Post-punk revisited

There’s not much to show for Wellington’s post-punk scene of the early 1980s. While up in Auckland Simon Grigg’s Propeller label was providing a template for Flying Nun to copy and build on down in Dunedin a couple of years later, the community of bands that comprised the semi-legendary “Terrace scene” in Wellington had no support mechanism.

Tending towards a nihilist outlook, those Wellington bands that did make it into recording studios released self-funded, limited-edition singles that had no method of distribution and quickly went out of print. Where Flying Nun successfully networked and built up brand loyalty for its ramshackle catalogue of delights, Wellington’s post-punk contingent pretty much imploded and, in time, was forgotten.

Recent years have seen cool American labels like Siltbreeze issue live LPs by Wellington post-punk groups like The Spies and Shoes This High to some acclaim, but at the time, the only Wellington group to get any real attention was Beat Rhythm Fashion. Signed to Mike magazine, and then vanished.