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Bang! Bang! Eche!

RDU 98.5FM

RDU 98.5FM is Christchurch’s independent alternative radio station, founded on 23 February 1976 as Radio U under the University of Canterbury Students’ Association. It became the first FM station in Christchurch in 1986 as UFM, and rebranded as RDU 98.5FM in 2002. Controversially privatised in 2006 when sold to James Meharry and Karyn South for $2, the station survived the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes by broadcasting from a converted horse truck, and moved to its permanent home in the Boxed Quarter in 2015. In 2026 RDU marks its 50th anniversary as a cornerstone of Christchurch’s independent music culture.

Lonely Harris Club

High School-aged shenanigans from future BnP members. Lonely Harris Club were firmly a party band with a focus on covers (specifically a large catalogue of Brian Jonestown Massacre songs, plus a handful of classic nuggets).

#nzmusic #lonelyharrisclub #bnp

Live: Familia Moja Fundraiser

Flashback to November 16th 2011 with an epic fundraising show at the Thunderdome, a temporary venue that was erected at North Hagley Park.

#nzmusic #livemusic #sleepyage #thetransistors #bang!bang!eche! #steden #coate #valdera #planetofthetapes

Crackhouse 5

Wellington ‘self-aware white-boy scenester rap’ crew. Primarily with 3 vocalists, but with occasional appearances from fellow Wellington-based rapper Tommy Ill and others. Taking queues from early Beastie Boys the crew are very much party focused.

The group formed as a sideline to Holiday with Friends while the main trio were recording fellow Wellington rap act Tommy Ill’s debut album.

#nzmusic #crackhouse5 #holidaywithfriends #tommyill

Bang! Bang! Eche!

Live: Darkroom’s 1st Birthday

Flashback to October 6th, 2012 – Celebrating post-Earthquake venue The Darkroom’s first birthday with a show featuring Bang! Bang! Eche, The Transistors and Brown Leaves.

#nzmusic #darkroom #bangbangeche #thetransistors $brownleaves

A Flight To Blackout

Excellent instrumentalist trio from the garden city formed by Matt Craw (guitar), James Musgrave (bass), and Jared Kelly (drums) in early 2005. Taking cues from a variety of informed directions, the group were prolific features of the local live scene, and attached themselves to both R18 and all-age crowds with varying success. Playing an involved instrumental sound heavy on dynamics.

Bang! Bang! Eche!

Christchurch eletro-pop troop that burst onto the All-Ages scene with the super-fun home-recorded MySpace single (‘Nikee’) and then a flurry of live shows, including achieving success as a wildcard entry in the Smoke-Free Rock-Quest regional finals. An exciting mix of electronics, guitar and pulsating rhythm, Bang! Bang! Eche! are Charlie Ryder (guitar), James Sullivan (Drums), T’Nealle Worsley (Bass) and Zach Doney (Vocals / Effects).

Salad Boys

Indie pop-rock out of Christchurch based around Joe Sampson (guitar / vocals / keys / bass etc) with James Sullivan (drums) and Ben Ordering (bass) on most of their recordings.

Strong on melody with big chiming guitar and unfussy rhythmic backing, their songs have a timeless quality to them – sometimes jangling, sometimes driving, and with Sampson’s powerful guitar playing always ready to attack.

BnP

Brash, noisy, post-Earthquake Christchurch group who made a bit of a splash with the ‘Welcome to Mediocrity’ release on local label Melted Ice Cream in 2012.

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.

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.