Also known as: —
Location: 96 Oxford Terrace, Christchurch Central
Current status: Demolished — site now occupied by Riverside Market
Active: Late 1990s–2011
History
Players and Hustlers was a pool bar and live music venue at 96 Oxford Terrace in Christchurch’s central city, positioned on the western bank of the Avon River along the stretch of bars and nightclubs that locals came to know simply as The Strip. The address had previously housed Tiffany’s, a celebrated upscale restaurant in 1990, and by February 1995 had become the Player Tenpin Bowling Centre — advertised as the largest in New Zealand, with pool tables, a bar, and large rooms for hire. Players and Hustlers emerged from this lineage, inheriting the pool tables and entertainment focus while adding a live music and DJ programme that would define the venue through the late 1990s.
The venue programmed both DJ nights and live bands. On 29 August 1997, Players and Hustlers hosted Judgement Day — a dance party featuring DJs Kinesis, Pylon, Solid State, Phantom, and Grind, reported in Rip It Up as the first time the venue had held a dance event of this kind, with more expected. By early 1998, rock and metal acts were a regular fixture. In February of that year, Rip It Up reviewer Carla Rotta covered a three-band metal night at the venue: Stoatgobbler (combining thrash metal with country-inflected riffs), Blast Off, and Human, whose set drew a growing crowd through to multiple encores. Rotta described the crowd doubling in size during Human’s performance and concluded the evening was “awesome,” adding that “Christchurch rocks like no other.” US grindcore band Brutal Truth also played Players and Hustlers in 1998.
That same year, Canta — the University of Canterbury student magazine — noted that Gaia, described as “hard rockers,” played their first-ever gig at Players and Hustlers on a Saturday night; the magazine’s music columnist recommended the show alongside a Pistol Grip CD release and an Exponents date elsewhere on The Strip. Guitar pop band The Civilians — comprising Ben Brady (guitar), George Kitson (vocals), Adam McGrath (bass), and Simon Nunn (drums), who had formed in late 1997 and accumulated more than sixty gigs in under a year — also performed at Players and Hustlers during 1998. A Canta reviewer who caught the set was impressed enough by their “extremely tight guitar pop” performance to pursue a full band interview.
Oxford Terrace through this period was one of the busiest nightlife precincts in New Zealand’s South Island, with bars including Coyote, All Bar One, Sticky Fingers, Azure, The Tap Room, Viaduct, and Dilusso packed tightly along the river frontage. Photographer Anthony McKee, who documented The Strip in 2000 on high-speed black and white film, described how the venues “were really decent restaurants and popular places to dine but at night, from about 10pm onwards, they just turned into loud, seething masses of people dancing and getting drunk.” Players and Hustlers offered pool alongside its live music programme, the river-facing position on Oxford Terrace making it a consistent draw for students, CBD workers, and regulars.
The September 2010 earthquake and the catastrophic February 2011 aftershock brought the Oxford Terrace entertainment precinct to an end. The building at 96 Oxford Terrace was severely damaged and subsequently demolished as part of the earthquake recovery process. Players and Hustlers, like dozens of other Strip venues, ceased trading and did not reopen. The site was eventually redeveloped as part of the post-earthquake inner-city rebuild: the Riverside Market, a seven-day indoor market featuring fresh produce, food stalls, bars and boutique retail, opened from 2019, incorporating materials salvaged from demolished Christchurch buildings — recycled rimu, bricks, ironbark timber, salvaged windows, and century-old wallpaper — as a gesture toward continuity with the city’s pre-quake past.