X-Ray Spex, Raincoats, Slits Members Form Supergroup for London She-Punk Festival

Members of X-Ray Spex, the Raincoats, and the Slits will share a stage as a supergroup at Electric Brixton in London on Friday, Oct. 16, headlining Up Yours! God Save the Queens!, a festival celebrating 50 years of She-Punk. The event brings together pioneering figures and champions of the She-Punk legacy through live performance, artwork, photography, fashion, and archival material. The festival is organized under the Up Yours! Collective banner.

The one-night-only lineup pairs the Raincoats' Gina Birch and the Slits' Hollie Cook with X-Ray Spex's Lora Logic and Paul Dean. Punk historian and author Vivien Goldman will also join the supergroup on stage, alongside Celeste Bell, the daughter of X-Ray Spex front woman and punk pioneer Poly Styrene. Additional acts slated to appear at Electric Brixton include Akiko Matsuura, Rhoda Dakar, and Hot Wax.

Big Joanie and Essential Logic round out the confirmed bill for the October concert. The performance night precedes the opening of a flagship exhibition at the Museum of Youth Culture in Camden on Oct. 23. That exhibition will feature never-before-seen images documenting the contributions women have made to punk.

Goldman, whose book Revenge of the She-Punks traced the global lineage of women who used music to challenge stereotypes, said the festival is a direct extension of that work. "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," Goldman said in a statement. "This festival, and the incredible night we are putting together at Electric Brixton, is that book coming to life on stage."

Goldman described the event as proof that the female narrative in punk remains active rather than historical. "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," she said. The statement positions the festival not as nostalgia but as a continuation of a movement Goldman has documented across decades and continents.

Celeste Bell, who has curated the archive of her mother Poly Styrene, said the festival grew from the realization that female counter-cultural history needs active protection. "Curating my mother's archive proved how important it is to protect female counter-cultural history," Bell shared in a statement. "Through Up Yours! Collective, we're taking that legacy out of the archives and putting it where it belongs: centre stage."

Bell called the combination of the exhibition and the live performance a personal milestone. "Bringing this vision to life through both the exhibition and joining the iconic she-punks on stage is an incredible full-circle moment," she said. Bell's dual role as archivist and performer underscores the festival's aim to move She-Punk history from documentation into live presentation.

Lora Logic, the X-Ray Spex saxophonist and vocalist who also fronts Essential Logic, described contributing to both the exhibition and the concert. "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," Logic said in a statement. She emphasized that the creative expression of the punk movement was always multi-dimensional. "For me, the creative expression of the movement was always multi-dimensional; it was visual art, clothes and noise all at once," she said.

Beyond the concert, Up Yours! God Save the Queens! aims to address what organizers describe as the often overlooked contributions women have made to punk. The festival's approach combines live performance with thorough documentation and curation, pairing the Electric Brixton show with the Museum of Youth Culture exhibition a week later. The archival component includes previously unseen artwork from Logic and images that have not been publicly displayed before.

The festival sits within a broader pattern of institutional recognition for first-generation punk women who shaped the genre's sound and visual identity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Raincoats, the Slits, and X-Ray Spex each operated in overlapping London circles during that period, yet their members have rarely shared a stage in a single supergroup formation. The Oct. 16 concert and Oct. 23 exhibition opening at the Museum of Youth Culture in Camden are the next dates to watch for further announcements.