She-Punks Supergroup Pay Tribute to X-Ray Spex’ Poly Styrene

Members of punk bands the Raincoats, X-Ray Spex, and the Slits paid tribute to feminist punk legend Poly Styrene with a fiery performance at London’s Up Yours! God Save the Queens! festival on Friday evening.

Gina Birch (The Raincoats), Hollie Cook (The Slits), Paul Dean (X-Ray Spex), Lora Logic (X-Ray Spex/Essential Logic), and Akiko Matsuura (Comanechi / Pre) announced their appearance at the one-night-only festival last month and led the charge on the tribute to Styrene. Big Joanie’s bassist Estella Adeyeri, The Membranes’ frontman John Robb, Skunk Anansie’s frontwoman Skin, The Bodysnatchers’ lead singer Rhoda Dakar, and British-Bengali multi-instrumentalist Bishi also performed at the festival.

The supergroup performed punk anthems like X-Ray Spex’s “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” and “The Day The World Turned Dayglo,” plus the Slits’ cover of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”

Up Yours! God Save the Queens! celebrated 50 years of She-Punk history at London’s Electric Brixton, featuring performances, artwork, and additional archival materials. Celeste Bell, Styrene’s daughter, curated the event alongside Vivien Goldman, the author of Revenge of the She-Punks.

Poly Styrene fronted X-Ray Spex after seeing the Sex Pistols perform in the Seventies. The band released their debut album Germfree Adolescents in 1978, and released their second and final album, Conscious Consumer, in 1995 during their second reunion. Styrene died in 2011 from breast cancer at age 53.

The punk festivities don’t end there, either; on Oct. 23, London’s Museum of Youth Culture will open “God Save the Queens,” an exhibition celebrating feminist punk history, closing on Nov. 22.