Also known as: Zebedees Nightspot; Zeb’s
Location: 479 Blenheim Road, Sockburn
Current status: Closed
Active: c. 1998–2014
Bar manager: Steve White
Capacity: 400
All-ages: Yes (alcohol-free)
History
Zebedees was a not-for-profit, all-ages live music venue on Blenheim Road in Sockburn, in the industrial western fringe of Christchurch. It was the city’s only purpose-built youth entertainment venue for most of its existence, and over roughly sixteen years it became one of the most important spaces in the Canterbury music ecosystem — not for who played there, but for who was in the audience.
The venue began life hosting dance parties, but as the 2000s progressed, syncopated beats gave way to pulverising guitars. That incarnation — a charitable trust devoted entirely to live music for young people — was established in approximately 2003 by a committee that included venue manager Steve White. By 2004, Zebedees had settled at 479 Blenheim Road and was running a consistent programme of Friday and Saturday night shows for audiences aged 13 and up, across rock, metal, punk, and alternative genres. During the week it also opened its doors to bands wanting rehearsal and practice space, making it a hub of youth musical activity seven days a week.
Steve White and his wife Jennie ran Zebedees for all sixteen years of its operation, supported by a rotating team of volunteers — many of them young adults who had grown up attending the venue themselves, including T’Nealle of Bang! Bang! Eche!, who helped run the venue during her teen years. Any revenue went directly back into covering operational costs: rent, power, insurance, alarm systems, and upgrading the PA and lighting rig to keep pace with bands’ expectations. Funding from the Christchurch City Council and the Rātā Foundation covered the rent at the Blenheim Road address; without it, the numbers would never have worked. Admission was alcohol-free, and the all-ages door policy was maintained throughout.
At its peak, Zebedees was drawing up to 400 people on weekend nights and was in constant demand as a practice space during the week. It occupied a particular niche in the Christchurch landscape — somewhere between community hall and proper live venue — that no licensed bar could fill. Adam Hattaway, who would later record with Flying Nun Records, started attending Zebedees during his first year of high school and was playing there with his band approximately every second month soon after. He recalled that the genre mix leaned heavily towards pop punk and death metal, reflecting the tastes of its core teenage demographic, though the booking policy was deliberately broad. He described Zebedees — one of two youth venues in the city at the time alongside The Media Club — as a favourite haunt in Sockburn’s industrial pocket.
In the mid-2000s, Zebedees was a key node in the Christchurch all-ages circuit alongside Fuse Youth Café in Sumner. The Insurgents — a band formed in 2004 by Chris Young, David Coffey, and Mike Ellis that would later evolve into The Eversons — were among the acts that frequently played Zebedees in the 2004–2006 period, when all-ages shows attracted their strongest audiences. The AudioCulture article “Christchurch Indie: Us Against the City” notes that the support for these shows “was really important for some of the kids who would then go on to start their own bands and record labels.” 8 Foot Sativa, Christchurch’s internationally touring metal band, also appeared on the Zebedees stage, as did touring acts such as Bow Messiah and Ten Thousand during their national tours. In May 2013 — as part of Christchurch’s New Zealand Music Month Chartfest programme — an all-ages youth event in association with the White Elephant Trust featured Ashei, Phantom Empire, The Haze, and Where We Stood at Zebedees.
International touring acts also found their way to Sockburn. In November 2006, Calvin Johnson — founder of K Records and frontman of Beat Happening and Dub Narcotic Sound System — played a solo show at Zebedees alongside Canadian singer Geneviève Castrée, who was touring as Woelv.
By 2010, when RNZ Music’s Shaun D Wilson visited and broadcast a feature about the venue, Zebedees had become something of a Christchurch institution. Tens of thousands of young people had passed through its doors, either as audience members, performers, or practice-room regulars. International musicians who visited the city were reportedly struck by what Zebedees had achieved, and the venue earned a reputation — informally shared among touring acts — as one of the best youth music venues in the world.
The February 2011 Canterbury earthquakes accelerated the already-precarious economics of all-ages live music. Low-cost buildings — the kind of industrial spaces that an alcohol-free, not-for-profit venue could afford to rent — were condemned or demolished across the city, driving rents beyond what charitable trust income could sustain. Zebedees managed to hold on at the Blenheim Road address until 22 February 2014 — the third anniversary of the most destructive earthquake — when it closed its doors for the last time. The closure prompted significant community grief. Steve, who said he choked up talking about Zebedees and would “do it again in a heartbeat,” acknowledged that after sixteen years it was time for him and Jennie to step back.
The gap left by Zebedees proved difficult to fill. Sam and Georgia Soloman started Re:VIVE in 2014 as a direct response to the closure, aiming to combine live events with an after-school programme, music tutoring, rehearsal space, recording facilities, and mentoring services. Re:VIVE ran events through 2014 and 2015, including several that drew over 500 attendees, but funding barriers slowed its momentum. A Change.org petition also urged Zeal, the national youth creativity organisation, to establish a new youth venue for Christchurch. As of 2017, the city still had no dedicated all-ages music venue to replace what had been lost.
Steve and Jennie White ran the show there for 16 years, with funding from the Christchurch City Council and The Rātā Foundation paying their rent at the Blenheim Road venue. They weren’t making any money, so the place chugged along on volunteers and goodwill.
Metro News, The Christchurch music scene has an ageing population