Uo Yours! God Save The Queens
Bottom – Judy Nylon, London, 1976, Photo: © Kate Simon
LONDON — Fifty years after Poly Styrene and a generation of pioneering women helped shape punk’s music, art and identity, a new London festival dedicated to the past, present and future of female punk launches with its inaugural edition, GOD SAVE THE QUEENS. Rare and previously unseen works from this defining cultural moment will be brought together in a multi-venue festival this autumn.
Between Parades, 1985 by Caroline Coon
UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS presents artwork, photography, fashion and personal archival material from the women who transformed punk’s visual and cultural language, alongside a historic live performance featuring a newly formed supergroup of pioneering musicians from X-Ray Spex, The Raincoats and The Slits.
The festival combines a landmark exhibition, a one-night-only reunion performance, a talks programme and the release of previously unheard Poly Styrene recordings, creating one of the most significant celebrations of women’s contribution to punk ever staged.
Dedicated to the legacy of Poly Styrene — the visionary singer, songwriter and frontwoman of X-Ray Spex — UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS challenges traditional punk narratives by placing the women who helped shape the movement at the centre of the story: not as footnotes to punk history, but as some of its defining creative forces.
Music and art icons contributing to the festival include X-Ray Spex saxophonist Lora Logic, fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes, The Specials collaborator and The Bodysnatchers lead singer Rhoda Dakar, The Raincoats founder Gina Birch, visual artists Caroline Coon, Linder and Sue Webster, BBC Radio 6 Music DJ, The Slits manager, and The Clash music video director Don Letts and Big Joanie.
Also contributing to the landmark event are The Sex Pistols’ official photographer Ray Stevenson, The Slits members Tessa Pollitt and Hollie Cook, cult fashion brand BOY London, The Adverts bassist Gaye Black, X-Ray Spex’s Paul Dean, Penetration lead singer Pauline Murray, musician Shanne Bradley who founded The Nipple Erectors which was Shane MacGowan’s first musical group and co-founded The Men They Couldn’t Hang, legendary music photographers Janette Beckman, Kate Simon, Bob Gruen, David Corio, and Roberta Bayley, Big Joanie and journalist John Robb, as well as previously unseen material from the personal archive of the late Poly Styrene.
UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS is curated by filmmaker, writer, performer, and daughter of Poly Styrene, Celeste Bell; Lauren Estelle Jones, co-founder of the contemporary art organisations Art Barter and Alteria Art, curator, and daughter of The Clash guitarist Mick Jones and director of his personal archive collectively known as The Rock & Roll Public Library (RRPL), and Vivien Goldman, the legendary British music writer and performer who became known as “the professor of punk” during her academic career at NYU. Together, these women have founded the Up Yours! Collective, the creative team behind the festival.
Celeste Bell, filmmaker, writer and daughter of Poly Styrene, said: “Curating my mother’s archive proved how important it is to protect female counter-cultural history. Through Up Yours! Collective, we’re taking that legacy out of the archives and putting it where it belongs: centre stage. Bringing this vision to life through both the exhibition and joining the iconic she-punks on stage is an incredible full-circle moment.”
The festival will take place across London from July-November 2026, with the flagship exhibition, opening 23 October, among the first major shows staged at the new permanent home of the Museum of Youth Culture in Camden.
THE EXHIBITION: INSIDE THE ARCHIVES OF PUNK’S WOMEN
The exhibition brings together rare archival material from significant music, fashion and cultural archives and collections, including the Poly Styrene Archive, the Zandra Rhodes Foundation and The Rock & Roll Public Library (RRPL). Alongside contemporary artworks, it presents previously unseen and rarely exhibited material drawn from the personal archives and collections of artists, musicians, designers and activists who helped shape punk, charting the movement’s origins, evolution and lasting cultural influence.
Highlights include:
• The Poly Styrene Archive: personal material and ephemera including the Oh Bondage Up Yours! artwork draft, the Germfree Adolescents collage [and the original poster for X-Ray Spex’s legendary Roundhouse performance on 14 May 1978.
• Original artwork and archive ephemera by Linder.
• Archival fashion pieces and ephemera from The Zandra Rhodes Foundation, new and previously unseen paintings from Gina Birch (The Raincoats) including portraits of Poly Styrene and Ari Up.
• Original previously unseen artwork from Lora Logic (X-Ray Spex / Essential Logic), Caroline Coon: Between the Parades (1985), loaned from the personal collection of Chris Blackwell.
• Gaye Black: Gaye Black (Advert) Gaye Black’s tour trunk / suitcase from The Adverts tour with The Damned in 1976 with her tour postcards and other ephemera from her archive.
• Film archival materials from artist’s Sue Webster.
• Photography from Bob Gruen, Kate Simon and David Corio including rarely seen photographs and archival prints of Siouxsie Sioux, Chrissie Hynde, Ari Up, Judy Nylon and Rhoda Dakar.
• The Rock & Roll Public Library (RRPL): original press cuttings, magazines, posters, flyers, photography, artwork and original garments designed by Alex Michon and Krystyna Kolowska for The Clash.
THE GIG: GOD SAVE THE QUEENS SUPERGROUP
The festival’s centrepiece is a standout gig at Electric Brixton on Friday 16 October 2026 that will see the formation of God Save The Queens, a unique supergroup bringing together pioneering musicians from across generations to celebrate 50 years of she punk. Presented by Up Yours! Collective and SJM Concerts, the 75-minute performance will reimagine the Poly Styrene playlist alongside iconic she-punk anthems.
The headline performance will feature an historic X-Ray Spex reunion, with original members Lora Logic and Paul Dean returning to the stage alongside Celeste Bell, daughter of Poly Styrene, performing her mother’s songs and honouring her extraordinary legacy.
Joining Lora Logic (X-Ray Spex), Essential Logic, Paul Dean (X-Ray Spex) and Gina Birch and The Unreasonables, the God Save The Queens supergroup features Hollie Cook (The Slits) and Akiko Matsuura (Comanechi / PRE), Big Joanie, Rhoda Dakar (The Bodysnatchers / The Specials), grunge-punk trio Hot Wax, writer, musician and “Professor of Punk” Vivien Goldman, experimental musician, composer and performance artist Bishi and journalist, musician and early champion of X-Ray Spex John Robb, who opened for the band at the Roundhouse and was a close friend of Poly Styrene.
Lora Logic, X-Ray Spex / Essential Logic, said: “Contributing previously unseen artwork to the exhibition while also stepping onto the stage to play these iconic songs again feels like completing a full circle and is incredibly special. For me, the creative expression of the movement was always multi-dimensional; it was visual art, clothes and noise all at once.”
TALKS, SCREENINGS AND WORKSHOPS
Alongside the exhibition and live event, UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS will feature a programme of talks, screenings and workshops across London, including events at the British Library and the V&A, with full details to be announced.
Vivien Goldman, writer and ‘Professor of Punk’, said: “When I wrote Revenge of the She-Punks, it was about mapping out the global lineage of women who used music to dismantle stereotypes and claim their own space. This festival, and the incredible night we are putting together at Electric Brixton, is that book coming to life on stage. It’s a vital, living continuation of that rebel culture, proving that the female narrative in punk is not an afterthought; it is a driving, evolving force.”
THE ARCHIVE RELEASE: UNHEARD 1976 POLY STYRENE DEMOS
Ahead of the festival, the Up Yours! Collective is releasing a series of rare archival drops via creative platform Metalabel. The first release features previously unheard 1976 Poly Styrene demos, produced by Falcon Stuart during Poly’s “Mari Elliott” era — including the historic first-ever demo of her debut single, “Silly Billy.”
The release also includes the Oh Bondage Up Yours! zine, exploring the origins of the song and the influence of Wilhelm Reich on Poly’s writing. An ultra-rare bonus original 1977 X-Ray Spex poster donated by the Falcon Stuart Estate has already sold out.
CELESTE BELL, LORA LOGIC, GINA BIRCH AND VIVIEN GOLDMAN ARE AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW
https://upyourscollective.com | @upyourscollective
Up Yours! Collective on Metalabel
Electric Brixton Tickets
PRESS INFORMATION
Lisa Baker / Ned Mansfield
Lisa Baker Associates Ltd
Email: lisa@lisabakerltd.com | ned@lisabakerltd.com
Tel: +44 (0)7768 310038 | +44 (0)7927 574720
LISTINGS INFORMATION UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS
Festival dates: July– November 2026
Historic live performance – God Save The Queens
Date: Friday 16 October 2026
Venue: Electric Brixton, London
Exhibition – UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS
Dates: 22 October– 22 November 2026
Venue: Museum of Youth Culture, Camden, London
Talks, screenings and workshops
Various dates throughout the festival at venues including the British Library and the
V&A. More info https://upyourscollective.com/
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About UP YOURS! GOD SAVE THE QUEENS
UP YOURS! is a multimedia festival celebrating the radical creativity of women in punk and its continuing influence on contemporary culture.
The inaugural edition, God Save The Queens, is dedicated to Poly Styrene and marks 50 years since she formed her first band and challenged the existing archetype of the female performer. Taking place across London from July–November 2026, the festival celebrates first-wave pioneers and the icons of today, while creating opportunities for young people to embrace DIY culture and inspire the next generation of She Punks.
Full list of contributors: Camila Alvarez, Keren Amarin, Jane Ashley, Roberta Bayley,
Janette Beckman, Gina Birch, Gaye Black (The Adverts), Virginia Boston, Rose Boyt,
Shanne Bradley, Boy London, Josh Cheuse, Caroline Coon, David Corio, Bert Gilbert,
Vivien Goldman, Hot Wax, Caris Jackson, Krystyna Kolowska & Alex Michon, Don Letts,
Richard Linton, Linder, Lora Logic, Dennis Morris, Palmolive, Pauline Murray, Tessa Pollitt, Michael Putland, Zandra Rhodes, Sheila Rock, Kate Simon, Ray Stevenson, Poly Styrene, Trade Mark, Virginia Turbett, Annette Weatherman and Sue Webster.
Loans have been generously provided by the Museum of Youth Culture, Philip Stevens Private Collection, the Poly Styrene Archive, The Rock & Roll Public Library and the Zandra Rhodes Foundation.
About Poly Styrene
Poly Styrene was the groundbreaking singer-songwriter and frontwoman of pioneering punk band X-Ray Spex. Billboard has described her as the archetype for the modernday feminist punk. In 2021, Poly’s daughter Celeste Bell co-directed the British Independent Film Award-winning documentary Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché to widespread acclaim.
In 2023, Rolling Stone named Poly among the greatest singers of all time and rated Germfree Adolescents the number 2 punk album of all time. Since X-Ray Spex’s notorious 1977 debut single “Oh Bondage Up Yours!”, Poly has remained a defining reference and inspiration for generations of trailblazing female musicians and artists. Poly Styrene died in 2011.
About Museum of Youth Culture
Museum of Youth Culture is the world’s first museum dedicated to the lives of teenagers and young people. Working to preserve this overlooked and untold history, the Museum champions the impact of youth culture on modern society and works to change pervasive narratives around young people. The museum works with young people to explore their experiences as teenagers today and envision what a future museum should look like.
Acknowledging that we were all young once, the Museum believes everyone has an important story to tell about their youth and invites the public to be part of the museum through the Grown up in Britain campaign. From the bomb-site Bicycle racers in postwar 1940s London, to the Acid House ravers of 1980s Northern England, the Museum of Youth Culture empowers the extraordinary everyday stories of growing up in Britain.
The collection incorporates photographs, ephemera, objects and oral histories. Having operated in pop-up form in recent years, MOYC opens in a 6,500sq foot custom designed space in London’s St Pancras Campus development in 2025, with further museum venues scheduled to launch in Birmingham (2027) and Glasgow (2029). Special projects from the museum have included ‘I’m Not Okay: An Emo Retrospective’ at the Barbican welcoming 55,000 visitors over 3 months, taking ‘Growing Up In Britain’ on tour to Tokyo, and collaborations with the likes of Depop, Fred Perry, JD Sports, Polaroid and Dr Martens. instagram.com/
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