Gina Birch

SJM Concerts and Up Yours Collective Present  God Save The Queens - 50 Years of She-Punk    UP YOURS! Collective presents God Save The Queens, a new London festival dedicated to the past, present, and future of female punk. The event will feature a very special show at Electric Brixton on Friday 16th October, featuring a phenomenal supergroup of she punk legends and an exceptional multi-generational bill of artists, reimagining the Poly Styrene playlist and she punk anthems. Early bird tickets go on sale at 10am on Wednesday 24th June, sign up here for access. General sale opens at 10am on Friday 26th June, here. The show is part of a new festival marking 50 years of punk with a joyful and overdue celebration of the female creative forces that shaped the punk movement. The first edition of GOD SAVE THE QUEENS is dedicated to Poly Styrene, with the God Save The Queens event taking place at Electric Brixton, near where Poly Styrene grew up. Lora Logic (X-Ray Spex/Essential Logic), Paul Dean (X-Ray Spex), Gina Birch (The Raincoats), Hollie Cook (The Slits) and Akiko Matsuura (Comanechi / Pre) will come together to reimagine the Poly Styrene playlist and she punk anthems, with very special guests still to be announced. They will also be joined by an exceptional multi-generational bill of artists including Big Joanie, Essential Logic, Gina Birch & The Unreasonables and HotWax. Poly Styrene was the groundbreaking singer-songwriter and frontwoman behind pioneering punk band X-Ray Spex. Billboard described her as “the archetype for the modern-day feminist punk.” In 2021, Poly’s daughter Celeste Bell co-directed British Independent Film Award-winning documentary Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché to universal acclaim. In 2023, Rolling Stone Magazine hailed Poly as “one of the greatest singers of all time.” In the five decades since X-Ray Spex released their notorious 1977 debut single Oh Bondage Up Yours! Poly has remained an iconic reference and inspiration for multiple generations of trailblazing female musicians and artists. Poly Styrene passed away in 2011.  Last month Rolling Stone named X-Ray Spex – Germfree Adolescents as the 2nd best punk album of all time.