Panic Shack and Lambrini Girls Spread Punk-tastic Yuletide Cheer Igniting the Stage at the Legendary 100 Club
Christmas came early at the legendary London punk venue the 100 Club with three cracking bands rocking the foundations.
Welsh wonders Panic Shack headlined the event with Brighton’s up-and-coming-possibly-already-there Lambrini Girls providing a very able support. This could be the perfect lineup for punks today!
With The Itch, a synth-based band with essences of post-punk Gang of Four and Joy Division, New Order and Depeche Mode, open proceedings, we all knew we were in for a great night.
We had gate-crashed Dork magazine’s Christmas Night Out to get a front-row view of the action – and the high intensity was just about to begin. Hold on to your Santa hats, here come the Lambrini Girls.
They had barely taken to the stage when lead singer and guitarist Phoebe Lunny was stripped to her fishnets and crowd-surfing, climbing all over the venue in a non-stop display of breathtaking energy. She brought all sides of the crowd together, from front to the back and left to the right side of the 350 people sell-out venue.
We all sat to help her with the chant:
“I say Lambrini, you say Girls (Crowd: ‘Girls’)
“I say Craig, you say David.”
You work it out!
With songs from their EP ‘You’re Welcome’ about blokes thinking they have a right to ask for a blowie behind Kwik Fit, plus some TERF-hating (JK Rowling comes in for some stick here), they are a band not to be missed in 2024.
“Our 2023 was really great, and in our 2024 we hope to fuck even harder,” says Phoebe afterwards, as she and bassist Lilly Macieira pose for our pictures.
How could Panic Shack follow that?
Easy. Dressed in Christmas outfits they opened with their new track ‘Tit School’, rattled through ‘classics’ like ‘Meal Deal’, ‘Mannequin Man’, ‘Jiu Jits You’ and ‘The Ick’ with other newies like ‘Jelly Babies’ and ‘Do Something’. We look forward to hearing them on vinyl in 24.
But what does Christmas mean for the band, who punktuationmag.com have been championing since we first saw them at Rebellion Festival in 2022?
“Tequila,” says bassist Emily Smith.
And, as they seem to have been on the road all year, who are the bands we should be looking out for in the new year?
“Obviously the Lambrini Girls, Bob Vylan, Viagra Boys, The Family Battenburg, there are too many to name really. Collectively our favourite band has been Getdown Services. We’ve rinsed their album, they’re amazing, a duo from Bristol, we love them.
“2023 has changed our demographic. We’ve gigged 77 times and we’re having a fucking blast. And we’ve all got six packs now!”
Have you changed in any way? “Our boobs have grown and our hair has got longer.”
After touring with Bob Vylan, storming venues like the Kentish Town Forum (02), we will lose you? “Probably, yeah!”
But, seriously, any worries of that were thrown out of the window as they stayed afterwards to meet and greet everyone, pose for photos, sell their merch and generally be as brilliant as they have been since that evening in Blackpool in August 2022 when they first rocked our world. The rest of the world beckons for them.
Photo Credits: © Roger Kasper
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I’m Roger Kasper, 55. A punk since October 77 when the Stranglers rocked Top of the Pops with No More Heroes. Journalist since 1983 with stints on national newspapers and magazines and editor of local papers. I’m Gravesend born and dragged up I keep poultry, garden, run and generally make a nuisance of myself!
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