God Save The Queens To Celebrate Poly Styrene At Electric Brixton
God Save The Queens will launch at Electric Brixton on Friday 16 October 2026 with a celebration of Poly Styrene and five decades of female punk. Presented by Up Yours! Collective, the new London festival is intended to connect the movement’s history with its current and future generations.
A specially assembled group will revisit Styrene’s work and other she-punk anthems. The line-up brings together Lora Logic and Paul Dean of X-Ray Spex, Gina Birch of The Raincoats, Hollie Cook of The Slits and Akiko Matsuura of Comanechi and Pre, with further guests still to be announced.
The inaugural edition is dedicated to Styrene, who grew up close to the Brixton venue. The singer-songwriter fronted X-Ray Spex, whose debut single, ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours!’, arrived in 1977. She died in 2011.
Elsewhere on the multi-generational bill, Big Joanie and HotWax will perform alongside Essential Logic and Gina Birch & The Unreasonables.
Styrene’s life and work have received renewed recognition in recent years. Her daughter, Celeste Bell, co-directed the 2021 documentary Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, which won a British Independent Film Award. Rolling Stone included Styrene in its 2023 list of the greatest singers and recently ranked X-Ray Spex’s Germfree Adolescents as the second-best punk album of all time.
Tickets and full event details are available here.
