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Big Joanie and Essential Logic booked for the new God Save The Queens punk festival

UP YOURS! Collective set up the event, honouring X-Ray Spex's Poly Styrene at Electric Brixton on 16 October.

Big Joanie Essential Logic

Big Joanie's guitarist singing into a microphone and playing a green electric guitar on stage, with a bassist and drummer performing behind her.
Photo: Paul Hudson from United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

UP YOURS! Collective has announced a new London festival, God Save The Queens, dedicated to the past, present and future of female punk, The Line of Best Fit reported on August 5. The first event takes place at Electric Brixton on 16 October.

The opening show will honour Poly Styrene, who led the pioneering punk band X-Ray Spex, with more guest performers still to be announced.

That tribute takes the form of a supergroup featuring Lora Logic of X-Ray Spex and Essential Logic, Paul Dean of X-Ray Spex, Gina Birch of The Raincoats, Hollie Cook of The Slits and Akiko Matsuura of Comanechi and Pre, reimagining she punk classics together.

Big Joanie, Essential Logic, Gina Birch & The Unreasonables and HotWax are also booked to perform, at a show the organisers describe as "a joyful and overdue celebration of the female creative forces that shaped the punk movement."

The festival marks 50 years of she punk, an anniversary UP YOURS! Collective is marking with a bill that spans original X-Ray Spex members and a newer generation of acts. It arrives alongside Decolonise Fest, another London punk festival announcing its own 2026 lineup, and you can follow both bookings on the festival tracker.

The facts

  • The festival is called God Save The Queens
  • UP YOURS! Collective announced it
  • Big Joanie and Essential Logic are on the bill
  • The first show is at Electric Brixton on 16 October
  • It honours X-Ray Spex's Poly Styrene with a supergroup of punk veterans
  • The event marks 50 years of she punk

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