One of the most important female punk singers of all time passed
on this year. Ari-Up, the legendary singer of the infamous female
punk band The Slits left her mark on the world
as she wanted among the counterculture music scene, as she
exploded on the planet with a fury, and an originality that knew
no compare.
Music editor Bruce Edwin of Subnormal Magazine states,
“When I first picked up this Peel Sessions
record by this crazy named British band called The
Slits, I was just blown away. Ari-Up on vocals was
addictive to any one that heard and got it. There never was and
probably never will be another singer quite like her. You could
tell she put every ounce of her being in to each song, from each
word, to each scream to each breath. She defined the power of
women in rock like few ever since.”
Ari-Up, born in Germany as Arianna Daniele Forester, who also
went by the name Madussa for some of her dub musical work while
living in Jamaica, passed on at the age of 48 after a long battle
with illness, reported The Slits website. Her immediate family
has asked for privacy at this time. She is survived by three
sons, her mother Nora, and stepfather Johnny Lydon, aka Johnny
Rotten of The Sex Pistols.
Proud of her mother, who promoted and managed bands including
Taste and Wishbone Ash when Ari
was growing up, her mum's friends would regularly pass through,
including rock legends Jimi Hendrix, Yes, and
more. Seeing a Sex Pistols gig as a young girl,
Ari was hooked on punk, and at the age of a mere 14, formed
The Slits with drummer
Palmolive after their meeting at a Patti
Smith gig in 1976. Their first song was a
Ramones cover, and The Slits
would take The U.K. by storm, opening for The
Clash and The Sex Pistols on their
White Riot Tour, and played with many more punk
legends, later becoming one in their own right, and headlining
their own gigs across Europe and beyond. Six years later,
The Slits disbanded in 1982, but reformed in
2005, with a new album out in 2006, and touring in that year,
2007, and 2008 around the planet to fans from America to China
and beyond. They released the new album ‘Trapped
Animal’ in 2009.
Nora Forster and John Lydon released the following statement,
“Nora has asked us to let everyone know that Nora’s
daughter Arianna (aka Ari-Up) died today (Wednesday, October
20th) after a serious illness. She will be sadly missed. The
band’s final work, the video for the song “Lazy
Slam” from the 2009 album ‘Trapped Animal,’ was
released posthumously, as Ari-Up had wished.”
Influenced heavily by dub, reggae, Caribbean, and multi-cultural
scenes, Ari-Up infused global music forms and dance styles not
generally found in western pop or rock music through her work.
Furthermore, inspired by some tribal female dancers in Africa who
went topless, and painted themselves ritually with mud, Ari-Up
and The Slits did the same for their album cover
‘Cut,’ and continued her provocative sexuality with
her body, voice, and lyrics, long before it was common in pop or
rock, paving the way for many female musicians who invariably
were influenced not only by the bravado of punk rock, whether
they realized it or not, but by the feminism of Ari-Up and The
Slits.
Ari-Up loved the spotlight, but refused to live her life on
anything but her own terms. You can read that fact from her
herself in her own words here below, and check out a video by one
of the best punk bands ever. Ari, you succeeded, and you are
missed.
Ari-Up: When you make up your mind to be
disconnected in a way from society, from how you should be and
say and how you should conduct yourself, you strip all that away,
and then instinctively you make up your mind- automatically when
I’m on the road, you don’t give a s-, that’s
the end result, you don’t care, if people have a negative
reaction or a positive, you just don’t really care. You
make an observation of it, note it, and say, Oh yeah, but
it’s not gonna’ change anything, it’s not going
to change me, it’s all about hopefully the music that we
do, that that can be on the table and heard. That the art that I
am gifted with can be out there, and then people can take it or
leave it. I’m not here to be loved, I’m here to be
heard. When you’ve become like this, and you’ve
stripped society away from you, you’re walking as really
you, so people take that energy from you. So it can be really,
really offensive, or really, really, really inspiring, so
that’s what I’m getting , and that’s fine by
me. That’s good, that’s a good thing!
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