Channel Z launched on 99.3FM in Christchurch in August 1999, bringing alternative rock and New Zealand music to a city that had few non-mainstream options on the dial. Its two years of local programming — Willy Macalister on days, Melanie Wise on nights — gave Christchurch a genuine alternative voice before the network consolidated all content from Auckland in 2001. The station became Kiwi FM in 2005 and was relaunched as a Christchurch online stream in 2019.
Post-punk four-piece from Ōtautahi Christchurch, formed 2018. Their 2024 debut album In Circles established them as one of the most compelling voices in the contemporary New Zealand indie scene.
Biography George Churton formed high-octane rock group The Lovehorror Web around 1987 with an initial supporting line of Mick Elborado, Phil Hubbard and his…
The Southern Blues Bar at 198 Madras Street was a beloved Christchurch institution that grew from a musicians' club founded in the 1980s into one of the city's most distinctive live music venues. With a 24-hour licence and a clientele that ranged from bikies to librarians, it hosted international blues legends alongside a thriving local jam scene before being demolished in December 2010 following the September earthquake.
Christchurch electro-pop trio active 2006–2011, featuring Blair Parkes, Marcus Thomas, and Helen Greenfield. Their self-described 'pop-tronica' sound reached TV audiences nationwide through Outrageous Fortune and Go Girls placements.
New Zealand's only dedicated tertiary jazz school, founded in 1991 at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology by Neill Pickard. Now operating as Ara Music Arts at 130 High Street, Christchurch, offering a Bachelor of Music Arts through the Ara Institute of Canterbury.
Gritty Christchurch garage rock band active from 2003 to around 2013, centred on Lisa Preston and a rotating lineup drawn from the Snort/Thee Tryhards scene. Regular performers at the Christchurch Media Club before the 2011 earthquakes.
Sleepy Age were a Christchurch indie pop band formed in 2009 by Josh Burgess, who went on to co-found the internationally recognised group Yumi Zouma. The band won the RDU Round Up competition within weeks of their formation and released music on Christchurch label Gold Sounds before dissolving around 2011.
