{"id":14544,"date":"2024-07-31T16:06:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T04:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upthepunks.co.nz\/?p=14544"},"modified":"2024-07-31T19:29:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T07:29:47","slug":"cricketers-arms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upthepunks.co.nz\/bands\/2024\/07\/cricketers-arms","title":{"rendered":"Cricketers Arms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Cricketers Arms was a NZ Breweries owned pub, restaurant and disco located inside the brutalist style, concrete bunker, on the corners of Tory and Vivian Streets in Wellington’s Te Aro precinct. The venue featured a public bar in the basement, the “Sticky Wicket<\/em>” family bar and restaurant on the first floor and Wellington’s first computer lit glass floor disco on the top level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presumably named for its close proximity to the Basin Reserve cricket ground, the Cricketers Arms was a venue for many mainstream live acts in the 1970’s and 80’s. Chart topping pub rockers The Dudes<\/strong> filmed their video for “Bliss<\/em>” there, capturing the dark and intoxicating aroma of that era’s public bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the public’s taste in drinking establishments changed during the mid-80’s boom the Cricketers started to come into play as a venue for punk bands in 1986, with the bar introducing the “Steinie Club<\/em>” in 1987 to get around some liquor sales hours and Sunday trading laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 2000’s the downstairs former public bar became a live music venue again operating under the name Happy <\/em>and later Puppies<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n