The mayfly | Takes me back — Ephemera from New Zealand’s closed music venues

The mayfly: New Zealand music month edition

As New Zealand music month draws to a close, this edition of our semi-regular series of ephemera-related blogs — The mayfly — highlights ephemera from some of the country’s music venues that are now closed.

Read previous entries in the Mayfly blog series.

Ephemera is a unique tool for revealing historical developments

Ephemera is a unique tool for revealing historical developments, trends, and narratives. Made to be used for a specific purpose and then disposed of, it responds to things in real time. It is often visually interesting, a means for people or groups to express themselves and their message in a way that will grab attention.

Ephemera shows how printing and design have evolved, and for music ephemera, speaks to how musicians choose to represent and market themselves to their audiences.

Ephemera is also a great research tool, packed with concise information about musician line-ups, event dates, times, and locations, demonstrating how music ephemera can be utilised for its informational value.

The Knives at Noon poster in the image below even includes the artists’ signatures!

Gone but not forgotten

Over the years, but particularly in the last decade or so, many of New Zealand’s iconic music venues have closed, often as a result of financial strain, building re-developments, or earthquake damage.

To name just a few, in Auckland, The Kings Arms and Golden Dawn both closed within the space of a year in 2018; in Wellington, Mighty Mighty and Puppies both closed in 2014, and Bar Bodega followed in 2016.

Christchurch saw many venues close due to the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, including AL’s Bar, Goodbye Blue Monday, The Media Club, and The Bedford, and in 2016, two beloved Dunedin venues, Chick’s Hotel and Sammy’s, shut their doors.

The posters in the image above for High Dependency Unit and The Clean gigs feature closed venues The Kings Arms in Auckland and Sammy’s in Dunedin.

Both bands also visited Dux Live, a Christchurch venue that started up after the iconic Dux de Lux restaurant and music venue was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquakes.

These posters for gigs by events management project A Low Hum feature Wellington venue Puppies and Christchurch venues AL’s Bar and The Civic.

The Civic was a Category II heritage building which was operated as a Christchurch City Council civic building until 1980. After that, it had many uses, including as a restaurant and bar, and was later used as a music venue until 2009. The building was damaged in the 2011 earthquakes and later demolished.

Music ephemera and nostalgia

Music ephemera has been a highlight on the National Library blog before. In this post by Research Librarian, Mark Hector, 'At the still point, there the dance is', Mark speaks to the fact that ephemera can conjure a special kind of nostalgia, transporting us to a time and place that we may have thought we’d forgotten.

This is especially true for ephemera which relates to music venues that are no longer around. Gig posters, flyers, and other bits and pieces can send our minds back to locations we’ll never visit again. Gigs in low-ceilinged and sticky-floored rooms, atmospheres we’ll never again have the pleasure of experiencing.

My memories

I was in Christchurch at the time of the earthquakes and had only just turned 18. My experience of the city’s music venues, many of which required that you show ID on entry, was limited. However, seeing ephemera from such venues as The Media Club, AL’s Bar, and Goodbye Blue Monday sends me right back to a specific place in time.

Through gig posters I can chart the shows I saw, the bands I enjoyed, the people I was there with, and the person I was at that time.

This poster from an Insurgents tour is one of those items that elicit nostalgia from me because of my connection to it. I may or may not have been at that all-ages Christchurch show – I can’t remember, it was a long time ago in the grand scheme of my so-far-relatively-short life! – however, I was going to gigs at Media Club at that time and was a fan of Sand Fly Bay, the support act.

Incidentally, one of the members of Sand Fly Bay is now my husband and somewhere out there is a photo of him on the streets of pre-quake Christchurch, proudly pointing up at this very poster! We tried to find a copy of it (and I hoped to persuade him to allow me to include it here) but to no avail.

Personal collections of music ephemera

Many people I know have music ephemera collections, having amassed years’ worth of posters, tickets, wristbands, programmes, flyers, and – my favourite – setlists, usually pilfered from the stage after the show.

I think we collect this kind of thing because such events – seeing our favourite musicians in the flesh – are deeply formative, possibly even transcendental.

Seeing musicians live and collecting bits and pieces from their shows, closes the distance between us and them. Perhaps this is why someone recently attempted to sell their contact lenses (for USD$10,000 no less!) because they had seen Taylor Swift’s 'Eras' tour concert, or why Warren Ellis had in his possession a piece of used chewing gum for two decades.

For many, music ephemera is like a time capsule, a means to immortalise and conjure up experiences that we hope never to forget.

International acts

The concerts of international musicians have, for me, been some of the most memorable I have attended. With international status comes a reverence and perception of increased fame, perhaps due to the two degrees of separation that exist within small countries like New Zealand.

Below is a selection of posters showing some international musicians that have toured New Zealand. Playing at venues like The Kings Arms, Bodega, and Indigo Bar, which is now called San Fran but was formerly the San Francisco Bathhouse, Sonic Temple and Stax before that.

Flying Nun

The Library has a vast collection of music ephemera relating to Flying Nun bands and musicians. Below are posters for performances by Chris Knox, Bailterspace, and The 3Ds.

Mostly active in the 1990s, these musicians were playing at venues Voodoo Lounge in Vulcan Lane, Auckland and Sammy’s in Dunedin, Warners and Dux de Lux in Christchurch, and Bodega and James Cabaret in Wellington.

Find posters that resonate with you

I hope you have enjoyed this small selection of ephemera from just a handful of New Zealand’s now-closed music venues. Perhaps you’ve found something from a show you went to! If not, there are many others in the Turnbull Archival Catalogue (Tiaki). Just search for a venue or musician name in the “Keyword search” field.

You can also find a selection of digitised music posters in the National Library catalogue to begin your search.

Or search both catalogues at once with the National Library website search.

Ephemera collecting at the Library

The Ephemera Collection now sits within the curatorial area called Contemporary Voices and Archives. Music ephemera specifically however can be found under the Archive of New Zealand Music.

We welcome donations of ephemera with a focus on music where this fits within the collecting priorities for Ephemera or the Archive of New Zealand Music. Read more about these collecting plans and their proactive priorities.

Interested in donating ephemera?

If you have material that falls within one or more of the collecting priorities we'd love to hear from you and have a chat about the ephemera you have in mind.

To find out more about donating to the Alexander Turnbull Library collections have a look at our information about offering us an item for the collections.

If you would like to have a conversation with us about donating to the Library, please get in touch using our Offer material to the Alexander Turnbull Library form.

We do not accept unsolicited donations, so please make sure to contact us before posting or bringing donations into the Library.

Want to know more about ephemera?

You can learn more about the ephemera in our collections in various blogs, podcasts and collection pages on the website.

• Ephemera Collection — information about the Alexander Turnbull Ephemera Collection.

• Ephemera blog posts — an eclectic selection of blog posts about Ephemera Collection at the Alexander Turnbull Library.

• Ephemera on The Library Loudhailer podcast — a conversation about two anti-nuclear poster in the Ephemera Collection.

• Ephemera on Tumblr — beautiful and often rare posters, prints, and other materials from daily life.

• Humble: the life of 100 small objects exhibition — Ephemera items featured in the Humble exhibition