Tokyo
Wellington 1980’s Hair Metal group, played alongside the likes of Strikemaster and Knightshade (on the 3 band metal compilation ‘3 points of Metal’. Formed after the dissolution of popular group Rose Bayonet.
Glory Hole / Hex Central
The scummiest, most rundown, but welcoming and communal venue in Christchurch. Had 2 lives – first as Hex Central (under Squirm’s stewardship) in the mid 1990’s, then as the punk head quarters dubbed The Glory Hole, from 2009 till it’s demise in 2011.
Muzai Records
Auckland-based independent label formed by Martin Phillips and Benjii Jackson in 2009, with Michael McClelland (previously a writer for The Corner, but that site appears to be AI generated spam now) and Maeve Munro, completing the team.
Dux de Lux
The old Canterbury University Students Association building (back when it was based at the Christchurch Arts Centre) which became a wonderful multi-use venue in 1978. Housing a terrific vegetarian restaurant that opens out to the Arts Center courtyard, a lively public bar that always bristled with live music, enjoyed by locals and travels alike, plus an additional private venue and offices up stairs. The Dux was an institution in Christchurch until the Earthquakes struck in 2010/2011.
Jetset Lounge / Subway
Large old school hotel with upstairs lodging, a pokie room, kitchen and a large live music bar that’s went through quite a few changes between the early 1980’s and when it was closed, just prior to the Christchurch Earthquakes.
The Insurgents
Christchurch-based pop-group, The Insurgents were the darlings of the all-ages scene courtesy of their involvement with Will Edmonds’ Out of Kilter. The original line-up of Young, Coffey and Ellis displayed a strong Brit-pop influence on Chris Young’s songs, whilst Mike Ellis added an element of US Indie-Pop to proceedings.
Ellis and Young have tremendous chemistry together, shaping their songs with perfect harmonies and huge hooks, whilst Coffey keeps things nice and tight.
Richard Neave
Richard Neave was an uncompromising noise artist and extreme audience provoker.
He spent years beating up his guitar either solo or flanked by musicians such as Nick Hodgson/Harte, Lee Noyes, Peter Wright etc.
Taking great pride in pushing the annoying, provocative nature of his playing he drove audiences away where-ever he played. Needless to say he was a legendary figure in the Christchurch underground music scene and those of us who knew Richard were very sad at his passing in 2010.
Perfect Strangers
A shambling blues-rock trio of notorious obscurity, driven by the sheer creative talent of Bill Vosburgh – they split a 12″ EP with The And Band – who shared member Mark Thomas.
The And Band
The And Band were an outgrowth of influential but undiscovered Wellington punk-oddities The Spies. When feed up with the limitations of the Wellington scene, the band, along with several of their friends relocated to a small Christchurch flat, sharing a recording space (and the actual 4-track) with Perfect Strangers.
Ballon D’Essai
Young early Flying Nun 5-piece out of Christchurch. With 2 bass players the group had an ‘edgy post-punk sound’.
Tinnitus
Production group that merged modern technology with visual elements and audience interactions. Key members Angus McNaughten would go on to form Unitone HiFi and Michael Hodgson is one half of Pitch Black.
The Wallsockets
Fairly rudimentary punk coming out of Wellington’s late 1970’s / early 1980’s Terrace scene. Famously organized the **** compilation – which is a pretty effective scene document.
a million lights
In 2004 I (Chris Andrews) compiled a 4-song EP of original recordings and got them pressed in the very limited capacity of 20 copies through Peter King, down in Mt. Somers (in a single day!, June 24th 2004), each with a unique cover and hand-numbered. The music contained within varies between low-key melodic trembling’s on the a side, to caustic, but carefully controlled feedback-entrenched drones and shards of sound (extracted with the help of Cubase’s many distortion tools – from a bass guitar) on the b of an 8″ lathe-cut.
So So Modern
Terrific Wellington-based synth and guitar troop – greatly exciting, fun and wacky group. Often costumed and running through sets at breakneck pace, the group had a give it a go and home-production bent, distributing their own self-produced recordings (with art-work from the very talented Neon Sleep), hand-crafted pins, stickers and posters.
The group evolved out of youthful stints in underground hardcore groups – and they took elements of that (breakneck pace, gang vocals, building a community) to the group, but expanded the sound to make it more palatable to a wider audience.
A Handful Of Dust
One of Bruce Russell’s (Dead C) and Alastair Galbraith’s darkest outfits, often dealing with distinct imagery and motif’s in their music and especially pronounced in their liner notes (most of which are distributed through Russell’s Corpus Hermeticum label).
Formed by the duo in Dunedin in 1984, and primarily a free noise group. Though primarily a duo, Peter Stapleton had been a regular contributor from 1993 until his passing in March 2020.