We're very saddened to learn that Ari Up of The Slits died yesterday at the age of 48. The news was broken via John Lydon’s website – Lydon was her stepfather, having married her mother Nora during the 1970s. The website didn’t specify a cause of death, citing only a “serious illness”.

Born Arianna Forster, Ari Up was a true original – possessed of a unique Germany-meets-Jamaica accent, an enduring love of reggae and a precocious talent, she founded the The Slits at the age of just 14. Their anarchic, unconstrained creativity embodied everything that was good about punk. The band’s sound drew on a riot of disparate influences, and combined them into music that sounded like absolutely no-one else. 

After The Slits went their separate ways in 1981, she worked with the New Age Steppers and also solo under a variety of pseudonyms. In later years, she lived in Indonesia and Belize and eventually settled in Jamaica with her children, where Don Letts tracked her down for some memorable interview footage in his film Punk: Attitude. She re-formed The Slits in 2006 with original bassist Tessa Pollitt and three new members – the band played in Australia in 2007 to pretty much universally excellent reviews (The Vine contrived to miss these shows because we were overseas, for which we will forever curse ourselves). 

You can see The Slits’ influence – philosophically, if not musically – in everything from riot grrrl to Beaches, but they’re not just a “girl” thing: their music transcended gender as much as it transcended genre. Ultimately, their music is a reminder that if you pick up a guitar and try to express yourself, all sorts of amazing things can happen.

RIP Ari Up. 

The Slits ‘Typical Girls’

The Slits ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’