"God Save The Queens: 50 Years of She Punks!" Photos from the exhibition opening night at the Museum of Youth Culture, Camden

Celeste Bell, Lauren Jones & Vivien Goldman

On Thursday I went along to the opening night party for the God Save The Queens exhibition at the Museum of Youth Culture in it's new permanent home in Camden. The exhibition, organised by the Up Yours! Collective, is dedicated to Poly Styrene and celebrates the 50 years since she formed X-Ray Spex, shattering and challenging the pre-conceptions stifling female performers at the time. Before people started to arrive I managed to have a good look around the fantastic collection of artwork, photographs and memorablia on display from a stellar collection of Punk luminaries including Roberta Bayley, Gina Birch, Gaye (Advert) Black, Shanne Bradley, Boy London, Caroline Coon, David Corio, Vivien Goldman, Caris Jackson, Don Letts, Linder, Lora Logic, Dennis Morris, Palmolive, Pauline Murray, Tessa Pollitt, Zandra Rhodes, Sheila Rock, Ray Stevenson, Poly Styrene, Virginia Turbett and many more. It's a superb exhibition, there's so much to see and I'd definitely recommend a visit if you are in London. The opening night was crammed with familiar faces, many of whom had their artwork on display - Gaye (Advert) Black, Gina Birch and Ana Da Silva of The Raincoats, Jeff Pitcher from Spitfire, Lora Logic of X-Ray Spex and Essential Logic, Mick Jones, Don Letts, Caroline Coon, Estella from Big Joanie, Terry from Kat Five, Caris Jackson, Cassie from Loud Women, Lesley Woods from The Au Pairs, Mark Moore from S'Express, Matt & Alex from the Mick Jones' The Rock & Roll Public Library and more. There were also some legendary Rock photographers there including Ray Stevenson, Derek Ridgers, Virginia Turbett and Erica Echenberg. The Exhibition organisers Vivien Goldman, Poly Styrene's daughter Celeste and Mick Jones' daughter Lauren were of course present and Joe Strummer's daughter Jazz was DJ'ing. 

Here are photos of just some of them...

Mick Jones of The Clash & Big Audio Dynamite

Gaye (Advert) Black and Joe Strummer's daughter Jazz

Don Letts

Gaye with Estella of Big Joanie

Terry from Kat Five

Artist Caris Jackson

Joe Strummer's daughter Jazz

Mick Jones with Gaye

Gaye (Advert) Black

Gaye with Jeff Pitcher - photographer and singer with Spitfire

Photographer Derek Ridgers, Gaye & Jazz

Gaye with Cassie from Loud Women and Terry from Kat Five

Gaye with Ana Da Silva of The Raincoats

Gaye with Jeff Pitcher

Lora Logic of X-Ray Spex and Essential Logic with Gaye

"The Up Yours! Collective is a non-profit community organisation set up in 2026 by Celeste Bell, Lauren Estelle Jones and Vivien Goldman. The multigenerational team are uniquely positioned to be the curators of God Save The Queens. Their combined experience spans art, film, production, journalism and scholarship, alongside lived history, direct lineage, and contemporary expression of the movement. As custodian of her mother Poly Styrene’s archive, Celeste carries the legacy and perspective of Punk’s radical women into the present through award-winning film, writing, events and projects. Lauren works closely with her father, Mick Jones’ personal archive, collectively known as The Rock & Roll Public Library with the aim of connecting that history to new generations through art, literature, culture and community events. Vivien Goldman brings first-hand experience of living through and chronicling the punk movement, performing in a post-punk band and a lifetime of scholarship, earning the title of “The Punk Professor” at NYU. Together, their different perspectives open the festival to new audiences while creating fresh connections and deeper insights for existing fans. Each will take the lead on distinct elements of the programme while working collectively on the festival as a whole, ensuring it is cohesive, multi-voiced, and rooted in collaboration. Together, they bridge past, present, and future – honouring women in punk, not as nostalgia, but as a living, evolving force."

For more information, please check out the Museum of Youth Culture web-site here.

Railcard "Two Steps At A Time" debut LP released on Skep Wax Records

Retro Man Blog’s ‘Band of The Year’, Railcard, have just released their debut LP “Two Steps At A Time” via the wonderful Skep Wax Records and it looks like they will be smothered in accolades by the end of 2026 as it’s certainly a contender for our ‘Album of The Year’ too. The band were originally formed in 2025 by Rachel Love from Dolly Mixture on vocals and guitar, Peter Momtchiloff from Would-Be-Goods and Heavenly on bass and Ian Button from Penrose Web, Swansea Sound, Heavenly… and so many more bands that he’s giving Mole Lambert a run for his money as busiest drummer around. Paul Kelly from Birdie and Heavenly Films was also involved as he, like the others were born in 1962, a good enough reason to start a band they thought. Paul dropped out and Allison Thomson was brought in as full time member to add trumpet, backing vocals and keyboards. The band recently held a fantastic Sunday afternoon album launch party at The Lexington in London where they were joined by special guest Gina Birch of The Raincoats performing an entertaining solo set. There was also the added bonus of an Indie record fair downstairs in the bar, featuring such cool labels as Glass Modern, Precious, Tapete and of course Skep Wax. As seems usual at Railcard gigs, we spot a few well-known and familiar Indie faces in attendance such as Hue of The Pooh Sticks, Lawrence from Felt, Andy Strickland of The Loft, Lee McFadden from Swell Maps, Cathy Rogers from Heavenly and the afore-mentioned Paul Kelly, along with Heavenly’s Rob and Amelia, the Skep Wax label bosses. 

“Two Steps At A Time” ticks all the boxes to meet our criteria for a perfect album – where all the elements must align - from the cover art to the sound, to the track listing and the song writing, where each song could be a classic single in its own right. It’s not as common as you think – be honest, how many albums can you name where you are not tempted to skip the occasional track or cringe at the dated production or gaze in horror at the awful cover? Even some of my favourite bands and artists have rarely made a perfect album – Buzzcocks for example, for me their best album is actually  a ‘best of’ compilation “Singles Going Steady”. Off the top of my head some of my ‘perfect LPs’ would include Blondie’s “Parallel Lines”, Love’s “Forever Changes”, Ramones’ “Rocket To Russia”, Sex Pistols “Never Mind The Bollocks” and Shack’s “HMS Fable”… But back to Railcard and if we can start from the outside, the cover art is great, in fact, the band even held an auction at The Lexington for a Rachel Love designed framed fuzzy felt version. The Dinked limited edition is also something very special as it comes in clear vinyl with a poster and bonus 7” single, it’s a classy release. Then there’s the imaginative merchandise that the band dream up - we’ve had the Railcard railcard wallets, a French Revolutionary calendar (OK I admit, this is probably not the most practical item…), Rachel’s own “Cherry Plum” jam and her trademark berets for sale, “Northern Soul Dancing” patches, T-shirts with the tour dates that come with a badge you can pin at the gig you are attending. It’s fun and inventive and shows the band are keen to build something special around them and their name, Ian is even wearing an old British Rail jacket at the Lexington gig. 

Rachel with Gina Birch of The Raincoats

 

The album sounds amazing, it’s produced by the band themselves and mixed by friend of the Blog, Allan Crockford of The Prisoners and The Galileo 7. This might seem like a contradiction but “Two Steps At A Time” is full of warm nostalgia, transporting you back to various musical eras throughout your life, yet on the other hand, it’s an utterly timeless life-affirming album. It won’t date, it will sound as fresh in ten years’ time as it does today and that’s mainly down to the sheer quality of the song writing on offer not just the excellent production, which brings us onto the songs themselves. The insanely catchy album title track almost makes whistling in a song cool, and once you hear it you will not be able to stop yourself. “1962 Forever” is a companion piece to their earlier song “Born in ‘62”, a tongue in cheek self-referential number that explains the reasons for forming the band in the first place, basically because their birthdays were all close together. They manage to paraphrase both Frank Sinatra and Iggy Pop in the lyrics “If we can quote Sinatra here, it was a very good year” and “It’s what the Stooges were trying to say on track 1 side A, it’s 1962 OK”. It’s this humour that endears the band to me, after all, most of their promo videos start off serious and end with the band in fits of giggles. It’s the same on stage, there’s a lovely chemistry between all four bandmates, the glances and apologetic smiles if there’s a little error, checking each other’s reactions and generally enjoying themselves as much as we in the crowd are. Ian Button’s occasional between song chat where he tries to explain the background to certain lyrics can end up spiralling off into Robyn Hitchcock style surreal flights of fancy and often induce much merriment among his colleagues. Ian’s voice is very much an integral part of the Railcard sound, in the way that Rachel and Debsey’s voices complimented each other so perfectly in Dolly Mixture, so it is with Rachel and Ian in Railcard. The harmonies between the two are sublime and lift each song to another level. Railcard’s Sunshine-Pop nuggets are the perfect antidote to these often cynical and negative times. They cram so much into their 3-minute pop masterpieces, the phrase small yet perfectly formed springs to mind. 

Peter Momtchiloff contributes two great songs to the album, there’s “Hillman Minx” which reminds me of his Would-Be-Goods bandmate Andy Warren’s other band, The Monochrome Set. Then there’s the beautiful “Paper Thin”, which has a nice urgent guitar riff that lifts the chorus. “Foxy” is a melodic masterpiece, I think it’s up there as one of Rachel’s best vocal performances with ethereal backing vocals from Ian and a glockenspiel motif that again will stick in your head for days. Although Allison Thomson wasn’t born in ’62, she qualifies for a place in the band on merit, adding some superb trumpet throughout the album, and live she also adds keyboards and backing vocals and always looks extremely cool and stylish. The hilarious “Unstable Neighbour” is underscored by some woozy psychedelic trumpet from Allison. “I’m A Disaster” is a 13^th Floor Elevators meets The Kinks style 60’s Psych-Pop masterpiece and is probably my favourite song on the album. In some of their songs do recall Ray Davies’ wonderful pastoral and evocative vignettes that conjure up very English (in a positive way…) situations. An example of such would be “Flannelette” which is another excellent and humorous little number, “when life gets too itchy for you, only one material will do”. 

Rob & Amelia from Skep Wax Records

 

The bittersweet “When You Say You Love Me Something’s Wrong” could have been a Burt Bacharach classic and wouldn’t be out of place on a Dusty Springfield greatest hits compilation. I can also imagine the emotional “Snow Blind” recorded in a Phil Spector wall of sound style, it’s a stunning song. I’m already looking forward to the follow-up, not just to hear more wonderful new music from this delightful band but also to discover what new merchandise they will dream up to accompany the release. This year has certainly been a huge high for Skep Wax Records; they have built up a fantastic roster of bands and everything Rob and Amelia have done is quite obviously bursting full of passion for getting the music they love out there. Railcard on Skep Wax is a perfect example of a record label and band working in perfect harmony and long may that relationship continue to flourish and produce such wonderful releases such as “Two Steps At A Time”.

 

You can check out an excellent in-depth interview with Rachel at the always superb Write Wyatt web-site here. There are also videos from the various Railcard gigs we've attended this year at our Retromanblog65 YouTube channel here. For more info on the fabulous Skep Wax Records, please check out their website here. All photos copyright Retro Man Blog 2026.