Despite an incredibly rough year for the events industry, some organisers are feeling optimistic about the upcoming season. Others, however, are choosing to err on the side of caution. There’s no doubt this year has involved more risk than usual for event producers. With no insurance available for Covid-related financial losses, there’s a lot to … Read more
With live shows and events at the mercy of a mercurial virus, the New Zealand music business has been warped into a frustrating limbo. So how are local musicians dealing with it all? Alongside Covid-19, 2020 will be forever known as the year of “the pivot”; that dreaded term that was once isolated to the … Read more
As one of the few places on earth where live events are still taking place, New Zealand is seeing its Facebook events pages overrun by scammers trying to trick fans out of cash. Sherry Zhang explains how it works, and shares her own exchange with a ticket scam bot. Ticket scams? Bots? What’s all this … Read more
Over lockdown, people who worked live gigs had their careers shut down. Thanks to technology, the connection between music makers and audiences grew and now, they’re more in sync than ever. In the final days of level two, Auckland venue The Tuning Fork tested the waters of post-Covid connection. Soul singer Hollie Smith was performing … Read more
What is it like to grow an album over two years and then labour it during a lockdown? Giantess frontwoman Kiki Van Newtown tells Emily Writes about making music in a pandemic. If you’re a mega-fan of Wellington’s witch-stoner-rock icons Hex, like I am, you’ll have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the debut Giantess … Read more
New Zealand’s live music venue owners have come together to crowdfund to save not just their venues, but their industry. Our entertainment venues were some of the earliest hit by Covid-19. Before we all shut our doors to each other, venues were shutting their doors to their lifelines: their artists and their customers. Gigs were … Read more
Despite what some critics claim, there isn’t a ‘gig problem’ in Auckland, writes Josie Adams. You just need to look beyond indie rock. There are around 20 gig spaces in Auckland’s CBD. Over a three-day period last month, Whammy Bar alone hosted the Laneway afterparty, the bFM anniversary weekend party, and an Eartheater show. The … Read more
How can Auckland be a ‘City of Music’ without a proper live music culture? Anthony Metcalf on how our biggest city’s paucity of music venues is hurting both artists and gig-goers. Auckland City was recently named a UNESCO ‘City of Music’ as part of the wider Creative Cities network. This accolade, shared with the likes … Read more
Last week international acts Beach House, Rhye and Four Tet played at the Auckland Arts Festival. Lauren Spring went to all three shows. I arrived in Auckland from Wellington, thoroughly wiped out. My very humid arrival in Auckland was heralded by a very painful tattoo on my ribs (I 100% screamed like a little bitch), … Read more
Australian music lovers were dancing up a storm in Byron Bay two weekends ago – but many of them were also helping to bring down Australia’s sexually transmissible infection (STI) rate at the same time. Could this be an approach we adopt in New Zealand? Australia’s premier music festival Splendour in the Grass was held … Read more
An extract from a music memoir by Lisa Nimmo, one half of Wellington pop-rock duo Pearl, who were a successful live act in the 2000s. A month after the album release, Chris, Shelley and I headed off to Whanganui and Palmerston North for our first out-of-town gigs as recording artists. We were excited about getting to … Read more
The last show of Lorde’s Melodrama world tour took place this week (aside from two dates in Russia in May and the odd festival). One of the remarkable features of this tour has been the sheer number of cover versions she’s performed. Gareth Shute trawled through them all and presents his top five. The … Read more
This weekend, The Golden Dawn will close its doors forever. Last month, The Kings Arms did the same. In the middle of this turning point for Auckland music venues, The Grow Room – a multi-faceted DIY creative space – struggles to find a home. Joel Thomas talks to its core members about the uncertain future … Read more
If the Kings Arms, which closes today, was the physical epicentre of Auckland’s ’90s/2000s alternative music scene, The Fix was its pre-Facebook-invite guide. Steve Newall recounts the venue’s history through The Fix’s gig guides and talks to its editor Richard Cooke. Auckland in the ’90s was a very different place: light on venues and outside … Read more
What is it with fights and the Logan Campbell Centre? Don Rowe attends Yelawolf and narrowly avoids a hiding. The jungles of South East Asia have nothing on the humidity inside the Logan Campbell Centre in early summer. Truly the place must be seasoned like an old wok with the accumulation of thousands of punters’ … Read more
Preeminent One Direction scholar Millie Lovelock reviews the Harry Styles concert at Spark Arena. I’ll start at the beginning because concerts like this don’t just start when the band take the stage. For at least a thousand Harry Styles fans, the show started long before I was even conscious on Saturday morning. Fans were camping overnight, … Read more
The Brit Award-winning blues singer with a hip-hop heart just announced he’s coming to New Zealand in April. Yo New Zealand! I'll be over in April '18 doing some shows. Tickets on sale this Friday 👍 pic.twitter.com/oRuTdNK2T8 — Rags (@RagNBoneMan) October 29, 2017 What’s a Rag’n’Bone Man? Rag’n’Bone Man in the stage name of Rory … Read more
Jared Ipsen, who has been playing in bands and putting on shows for over 10 years, responds to Grace Stratton’s recent plea for more all ages shows. All ages shows are just not worth it. Ask almost any all ages show promoter in New Zealand and you’ll probably get the same answer. If bars and … Read more
If you’re under 18 and a music fan then your choice for attending gigs legally is remarkably scant. Seventeen year old Grace Stratton makes an appeal for promoters not to forget the younger crowd. One of the first gigs I went to was on my 14th birthday. Thinking back to that gig invokes some of … Read more