Panic Shack – grin & bear it
Cardiff quintet Panic Shack are back with “grin & bear it”, their first new music since their self-titled debut album landed in July 2025 via Brace Yourself Records and entered the UK Albums Chart at number 32. The new single arrives on the eve of their first North American headline tour.
The track’s backstory is worth knowing. Vocalist Sarah Harvey first scribbled the lyrics on a scrap of paper during a night shift in 2023, and the song has been through several practice room incarnations since, narrowly missing the cut for the debut album because, as the band put it, “it didn’t have enough grit.” The reworked version was produced by Ross Orton at McCall Sound Studios in Sheffield, engineered by David Karatsu and mastered by Felix Davis at Metropolis in London. The difference is audible: blazing guitars, Harvey’s voice cutting through with real venom, and a chorus that doesn’t ask permission.
Lyrically it’s a catalogue of grinding specifics: unskilled, un-thrilled, overworked, underpaid, two jobs to pay rent and money barely making a dent. The verses pile up the indignities of precarious work before the chorus flips into the voice of every employer and institution telling you to be grateful, be modest, be humble, don’t put a foot out of line. That structural tension, between the person living it and the passive instructions they’re supposed to absorb, is what gives the song its force. “I wear a smile, grin and bear it, don’t ask questions, just accept it” is the hinge the whole thing turns on. Panic Shack have always made punk that feels like a night out rather than a lecture, and “grin & bear it” pulls that off again.
The North American tour runs through June and July, with further dates in Europe including festival slots at Latitude and Green Man. They’ll also be supporting Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter at Halifax’s Piece Hall on July 11 and Cardiff Castle on August 1.
