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The Loons

The Loons has been an integral, significant and well-known part of the Lyttelton community for over a century. Built in 1905, the building housed a range of commercial premises through to 1944 including a grocery shop and the Loons garage. In 1944, the building was purchased by three watersiders and around that time the premises was converted to become the Waterside Workers Social Club known locally as ‘The Loons’.

With post-earthquake renovations completed in December 2020, the Loons has been transformed into a state of the art performance venue with facilities to match. The Loons caters for Theatre, Arts and Music to the people of Lyttelton and the wider Canterbury area.

Techtones

4-piece early 80’s group from Auckland. Key single ‘That Girl’ is a slice of British-style power-pop:

Put out some sought after releases on the iconic Ripper and Propeller labels in the early 1980’s and were included in Propeller’s terrific ‘Doobie Do Disc’ and ‘It’s bigger than the both of us (NZ Singles 1979-82)’ compilations.

Juricevich and Roach came from 2nd gen punk outfit Sheerlux (previously the Stimulators), Chris Burt would go on to join the Stridulators and work with the Headless Chickens, and Solomon would go on to form The Rapture.

Goblin Mix

Short-lived David Mitchell 3 piece, and the last of his Auckland bands. This is when he truly found his voice, with support from Phil Moore, Andrew Moon and (Flying Nun alumni) Alf Danielson. Their complete recordings would later be compiled (along with The Exploding Budgies complete discography) as a compilation CD in 1991.

Live: Stinkfest 13! Day 2

Flashback to December 16th, 2011 at the Darkroom with a fabulous showcase of the legendary Stink Magnetic record label.

Performances from I Drink Your Blood, Ritchie Venus, Planet of the Tapes and Golden Axe.

#nzmusic #livemusic #darkroom #stinkmagnetic

Children’s Hour

Whilst Chris Matthews was struggling within the pop-confines of the Prime Movers, Johnny Pierce (Bass), Grant Fell (Guitar) and Bevan Sweeney (Drums) were forming their own sound as Children’s Hour.

Dr Kevorkian and the Suicide Machine

The early 2000’s recording outfit of Jordan Reyne. Built around Reyne’s strong vocals and a variety of musicians, mostly of the studio-pro variety (which currently includes Trinity Roots’ Rikki Gooch).

Dress

Yuri Frusin and Helen Johnstone (also both of Garbage and the Flowers) with Pianist Kristen Wineera (The Idle Suite, The Drugs, The Blueness).

Both members have since reunited with GATFs guitarist Paul Ling in the Melbourne-based Minit.

The Mint Chicks

Excellent post-punk band taking in equal measures of Voidoids style angular guitar and Blood Brothers style furious hardcore screaming and breakbeat crunch. A talented 4-piece with an excellent grounding in music production, they were snapped up by Flying Nun after building a strong live reputation in auckland during 2002-3. ‘licking letters’ is the first single, coming from the break-through Octagon, Octagon, Octagon Ep, and is a jerky, stop-start ripper, few bands have shown such intensity committed to plastic.

The Topp Twins

Years of playing camping grounds, festivals and all sorts of alternative venues have turned the Topps into a household name in New Zealand, eventually becoming television stars with their scattered performances. Their performances include country yodel sing-a-longs, any number of sketch-character setups (usually with crowd involvement), and of course spoon solos.

Gestalt Switch

(At the time) young and upcoming Dunedin rock act, forming in December 2001. Haven’t heard their 4 song debut ep, but they seem to be pushing a diverse sound – with loudness appearing to be key.

Maryrose and Brian Crook (April 2004)

The Renderers played Christchurch on Friday April 23rd, 2004 at Creation along with the Terminals and an acoustic performance from Hamish Kilgour (The Clean / Magick Heads etc). I conducted this interview with Brian and Maryrose Crook in the lead-up to the show.

Skeptics

Hugely popular and influential New Zealand industrial rock act who emerged out of Palmerston North in 1979. Known for their grinding sound (a mix of noisy, scattered and angular guitar and eclectic electronic sounds) and one particularly visual music video – the incredible and universally banned ‘Affco’.

Slim

4-piece Christchurch hard-rock outfit who originally formed as Gluefist. Made a bit of an impact in the late 90s through to 2002 with a few singles (particularly ‘Bullet In My Hand’, which received significant radio play) and a few high-profile support slots.

French for Rabbits

Lovely, dreamy, folky indie-pop from (former Ragamuffin Children and The O’Lovelys) keyboardist Brook Singer and Jazz guitarist John Fitzgerald (guitar). Taking a DIY approach the group have toured Europe and the US, garnished exposure on television series soundtracks and grown a fairly sizeable following around the globe.

Swampy

Nick Bollinger (The NZ Listener): “Dunedin based troubadour with a four track writes witty commentaries on society, love, and discount shopping. His guitar, casio and drum machine provide more colour than one might expect.”