Live Review: Lambrini Girls xx War Child - The Garage, London 16/02/2026
In the second night of BRITS week 2026 for War Child, the Brighton punks LAMBRINI GIRLS brought utter chaos to North London’s The Garage, raising tens of thousands of pounds for children affected by war.
The concept of BRITS week for War Child is simple: big acts playing one-off small shows in the leadup to the BRITS awards themselves on the 28th of February, with all profits from ticket and merch sales going towards supporting children whose worlds have been shattered by war. Over the past decade, BRITS week shows have raised over £8,000,000 for the charity War Child, facilitating psychological and material support for children that need it the most, creating safe spaces where they can play and be kids again in the 14 countries they currently operate in, including Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Lebanon. As consistently vocal advocates for some of the most pivotal global political issues of our time, from threats to trans rights to modern fascism’s scapegoating of immigrants and the genocide in Palestine, Lambrini Girls were a logical choice for a gig series designed to transform musical energy into global change.
Early in the night, War Child’s head of music Clare Sanders-Wright took to the stage of The Garage, a staple venue of London’s indie and rock scenes, to explain more about War Child’s mission.
“Children don’t start wars, but they are the ones that suffer the most. This is the deadliest time to be a child, with one in five children living through war right now. That is more than the entire population of the United States and Canada put together. It’s too much. These are not just statistics, these numbers represent the lives of real children living in fear every day.”
First performing that night was the one and only Bimini, with the drag queen, author, model, musician and queer icon bringing flashing lights and limitless energy to the Islington venue. After spinning some dance tracks, Bimini descended from the decks to grace the audience with some live material from their upcoming album. Self described as “a fucking punk album”, the tracks were more intense, featuring heavier electronic production than Bimini’s earlier dance-pop material and seething lyrics clamouring for freedom in Palestine, the Congo, and to “free everybody in the fucking world”. Mixing more explicitly political charged tunes with implicitly political tracks such as ‘Tank Top Bumboy’ and the dancefloor-celebrating ‘I Want That Beat’, Bimini’s short-but-sweet set ended with the audience chanting along “get angry!”.
When drummer Misha Phillips, bassist Selin Macieira Boşgelmez and guitarist/lead singer Phoebe Lunny came to the stage, trepidation was primed to overflow into bounding figures and flailing limbs. The show was their first in the capital since playing the Kentish Town Forum in November to kickstart their biggest tour yet across the UK and Europe on the leadup to Christmas. A mixture of old and new-gen punks, the crowd were treated to seeing Lambrini Girls barrel through most of their 2025 debut album Who Let The Dogs Out, alongside a few old favourites and the unreleased call-and-response crowdpleaser ‘Craig David’, all from a mere 600-capacity venue. This intimacy meant those of us bouncing in the pit to the eruptive combination of Phoebe’s razor-sharp vocals, Selin’s crackling and distorting basslines, and Misha’s thunderous drumming felt genuinely connected to the trio, a far cry from the physical and mental separation between artist and audience that often occurs at larger venues. More vulnerable tracks like the neurodiversity-delving ‘Special Different’ or the bleak take on romance of ‘Love’ simply hit different when tightly enclosed by dark walls and a lower ceiling, with the bandmembers genuinely only an arm’s length away at points.
Thrashing her lightning blue fender stratocaster, which sported a “fuck ICE” sticker, between witty tracks such as ‘No Homo’ and ‘Help Me, I’m Gay’ and the angular riffs of ‘Company Culture’ and ‘You’re Not From Round Here’, Phoebe conducted the crowd. None should doubt Lambrini Girls’ reputation as a legendary live act, one of the UK’s best, and they were up to their usual antics across the night. Phoebe was raised aloft for a crowdsurf early on, near the middle of the show a session of screaming ‘meditation’ brought cathartic release to the whole audience, and towards the end of the show the pit enlarged to unveil almost all of the dancefloor in “the biggest moshpit the Garage has ever seen”. It’s quite likely that Lambrini Girls hold that record for a whole host of venues across the country by this point.
“Things keep getting worse, and not only do we have a bunch of elitist scum running our country, it turns out the world is run by billionaire pedophiles eating babies,” Phoebe stated between songs. “No-one else is gonna sort out this shit show than us.” Amidst our seemingly constant period geopolitical crisis, Lambrini Girls weren’t giving in to this overwhelming current of negativity. “To all our trans, non-binary and intersex siblings: the world is ours,” Misha declared in a moment of calm later in their set, and jubilant cheers filled the room. Ahead of playing ‘Boys In The Band’, a song about abuse and sexual assault in the music industry, Phoebe declared that the only fans allowed in the pit for the track were those who weren’t straight, cis, white men, forming a literal safe haven on the dancefloor for the track’s two-and-a-half minute runtime.
Defiance, rage and hope continued into the final blaze of the evening, as Bimini returned to join in with the gloriously obscene ‘Cuntology 101’, featuring lyrics such as “Doing a poo at your friend’s house (Cunty) / Stealing shit from chain stores (Cunty)”, and a chorus of “C-U-N-T I’m gonna do what’s best for me, I’m cunty”. A quick trip offstage and back, with the Thomas The Tank Engine theme song blaring in the meantime, and the band were back for a fiery encore. As ‘Big Dick Energy’ rang out from the speakers, concertgoers were treated to one final slice of punk rock excellence, screaming and bouncing until it was all over.
“Just tonight, we’ve raised 37 grand,” Phoebe had told the crowd. With a slew of big names such as Robbie Williams, Olivia Dean and many more set to perform for BRITS week across the UK this month, there’s sure to be many more moments of magic between fans and artists in up-close and personal settings, and much more raised to rebuild the lives of children affected by war and conflict.
Words by Taran Will
Photography by Connor Mason
