Often seen to be a figure who ushered in punk feminism, Poly Styrene (aka Marianne Joan Elliott-Said) has lost her battle with cancer. She revealed she had been diagnosed and had been receiving treatment for her illness in February 2011.

Styrene will be best remembered for her work with X-Ray Spex, a band whose debut album ‘Germ Free Adolescents’ (released in 1978) is seen as one of the greatest albums to stem from the British punk movement. The album was preceded by a single, ‘Oh Bondage! Up Yours’ (arguable the band’s best known track, although it was not included on the original album release). The album itself spawned three other singles – ‘Identity’, ‘The Day The World Turned Day-Glo’ and ‘Germ Free Adolescents’, all of which were successful, breaking into the UK Top 40 singles chart. The band broke up prematurely, after Styrene suffered hallucinations on stage. She was originally misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, but was much later diagnosed as being bi-polar. The band reformed seventeen years later and released a second album, which was not a commercial success.

Outside of X-Ray Spex, Poly Styrene stayed largely out of the spotlight, but released solo material sporadically, none of which ever gained the level of success achieved by X-Ray Spex. Her last work ‘Generation Indigo’ was released on March 28th 2011.

Poly Styrene remembered in video:

X-Ray Spex – Identity (promo video)

X-Ray Spex – Art-I-Ficial (Old Grey Whistle Test)

Oh Bondage! Up Yours! (Punk In London documentary)

Poly Styrene – Virtual Boyfriend (official promo video, 2011)

Poly Styrene talks about her 2011 album, Generation Indigo

April 2011

Mike Starr, last seen on the US MTV show ‘Celebrity Rehab’ in 2010, has died. At the time of writing, no details have been released regarding his cause of death, but police do not suspect foul play.

Starr will be best remembered as former bass player with Seattle legends Alice In Chains, playing bass on their first two (and arguably best) full length releases ‘Facelift’ and ‘Dirt’ (released in 1990 and 1992 respectively). Alongside Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ and Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’, ‘Dirt’ become one of the biggest selling and best loved albums associated with the 90’s grunge phenomenon, eventually shifting three over million units in the US. The album also spawned three US Top Ten hit singles.

After leaving Alice In Chains shortly after the release of ‘Dirt’, Starr became a member of Sun Red Sun, a supergroup which also featured Ray Gillen of Badlands/Black Sabbath, ex-Rainbow/Black Sabbath drummer Bobby Rondinelli and Al B Romano (formally a member of Anthrax vocalist Joey Belladonna’s eponymous band).

Starr can be seen in the video-clips from the Alice in Chains VHS release ‘Live Facelift’ below:

Today, the world lost a true legend. Whether playing rock or blues, part of Thin Lizzy or as a solo musician, Gary Moore played with style. He passed away whilst on holiday in Spain, way before his time. He left us a wealth of great music.

RIP Gary.

February 2011

It is with sadness I make this post, having just heard about the death of Steve Prestwich. For those of you who don’t know, Steve was best known as being the drummer with Cold Chisel throughout most of their career in the 1970s/80s and subsequent late 90s reunion. Between his work with Cold Chisel, he recorded two solo albums and also worked with The Little River Band.

In January 2011, Steve was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He underwent surgery on January 14th, but passed away two days later.

Cold Chisel are a fabulous band and one that has meant a great deal to me for many years. While their keyboard player Don Walker was their principal songwriter, other band members wrote songs during the band’s career. Steve Prestwich wrote two of the bands hits and contributed to a third – as a tribute to him, I’m posting the videos for those songs.

‘Forever Now’ and ‘When The War Is Over’ were both written by Prestwich and featured on Chisel’s 1982 album ‘Circus Animals’. ‘Flame Trees’ was written by Prestwich/Walker and featured on 1984’s ‘Twentieth Century’.

January 2011