GOD SAVE THE QUEENS: NEW FESTIVAL TO CELEBRATE THE WOMEN THAT MADE PUNK ROCK
NEWS | UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS | 28th September 2026
Fifty years after punk tore through Britain’s cultural landscape, its history is still too often told as a boy’s club of torn leather, safety pins, and snarling frontmen. This autumn, a major London festival is set to permanently challenge that narrative.
Titled UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS, the ambitious multi-venue event gathers photography, fashion, previously unseen personal archives, and high-voltage live music to celebrate the women who created, shaped, and revolutionized punk’s cultural DNA. Centred around the indelible legacy of late X-Ray Spex frontwoman Poly Styrene, the festival frames women not as peripheral footnotes, but as the movement’s primary architects.
The project is the brainchild of the newly established Up Yours! Collective: filmmaker and writer Celeste Bell (Poly Styrene’s daughter), curator Lauren Estelle Jones (daughter of The Clash guitarist Mick Jones and director of The Rock & Roll Public Library), and renowned music writer and NYU academic Vivien Goldman, widely known as punk’s definitive chronicler.
A One-Night-Only Supergroup at Electric Brixton
The festival’s musical apex arrives on Friday, 16th October, when Electric Brixton hosts the God Save The Queens supergroup.
Presented alongside SJM Concerts, the 75-minute set will feature a historic X-Ray Spex reunion, with original members Lora Logic (saxophone) and Paul Dean (guitar) taking the stage, with Celeste Bell stepping into her mother’s boots to front the band.
The intergenerational lineup unites trailblazing icons and modern disciples:
- Gina Birch (The Raincoats) and The Unreasonables
- Hollie Cook (The Slits)
- Rhoda Dakar (The Bodysnatchers / The Specials)
- Contemporary post-punk standouts Big Joanie and grunge-punk trio Hot Wax
- Multi-instrumentalist and composer Bishi
- Drummer Akiko Matsuura (Comanechi / PRE)
- Writer, punk pioneer, and musician Vivien Goldman
- Longtime X-Ray Spex champion and Membranes frontman John Robb
“Bringing this vision to life through both the exhibition and joining the iconic she-punks on stage is an incredible full-circle moment,” says Bell. “Through Up Yours! Collective, we’re taking that legacy out of the archives and putting it where it belongs: centre stage.”
Inside the Relics of Rebellion: The Exhibition
Running from October 23 at the Museum of Youth Culture’s new permanent Camden home, the flagship exhibition draws directly from private lockers, attics, and legendary vaults. Rare materials have been pulled from the Poly Styrene Archive, the Zandra Rhodes Foundation, and Mick Jones’s sprawling Rock & Roll Public Library (RRPL).
Key highlights on display include:
- Poly Styrene Ephemera: Original draft artwork for Oh Bondage Up Yours!, collages for Germfree Adolescents, and the original gig poster from X-Ray Spex’s 1978 Roundhouse show.
- Fashion & Personal Relics: Archival pieces from Dame Zandra Rhodes; stage garments tailored for The Clash by Alex Michon and Krystyna Kolowska; and the travel-battered 1976 tour trunk belonging to The Adverts bassist Gaye Black from their run with The Damned.
- Fine Art: Visual art by Linder, film archives from Sue Webster, Caroline Coon’s 1985 painting Between the Parades (on loan from Chris Blackwell), and original artwork painted by Lora Logic at age 14.
- Legendary Lenswork: Archival photography documenting Ari Up, Siouxsie Sioux, Chrissie Hynde, and Judy Nylon through the cameras of Bob Gruen, Kate Simon, David Corio, Janette Beckman, Ray Stevenson, and Roberta Bayley.
Unheard Demos and Citywide Dialogue
The festival’s footprint extends far beyond Camden and Brixton. Talks, panel debates, and workshop series exploring the politics and visual language of DIY rebellion are scheduled across institutions including the British Library and the V&A.
For collectors, the collective is releasing a run of archival rarities via creative platform Metalabel. The initial drop spotlights Poly Styrene’s pre-Spex era under the moniker Mari Elliott: a series of 1976 Falcon Stuart-produced recordings, including the raw, historic first demo of her debut single, ‘Silly Billy’, accompanied by an Oh Bondage Up Yours! zine deconstructing the anti-consumerist philosophy behind her lyrics.
“When I wrote Revenge of the She-Punks, it was about mapping out the global lineage of women who used music to dismantle stereotypes,” says Goldman. “This festival is that book coming to life on stage. The female narrative in punk is not an afterthought; it is a driving, evolving force.”
LISTINGS INFORMATION UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS
Festival dates: July– November 2026
The historic live performance God Save The Queens will take place on Friday 16 October at Electric Brixton, London – tickets on sale now.
The exclusive exhibition, UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS will run between 22nd October – 22nd November at Camden’s Museum Of Youth Culture. Free entry Wed-Sun: more information can be found here.
Various dates throughout the festival at venues including the British Library and the V&A. More info https://upyourscollective.com/events/
