Punk music PR in London
Two lists, run as one campaign. The specialist punk press, and the London media and venue network that gives a writer a reason to take you seriously.
Punk is the one genre where hiring a PR agency is itself a risk to your credibility. The scene's instincts about authenticity are sharp and unforgiving, and a campaign that reads as an industry push can cost a band more standing than the coverage is worth.
What actually helps in London is scene legibility. The city's music press thinks in venues and orbits. The room you play in tells a features editor more about you than any description of your sound. A campaign that can place you inside one of those orbits will always outperform one that simply says you are from London.
A punk campaign run from London therefore works on two levels at once. The genre list reaches the writers who cover this music seriously. The city list builds the local foundation that makes the genre pitch credible, because an artist who already has coverage, radio support and a live reputation at home is a considerably easier sell than one who arrives with only a track.
The punk list
The UK punk and hardcore press, which is largely independent and largely run by people in bands.
Long-running and central to UK punk coverage. Genuinely open to unsigned and DIY bands.
Broad remit across punk, post-punk and the political end of guitar music, and reachable for a good record.
Independent UK coverage across punk, hardcore and emo.
Frequently more valuable than a national placement for a band building a real scene presence.
Community station programming and internet radio built by people inside the scene.
Open to unsigned submissions and a realistic first radio play.
The London list
London-based and London-facing media worth targeting alongside the national titles.
The default listings authority for the city. Broad reach, heavily contested, and realistic once you have a show worth listing.
Peckham-based, youth-led and genuinely influential in London's rap and R&B scenes.
Dalston-based with international reach. Extremely influential across electronic and leftfield music.
Central to London club culture across garage, grime, house and bass.
Broad remit and receptive to emerging London artists across genres.
The rooms
The Windmill in Brixton has produced more press-relevant guitar bands in the last decade than any other room in Britain, and a residency there is a story in itself. MOTH Club and The Shacklewell Arms anchor the Hackney circuit. The Lexington and Sebright Arms remain reliable proof-of-life rooms for developing bands. Corsica Studios, fold and Venue MOT cover the club end. New River Studios and Cafe OTO serve the experimental scene. For a step up, EartH, Village Underground, Scala and Electric Ballroom are the rooms that signal an artist has an audience rather than a following.
How we pitch it
No hype language, at all
We write pitches for this genre in plain, factual, unembellished English. The moment a punk pitch reads like marketing copy it is deleted, and rightly.
The DIY infrastructure comes first
Zines, distros, promoters and community radio are the actual infrastructure of UK punk. We treat them as primary targets, not as filler around the national titles.
What's included
Punk artist in London?
Send us the track, the release date and where you have played. We will tell you what is realistic before you spend anything.