POLY STYRENE ROCK AGAINST RACISM with POLY STYRENE! You already know all about her. She started a legendary punk rock band, X-Ray Spex, in the late 1970s in London when she was a teenager and inspired generations of vocalists— including Kathleen Hanna and Beth Ditto—with her powerful voice and timeless lyrics. I bought a copy of Germ Free Adolescents from SMASH in Washington, DC when I lived there. I had heard the band before, but that was the first time I remember getting to actually listen to the lyrics and get immersed in it. I heard a young woman singing some of the sharpest song lyrics I’d ever heard. Her perspective seemed to me to be anti-capitalist or at least anti-consumerist in nature, and she was able to put suitable words to the strangeness of post-modern life in all of its false sterility. I didn’t know that she was half-Black and I didn’t know she was a teenager when she formed X-Ray Spex, but she sounded like a feminist and she had this far-
out way of thinking about her reality and I was really into it. The music itself was ahead of its time, too. X-Ray Spex was a new wave band. They had a saxophonist named Lora Logic, they had a futuristic feel and you could tell they listened to as much reggae and ska as they did rock’n’roll. Poly Styrene was the mouthpiece and formed the aesthetic for her band and till this day, it’s hard for me to think of anyone else who’s done it better since. She was indeed the captain of the Brown Underground, and I feel lucky to have gotten the chance to interview her before she died earlier this year. Intro and interview by Osa Atoe MRR: Briefly, what were the political circumstances in society, in the music industry and in punk rock that lead to the creation of the first Rock Against Racism concert in 1976? In 1976 punk rock was considered outrageous and a dangerous youth
movement by the Establishment. The music industry was shaken up by punk rock music and racism was rearing its ugly head with fascist right wing political groups calling for the repatriation of all foreigners. Rock Against Racism came along as a breath of fresh air and many punk rock bands played at their events including X-Ray Spex. MRR: Did you or any friends of yours suffer any attacks as a punk or person of color during that time? Some of my friends were attacked for being punk rockers. I never was physically attacked, but I got some negative press as a punk rocker and some verbal abuse on the street for my skin tone. MRR: Who were the main organizers of Rock Against Racism and are they the same group that organized Rock Against Racism’s 30th Anniversary show? I remember a guy called Red Saunders as being one of the main organizers and was still involved with the Anniversary show 30 years later. MRR: How did it feel to be a part of this event? What was the audience like? Any favorite moments? It was a great historical event it felt really
great to be up there fighting with music against racism. I remember revealing a shaved head to the audience I shaved my hair off in sympathy for Jewish women who were raped in concentration camps during the Second World War. MRR: What was your involvement in punk outside of X-Ray Spex? I just hung out at most early punk rock shows and met lots of other punk band members. MRR: What was your social life like at the time that X-Ray Spex started? What types of people did you hang around, or were you mostly a loner? Where, if it all, did you find community? I had a great social life I was invited to lots of parties and gigs I hung out with a girl called Mad Mary and we lived just off the Kings Road in Chelsea we knew lots of people in the neighborhood. MRR: I’m assuming the punk scene then was predominantly white, just like most punk scenes are now. Did that ever bother you at the time? Did you ever feel isolated on the basis of race? Why or why not? Yes, that is true, but I never felt isolated