Met her a few times in NYC circa '00/'01 - very unique character.
Liked the Slits & her work with the On-U Sound label in the 80's.
Very sad. Only 48. She was a teenager in her UK punk heyday.
She had an idiosyncratic warbling vocal style which was ,at times, polarizing.
Step daughter of John Lydon - condolences go out to friends & family.
RIP
With New Age Steppers - Guiding Star:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJe4Bg81Ub8++++++++++++
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/51942/223950Ian Dickson/Redferns/Getty
By Daniel Kreps
Oct 21, 2010 9:20 AM EDT
Ari Up (born Arianna Forster), lead singer of the Slits, passed away yesterday following "a serious illness," her stepfather John Lydon announced online. She was only 48. One of the most revered female punk bands to emerge in the late Seventies, the Slits had slots opening for the Clash - Joe Strummer taught Ari Up how to play guitar - and Buzzcocks even before releasing their debut album Cut in 1979. The band released their second disc, The Return of the Giant Slits, in 1981, then disbanded.
The Slits reunited in 2006 and released Trapped Animal, their first album in 25 years, in 2009. "We had the privilege over the last couple of years getting to know Ari both professionally and as a friend," Shahin Ewalt, from the band's current label, Narnack Records, said. "Ari was a rare and beautiful person. She had so much energy, and was full of life. There is no one like her and I'm afraid there will never be another Ari Up. She was fearless, pushing the boundaries of music in unprecedented ways. You can hear her direct influence in punk, indie and reggae over the course of the past three decades." The label has released a a video for "Lazy Slam," saying that Ari Up "was insistent that the video be seen and it was her wish to release it posthumously." Watch it below.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ari_UpAriane Forster (17 January 1962 – 20 October 2010), better known by her stage name Ari Up, was a German-born vocalist best known as a member of the English punk group, The Slits.
[edit] Career
Forster was born in Munich, Germany,[1] the granddaughter of a wealthy German newspaper proprietor (Der Spiegel).[2] Forster's mother, Nora, was known in the music industry, as she was a friend of Jimi Hendrix, and dated Chris Spedding for three years. Nora would later date and marry the Sex Pistols' lead singer, John Lydon. Their home was known to be something of a punk domain, where Nora would take in poor musicians. The constant presence of punk music led to Ari Up experimenting in it herself, learning guitar skills from The Clash's Joe Strummer.[3]
Ari Up was only fourteen when she formed The Slits with drummer Palmolive in 1976. Ari Up's love of reggae led The Slits into a "jungly", dub style. She was the most flamboyant member of the group. Her wild hair and crazy stage outfits became her trademarks. She can be seen briefly in The Clash movie, Rude Boy, with the band backstage. Her 1977 performances with The Slits are featured in The Punk Rock Movie, a 1992 release of various punk group club performances, principally at The Roxy.
After The Slits split in 1981, she moved with her husband and twin children to jungle regions of Indonesia and Belize, living among indigenous people in those areas. Later, they moved to Jamaica, eventually settling in Kingston.[4]
She continued to make music, first with the New Age Steppers, then solo as Baby Ari, Madussa, and Ari Up.
Despite growing up in England, Ari Up possessed an unusual accent which was the result of a cross between German, English and Jamaican.[citation needed]
Her first full length solo album entitled Dread More Dan Dead was released in 2005.
[edit] Later life and death
In 2006 Ari Up reformed The Slits with original bass player Tessa Pollitt. They released an EP and have since toured in Europe, North America, Australia, and Japan. She occasionally played solo concerts in New York, and toured the UK with her backing band 'The True Warriors'.
She also recorded with the Jammyland All Stars, Brave New Girl, Dubistry, and the German techno-dancehall outfit, Terranova.
Ari Up appeared on Lee "Scratch" Perry's 2008 album, Repentance,[5] and performed a duet on a cover version of The Yardbirds' song "Mister You're a Better Man Than I" on Mark Stewart's 2008 album, Edit. In July 2009, she performed with Perry and Austrian dub band Dubblestandart in Brooklyn, New York just prior to the Central Park SummerStage festival.[6] The Slit's final work, the video for the song "Lazy Slam" from Trapped Animal, was released posthumously according to Ari Up's wishes.[7]
On 20 October 2010, John Lydon's homepage announced, on behalf of John and Ari's mother Nora Forster, Ari Up's death that morning from a "serious illness"
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/oct/21/ari-up -punk-courage-confront
Ari Up: a punk with the courage to confront
When I saw the Slits in 1977, Ari Up would howl, scream and hitch up her clothes. No audience had ever seen a young woman behave like this on stage. And like the best punk rock, she had a gleeful desire to shock and outrage
Ari Up of the Slits A primal, revolutionary force ... Ari Up. Photograph: Ray Stevenson/Rex Features
Ari Up, whose death from cancer has just been announced, was an extremely powerful energy force – a trailblazer who embodied the punk spirit. As singer and co-writer in the Slits, she completely redefined what a woman in music could do and – in the ethos of the time – opened up possibilities that would be explored by herself and many others in the years to come.
The Slits erupted during their appearance at the Harlesden Coliseum in March 1977. Like many groups at that time, they were learning as they went along: the performance was chaotic and violent. But no one had seen young women behave like this on stage: enacting a flagrant parody of sexuality, at the same time seemingly tougher and more disturbing than the other (male) groups on the bill.
I loved seeing them in 1977 and 1978. The shows became more coherent, but there was always this edge of chaos – which added to the excitement. Visually, drummer Palmolive was fantastic: standing up to play, beating the crap out of her set in thundering, tribal patterns. Bassist Tessa Pollitt stood stock still and watchful, while guitarist Viv Albertine prowled the stage like a tiger.
Up front, Ari howled, screamed, toasted, crooned, skanked, hitched up her clothes, pulled at her bird's nest hair, and generally behaved in a most un-lady-like fashion. She was confrontational in person and on stage, but her courage went hand-in-hand with a gleeful, teenage desire to shock and outrage that was a major impulse in punk.
The Slits found it difficult to assimilate within a conservative, male-dominated music industry. The songs became clearer, and when you listened, they were tuneful, witty and extremely sharp. One masterpiece was FM – recorded for a John Peel session in 1977 – which tackles the insidious psychic effects of the mass media. It ends with a radio sweep that includes Union Gap's salacious Young Girl.
By the time the Slits recorded their first album in 1979, they were a completely different band from their thrash beginnings. Produced by Dennis Bovell, the reggae-infused Cut is justly celebrated as a landmark statement that includes strong songs such as Newtown, Shoplifting and, of course, Typical Girls – an enduring manifesto for young women who seek to reject the norm.
Punk has now become so familiar that people forget its primal, revolutionary drive. For a brief period, everything had to be new. If it hadn't been done before, do it: why not? What's to stop you? Ari Up enacted this impulse on stage, on record, and in person into the 21st century. In any language, this was heroic, and I salute her for that: I'm sorry she's gone.
