Life in the Garden

Rip It Up, Issue 68, 1 March 1983, Page 12

Life in the Garden

Russell Brown

When an Auckland band manager heard RIU were running a feature on Christchurch music he laughed. "What for?" he asked. Even natives of the Garden City admit it's going through a slump at the moment. There are more Dunedin bands recording for Flying Nun Records than local ones, it seems. Christchurch music has always depended on the existence of one good venue. The seminal Club Da Rox in Mollet St, Wayne Manor, and perhaps even last year's Pee Jays all had healthy numbers of young bands coming through. The Gladstone Hotel was crucial from 1979-81. In 1981, bands were coming through the early week specials to headline late week. It was a good system. But it was the punters who destroyed the Gladstone there was violence, the papers wrote of "riots" outside. The brewery got worried, management changed and eventually the Cowboys became resident and redecorated the place. The Gladstone's superb atmosphere is no more. The "New Gladstone" looks like a Texas brothel. The Cowboys didn't cut it there, so now they're looking for a new resident band. The Gladstone's successor, the Star and Garter, is hopeless. It's small, modern and has a bend in it so a large proportion of the crowd can't see the band. Still, it's the best original bands have got. The Hillsborough has always been a more mainstream pub. It also has a poor atmosphere. The presence of a single very good band has also been helpful. The Clean and Dance Exponents were each the centre of their own healthy scenes last year. That's the other problem. Bands don't stay in Christchurch. They move out or break up. Still, some fine music (Pin Group, Mainly Spaniards) came out of Christchurch last year and I'd far rather see any band with a Christchurch crowd around me than an Auckland one. It might seem slow there at the moment, but that's always deceptive. Christchurch is less industry-orientated than Auckland, there's a bigger underground. Sooner or later someone's going to break the surface and then watch out.