed an ad in the paper for ‘young punx who want to stick it together’ to form a band. As singer with X-Ray Spex, Mari chose the punk name Poly Styrene because it represented what pop stars were to punks: “a lightweight, disposable product.” She was described by Billboard as the “archetype for the modern-day feminist punk”; because she wore dental braces, stood against the typical sex object female of 1970’s rock star, sported a gaudy Dayglo wardrobe, and was of mixed race. She was “one of the least conventional front-persons in rock history, male or female.”