Join us on Sunday 25 April when we mark the 10th anniversary of Poly Styrene’s passing with her daughter (and co-director of the film) Celeste Bell along with a panel of special guests for a two part event:

X-Ray Spex frontwoman Poly Styrene introduced the world to a new sound of rebellion, using her unconventional voice to sing about identity, consumerism and postmodernism in late 1970s Britain. Her daughter Celeste became the unwitting guardian of both her mother’s legacy and her mother’s demons. Misogyny, racism, and mental illness plagued Poly’s life, while the lasting trauma scarred Celeste’s childhood and the pair’s relationship.

Featuring unseen archive material and rare diary entries this documentary follows Celeste as she examines her mother’s unopened artistic archive and traverses three continents to better understand Poly the icon and Poly the mother.

From 6.30pm, we’ll be discussing the film and Poly Styrene’s life and work with Celeste Bell plus writer, broadcaster, post-punk musician and adjunct professor of punk at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music Vivien Goldman, Rina Vergano (Poly’s former tour manager) and lead singer of The Bodysnatchers and musician Rhoda Dakar.

Then from 7.15pm we’ll be hosting a ‘Post Poly Styrene, what HAS and HASN’T changed for women and women of colour in music?’ discussion with Celeste, Rhoda alongside the co-author of Sound Advice & music journalist Rhian Jones.

You can tune in here on Birds’ Eye View’s Facebook and YouTube channels. (Live captioning will be available for the talk)

You can catch the film on demand now, click HERE to find out where to watch.

(Closed captioning and audio description formats are available on selected platforms)