Punk singer Poly Styrene, former singer with the X-Ray Spex, has died at the age of 53 after suffering from cancer.
She was one of the first female punk icons, whose unorthodox yet infectious style was highly influential.

Styrene shot to fame in 1976 with X-Ray Spex, and was immortalised in punk history with the song Oh Bondage, Up Yours! “Little girls should be seen and not heard,” Styrene would say to introduce the track. X-Ray Spex released one album, the acclaimed Germ Free Adolescents in 1978, before Styrene left the group.

Despite her relatively short stint with the band, Styrene’s overt feminism and mixed-race heritage marked her out among her punk contemporaries and won her legions of fans for generations to come. Beth Ditto, singer with Gossip, said: “Poly Styrene [was] so ahead of her time. She recreated punk.”