"My mother was Poly Styrene. Punk icon."
The first line in Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story, director and author Celeste Bell provides us with a look into the life of Marianne Elliot-Said, better known as Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex. After Poly died of breast cancer in 2011, Celeste teamed up with Zoë Howe to put the book together, which explores her life through diary entries, artwork, poems, and accounts from her peers.
Dayglo has now turned into Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, a documentary which dives further into Poly's life and the relationship Celeste had with her mother. It tells a poignant tale of the frontwoman as she had to grapple with rising fame, mental illness, and the effect it had on not only Poly, but Celeste as well.
We sat down with Celeste to talk about how the book and documentary came to fruition and explore different topics in both, the romanticization of the early punk scene, labels, and share stories about the life of one of the most influential voices in punk.
Song: "I Am a Cliché" by X-Ray Spex
