Panic Shack – Grin & Bear It
Today, Cardiff quintet Panic Shack return with their first new music since the release of their self-titled debut album, which landed in July 2025 via Brace Yourself Records and saw the band achieve a Top 40 album in the UK. It comes in the guise of a fizzy punk barnstormer “grin & bear it” and arrives on the eve of the group’s first-ever North American headline tour.
“grin & bear it,” almost appeared on last year’s Panic Shack LP and finds the band linking up with producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, Amyl & the Sniffers, Yard Act) for a maelstrom of blazing, beefy guitars and righteous fury as vocalist Sarah Harvey tears apart the rat race cribbing from lyrics scribbled on a scrap of paper during a long, lonely nightshift in 2023.
“This song has had many iterations, seen many a practice room and taken many forms,” explain the band, completed by Meg Fretwell, Romi Lawrence, Emily Smith, and Nick Doherty-Williams. “It’s a song that we’ve felt really passionate about getting right, but the music was never fully hitting. We reworked it from the start of the year in any spare time we had around working our jobs and gigging (as we almost always do), which really helped to emphasise the song’s meaning. It almost made it onto our debut album, but it just wasn’t where it needed to be; we felt it didn’t have enough grit – until now. We really clicked with Ross in the studio and are super proud of what the track has become; it sounds massive.”
The track is joined by an accompanying video, shot during Panic Shack’s recent headline German tour, that perfectly captures the chaos and camaraderie the band have wrought in the wake of their debut album last year, and will continue to bring across the UK, Europe, and North America this summer.
“We took this to another level when recording the video. Went full method,” they say. “The whole video is filmed and directed by us while on our recent tour in Germany. We left no graffiti’d wall un-lip synced in front of, no green room relaxed in, every cool monument photo op used as a backdrop, it was work work work, grind grind grind… but of course we had a blast doing it.”
| ★ PANIC SHACK LIVE 2026 ★ MAY 22 – Derby, UK – Bearded Theory Festival † 23 – North Shields, UK – A Stone’s Throw Festival † 28 – Brussels, BE – Les Nuits Botanique 29 – Hellendoorn, NL – Dauwpop Festival † JUNE 9 – Washington, DC – The Atlantis 10 – Somerville, MA – The Rockwell 12 – Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMOCA 13 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge 14 – New Kensington, PA – Preserving Underground 16 – Toronto, ON – Hard Luck Bar 18 – Chicago, IL – Cobra Lounge 19 – Milwaukee, WI – Summerfest Festival † 21 – Denver, CO – Hi-Dive 24 – Portland, OR – Polaris Hall 25 -Vancouver, BC – The Cobalt 26 – Seattle, WA – Baba Yaga 28 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop 29 – Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon JULY 2 – Llangollen, UK – Live at Llangollen # 5 – Ewijk, NL – Down The Rabbit Hole Festival † 11 – Halifax, UK – Piece Hall * 26 – Southwold, UK – Latitude Festival † AUGUST 1 – Cardiff, UK – Cardiff Castle * 15 & 16 – Winchester, UK – Boomtown Festival † 23 – Crickhowell, UK – Green Man Festival † 28 – La Tour-de-peilz, CH – Nox Orae Festival † 30 – Lisbon, PT – Meo Kalorama Festival † SEPTEMBER 11 – Dallas, TX – Longhorn Ballroom & Backyard Amphitheater * 12 – Austin, TX – Emo’s * 13 – Houston, TX – House of Blues Houston * 15 – Nashville, TN – Marathon Music Works * 17 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater * 20 – Ottawa, ON – CityFolk Festival † 21 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY * 22 – Montréal, QC – L’Olympia * 24 – Quebec City, QC – L’Anti * 25 – Northampton, MA – Iron Horse Music Hall * 26 – New York, NY – CBGB Festival † † = Festival Appearance * = w/ Sex Pistols # = w/ Super Furry Animals |
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