Anthonie Tonnon on New Zealand’s most talked about places to see music, from big city institutions to port town oddities and near-mythical stages in the bush. Today he covers the country's small town venues.
The Barrytown Settlers Hall is the only community facility between Runanga and Charleston. Photo: Supplied
Barrytown Settlers Hall sits just off the highway that runs the length of the South Island’s West Coast. The hall was built in 1929 and has a view across some dairy farms out to the breakers hitting the shore. The nearest city, Christchurch, is almost 300km away.
The venue has gathered such a reputation that international bands have put it on their tour schedules. Townes Van Zandt, Bad Manners, UK Subs, Shellac and Trans Am have all played there, along with many more from around New Zealand.
Shows began there after young alternative lifestylers like Roger Ewer started moving to the remote area in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
“Music was very important for us, yet we were living in this area of country - pretty sparsely inhabited with no music. So we had to make music, or get people to come here,” he says.
Although the hall’s audience has aged and shrunk a little over the past 40 years, gigs are there are still a colourful reminder of a different era - a time when, as long-time resident Caroline Hewitt says, “to make a difference in the world was to leave the city”.
Hosting events or even owning and running small town venues must be a labour of love. While venues in small towns don’t need to contend with high rents and apartment dwellers, they do have a difficult proposition bringing in people to see touring bands.
Located in Golden Bay, west of Nelson, is the Mussel Inn, where for over 23 years Jane and Andrew Dixon have built a culture around their brew bar.
The bar, inside a colonial wooden building, has a large list of in-house craft beers which attracts foodies and tourists, along with locals. It’s a magnet for bands and there’s there is a waiting list at least a year long to get a show at The Mussel Inn.
But not all small town venues are as successful. Many of them struggle to produce a crowd that will buy enough food and alcohol to keep a business running.
Non-profit models like Whanganui’s Space Monster are sometimes more successful; it’s not a bar, but instead a space that opens only for shows; usually once a week, taking a small cut of the cover bands charge.
The second most attended show was the Mint Chicks with (singer Kody Neilson) hanging from the rafters, and the most attended show was a local high school band.
The Stomach in Palmerston North has been hosting shows for 26 years. Funded by the Palmerston North City Council, it’s a multi-functional space with affordable practice rooms, a recording studio and a space that is all ages and alcohol-free.
The Stomach’s manager, Craig Black, says the best moments at the venue are when young bands out of high school play their first shows with their own material. “The second most attended show was the Mint Chicks with (singer Kody Neilson) hanging from the rafters, and the most attended show was a local high school band.”
Running a publically-funded venue can be a tightrope as well. Earlier this year the Nelson City Council demolished the building that The Artery used until 2002 as creative space for everything from visual arts to film, to rock music.
Former manager Dave White told the Nelson Mail he had disagreements with his funders, who thought he was catering too much to an “alternative” crowd.
“They were worried it was being turned too alternative. ‘What about something for the straight kids - a basketball hoop or a skate park?' There were basketball courts in every school already.”
“This was for those who aren't being catered for. That was always a philosophical disagreement I had with them.”
Earlier this year, I went to see Delaney Davidson and Marlon Williams play in Rotorua at the Netherlands Society Hall. A promoter named Karin Vincent had put on the show.
Vincent can be described as a promoter in pure form - someone who loves live music enough that she takes risks to try to bring an act to town.
On this night that risk paid off – the hall was full - but she told me it’s a struggle to get locals along, and she has often lost money. It’s not business that brings her to put on live music, it’s the fulfilment that a well-run show brings to her. It’s the same thing that keeps bands touring around the country when they lose money, and venues in the major cities running with little or no profit margin.
Lyttelton musician Lindon Puffin says the physical spaces matter less than the people who run them. “It’s always the people that run the venues, the people with the passion to make the venue exist.”
He argues that supporting venues directly would be a valid aim for New Zealand’s music funding agencies, one that would create an income for musicians and access to culture for audiences.
“The live scene - where you can sell albums and play to real people - that’s what we should be backing. We should be celebrating the people that facilitate and make that happen … you never really see either recognition or funding going towards that sort of thing.”
Listen to Anthonie Tonnon's radio documentary on Barrytown Hall:
Cover image taken from the Barrytown Hall events album on Facebook.
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