Also known as: The Playroom
Location: 317 Pages Road, Aranui, Christchurch
Current status: Repurposed — now operating as Bickertons Bar & Cafe
Active: c.1975 – 1990s
History
The Aranui Tavern occupied a low brick building at 317 Pages Road, sitting on the flat eastern reach of Christchurch between Linwood and the coast. Aranui was, and remains, a working-class suburb — one of the city’s poorer eastern neighbourhoods, a long way from the university bars of the inner city or the rock clubs of the CBD. That distance gave the Aranui Tavern its character. It was a community pub first, a music venue by necessity, and it became one of the most consequential rooms in Christchurch rock history almost by accident.
The tavern’s live music chapter opened in the mid-1970s when the publican booked Skylord for a three-month residency. Skylord were, at that point, one of the biggest touring draws in New Zealand — a hard rock outfit who had built their following playing the pub circuit the length of the country. The Aranui booking was unusual enough that the band parked their truck and van and rented a house locally rather than keep moving. It was a signal of what the room could offer: the publican was willing to commit, and the pub had the crowd to sustain it.
That pattern continued through the late 1970s. The funk-influenced Christchurch band Alexis held a long residency at the Aranui before breaking up, after which two of their members — Bryan Colechin and Phil Jones — formed Bon Marché in 1977. Bon Marché secured the Aranui residency from 1978 and, after evolving into The Newz in 1980, held it through to 1981 — a run of three years that established the pub as the proving ground for Christchurch’s emerging new wave scene.
The Aranui Tavern had a capacity of at least 500, but the room regularly packed well beyond that. Bon Marché/The Newz played six nights a week, writing and performing original material that blended new wave, post-punk, and punk — influenced by the Stranglers, XTC, Devo, the Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Blondie, The Cars, and Iggy Pop. In a Christchurch pub landscape where most bands relied on cover versions of current hits, The Newz stood out. The band had already supported Peter Frampton at Lancaster Park in 1978 and Talking Heads at the Christchurch Town Hall in 1979 — significant gigs for any local act — and they carried that ambition into their Aranui nights.
One of the notable features of the residency was the band’s use of Saturday afternoon sessions to give emerging local acts their first experience of a live audience. As drummer Allan Cattermole recalled, they would regularly hand the afternoon slot to younger bands: Pop Mechanix, Zero Bars, and the Dance Exponents all played the Aranui Tavern in this way before they had established careers of their own.
The Dance Exponents had formed in 1981 when vocalist Jordan Luck and guitarist Brian Jones relocated from Timaru to Christchurch, eventually forming a five-piece with David Gent and Michael Harallambi — two members drawn from the punk act Channel Four. After early shows elsewhere, their residency at the Aranui Tavern created what AudioCulture later described as a sensation — the new kids in town quickly becoming the talk of the city. Manager Jim Wilson, of Phantom Billstickers fame, brought Mike Chunn — former Split Enz member and Mushroom Records representative — to see them, and the band was signed in 1982. Their debut single Victoria followed that year, launching a career that would make the Dance Exponents one of New Zealand’s most popular bands of the decade.
The Christchurch music scene of 1980–82 has since become one of the most celebrated chapters in New Zealand rock history — the period that simultaneously produced the Flying Nun post-punk sound (The Gordons, The Pin Group, playing the Gladstone Hotel) and the mainstream pop breakthrough of the Dance Exponents at the Aranui. That the same city could host two such radically different musical directions speaks to how fertile and divided the scene was. As music writer David Swift noted, the Aranui Tavern and the Gladstone represented two poles: the Gladstone was abrasive and bohemian, while the Aranui was unapologetically crowd-pleasing, rooted in the working-class eastern suburbs, and producing bands of genuine national significance.
The venue also appeared on the broader circuit during this era. The AudioCulture article on 1981’s post-punk scene notes The Newz returning to their Aranui stomping ground that July, with the new punk act Channel Four — whose rhythm section would later join the Dance Exponents — as support. The Aranui was described at this point as a natural home base for The Newz: a pub that knew them and a crowd that turned up.
Through the 1980s the venue also traded under the name The Playroom. The building survived the 2010–11 Canterbury earthquake sequence and has since been repurposed as Bickertons Bar & Cafe, which continues to serve the Aranui and Wainoni neighbourhoods from the same Pages Road site — described today as an upbeat community haunt with pub food, TV sport, and an outdoor area.
We had a strong following at the Aranui and had great energy and heaps of attitude. We would often use the Saturday afternoon sessions at the Aranui to give young bands the opportunity to play before a live audience. Bands like Zero Bars, Pop Mechanix and the Dance Exponents spring to mind.
Allan Cattermole (drums, The Newz), AudioCulture, 2025