DVD/150: POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ (Celeste Bell / Paul Sng. 2021)

When Marion Elliott died of cancer in 2011, Celeste Bell grieved for her mum while music fans grieved for Poly Styrene, iconic singer with punk band X-Ray Spex.  They had a troubled relationship and Celeste initially resisted exploring her mother's legacy but her journey to connecting with Marian is beautifully captured in POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ.

Marian, a mixed-race South Londoner, found a natural home within Punk but still encountered patronising chauvinism from fellow musicians and press. Meanwhile Poly highlighted the rush to mass consumerism with THE DAY THE WORLD TURNED DAY-GLO and the magnificent OH BONDAGE UP YOURS!

A mis-diagnosed bi-polar condition led to recurring mental health issues including her years in a Hare Krishna retreat; her mood-swings resulted in Celeste living with her grandmother but music healed them, collaborating on the X-Ray Spex reunion gig and Poly's last album.

Shelf or charity shop?  Well I contributed to the film's crowdfunding so a definite shelf!  A genuine labour of love, co-directors Celeste and Paul Sng have crafted a personal story that resonates through Celeste's voice-over narration, Ruth Negga's voicing of Poly's diaries and lyrics and a hypnotic pace.  It's always sad when you find out that a hero had pain in their lives and Poly is no exception but despite the mental anguish which plagued her from the 1980s onwards, her unstoppable personality bursts through and she is and always will be a heroic figure who went against the grain to create amazing moments of being through her music. Wonderful archive footage shows her in full voice fronting X-Ray Spex while her offstage candid interviews show the girl who was always painfully honest.  With offscreen contributions from Pauline Black, Gina Birch, Laura Logic, Thurston Moore, Vivienne Westwood and Neneh Cherry among others, Celeste has given us a lasting tribute to her remarkable mother.

It's not a good week for tawny-heads... it was sad to hear of the death today of Malcolm McLaren.

Love him or hate him, you couldn't ignore him.

It appears he has been ill with cancer for some time but it had been kept quiet.

His ex-partner Vivienne Westwood has said "When we were young and I fell in love with Malcolm, I thought he was beautiful and I still do. I thought he is a very charismatic, special and talented person. The thought of him dead is really something very sad"

From New York Dolls to The Sex Pistols, from Bow Wow Wow to Boy George, from bringing the underground sounds of hip-hop and Vogue house to a wider public to mixing electro beats to classic opera... he had an unerring knack for seeing a new area for discovery then moving on as soon as it was spotlighted.

His confrontational behaviour won him enemies - and it's a shame that his Situationist activities ostracised the very people he had put in the front line, but the world will be a poorer place for his absence.

He had said in January "‘I have concluded that this is the year that pop culture has finally become a crumbling ruin. No matter where I look and listen, the ruins are all I am beginning to care about. I believe in the ruins."

It has crumbled a bit more with today's news.