1984 – UP THE PUNKS

In 1984, Wellington’s punk scene had largely imploded due to the drug-fuelled violence wrought by the skinhead/ bootboy scene during the final, exhausted year of Robert Muldoon’s National government. Big Brother #1 Muldoon’s authoritarian style, wage-and-price freezes, rising unemployment, and lingering scars from the 1981 Springbok Tour protests had left New Zealand feeling like a pressure cooker; the snap election in July delivered a landslide victory to David Lange’s Labour Party, but until that moment the capital felt trapped in a grim Orwellian stasis.

Flesh D-Vice embodied the moment. They recorded at Broadcasting House in March, then dropped their debut album Some Blood Stained Morning in November. They kept the momentum going through multiple South Island tours with Christchurch having a receptive audience in their volatile bootboy punk scene.

The Gordons returned to Wellington to play the Terminus Tavern and two sweaty nights at the Taita Tavern in the Hutt Valley. Meanwhile, three ex-members of Neoteric Tribesmen re-formed as the Resurrectionists, shifting into a funk-edged post-punk sound that still carried the DIY ethos of the scene.

Out in the Hutt Valley, a new wave of explicit political rage arrived with Compos Mentis. Born from the ashes of Destructive Adolescents and World War 3, this anarcho-punk outfit released their debut EP Man’s Inhumanity To Man Makes Thousands Mourn, laying the groundwork for the rise of a politically activist punk scene that ran on a parallel track to the horror fuelled nihilism of the Fleshies.

March

Broadcasting House: Flesh D-Vice recording
March 29-31, The Gladstone: Flesh D-Vice

May

May 5-6, South Island: Flesh D-Vice
May 18-19, The Pulse: Flesh D-Vice
May 20, Rawa House: Resurrectionists

June

Compos Mentis: Man’s Inhumanity To Man Makes Thousands Mourn (not sure about month)
June 1, Victoria University: Resurrectionists, For Crying Out Loud, Tin Syndrome