Little Stevie McCabe has been an underground force in New Zealand music since the early 80s, playing n anarchic form of Rock’N’Roll through a variety of bands – most notably as a key member of The Axemen.
However as a solo musician McCabe was hyper-productive, and when he passed away recently (September 2023) he left behind some 300 unreleased cassette recordings.
#nzmusic #littlesteviemccabe #theaxemen
Bygone Era were a prominent but short-lived late 1980’s rock group with hardcore punk aspirations, during an era when New Zealand had few hardcore punk groups.
They put out an EP, and a split 7″ with The Warners on Onslaught Records label (run by vocalist Rowan Coffey’s brother Simon) before breaking up in 1989, their full length album ‘Get Airborne’ coming out posthumously.
#nzmusic #nzhardcore #bygoneera #thewarners
Blam Blam Blam was a politically-charged underground pop act with touches of post-punk guitar, intelligent lyrics and the melodic touch of Don McGlashan’s vocals and Euphonium playing on killer signature tunes like ‘There is no depression in New Zealand’ and ‘Don’t fight it Marsha (it’s bigger than the both of us)’.
Brilliant synth-pop group formed by former Whizz Kids / Pop Mechanix / The Swingers vocalist Andrew McLennan. Known solely for their one-hit wonder ‘Sierra Leonne’.
A mid-1990s side-project of super-prolific Armpit / Futurians lof-fi / experimental / noise musician Clayton Noon, presumably with his Armpit bandmate Jon Arcus (aka Sugar Jon).
Pop-funky 3/4-piece Christchurch act from the mid 80s. Made an appearance on Radio with Pictures article on the current state of Christchurch live music (in 1984), released a cassette single recorded at Nighshift Studios and at one point had The Chills keyboardist Andrew Todd as a member.
Double Happys brought together former Bored Games bandmates Shayne Carter and Wayne Else – originally with an unreliable drum-machine (named ‘Herbie Fuckface’), but eventually replaced with their High School friend John Collie. A wonderful, sometimes confrontational group who came to a tragic conclusion with the accidental death of Wayne Elsie in June 1985.
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).
Sadly defunct fun surf-guitar trio from Christchurch who released a handful of live recordings on BandCamp before moving on.
Christchurch power-pop Pop Mechanix began their life as ‘Splash Alley’. They built up a strong reputation locally and around the country with Dick Driver (and later, Peter McLennan) as front-man; but never quite made it to the next level in Australia.
Electric Blood was the formative group of Robert Scott; forming the group with his brother in 1978, and featuring any number of local friends and family members on extremely lo-fi DIY recordings.
Front-Woman for long-running Christchurch group The Dialtones. De Lis put out a very rare lathe cut 10″ EP on the late-great Mikey Hex’s Noseflute label in 1997; but it’s impossibly hard to come by these days (it wasn’t even listed on Discogs).
Half of the songs released here resurfaced on The Dialtones album, though with full band backing.
Fleur has also been a fixture in the Christchurch music scene since the 1990’s and has contributed guitar to Coal’s live performances, plus several other local groups. De Lis (who’s real last name is Walden) is the daughter of 1950’s/60’s vocalist Paul Walden.
Christchurch trio fronted by The Puddle’s Norman Dufty. Urgent, shuffling indie-rock, with warbly vocals (part Morrissey, part Stephen Cogle) and the occasional clarinet (from Dave Woods) sneaking through.
Onset/Offset Records founder Campbell McLay (bass) and Donna Lawson (drums) complete the trio; who released an LP split with Lawson’s other group Junkanoo in 1986, then followed it up with a couple cassettes in 1987.
Thanks to German label Unwucht re-issuing a heap of old Onset/Offset releases their appearance on the Krypton Ten compilation is now (slightly) more accessible.
Slick Auckland-based soul-funk-pop collective led by vocalist/guitarist Richard Setford. They made a big impression with their live performances, including quite a bit of television exposure around the nationwide National Anthem charity event, plus supporting Black Eyed Peas and high profile festival slots overseas.
Wellington punk band from the mid-1980’s. Released a handful of DIY cassettes, mostly on the Sound Mind label.
Oddly on their album ‘A short history’ they gave each of the band members home addresses, but not their last names!