Ari Up (real name Ariane Foster), guitarist and lead singer for legendary UK post-punk band The Slits, passed away on Wednesday, October 20. She was 48 and had been fighting with cancer for the past year.
Ari formed the Slits with drummer Palmolive when she was just 14 years old. Her legacy in punk and the UK scene is long, since her mother, Nora, used to put up punk band in their house as they toured, she met many of the earliest stars of the genre as she was growing up. She learned how to play guitar from Joe Strummer of the Clash. Her music had a distinct reggae feel to it. The Slits were only around from 1976 to 1981, but left an indelible stamp on UK punk and post-punk music.
The band recently came back together and recorded a full length album, Trapped Animal, for Narnack Records, in 2009.
I remember The Slits mostly for their dubby version of The Miracles' "I Heard it Through the Grapevine":
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