The Axemen
Encyclopedia
The Axemen is a New Zealand band formed around 1981 in protest against the South African Springbok rugby team tour of New Zealand
, a tour which created great controversy, especially as was in contradiction to New Zealand's obligations under the Gleneagles Agreement
.
The Axemen played in Chch Cathedral 1981 in response to the Springbok tour.
They also played at the protests for homosexual law reform in 1983, with member Little Stevie McCabe being severely beaten up in the Cathedral Square, Christchurch
, toilets.
The Axemen's founding members, Bob Brannigan, Little Stevie McCabe and Stu Kawowski had played in various bands, apart and together, in the South Island
cities of Christchurch and Dunedin
, but cohesed in reaction to Sprinkbok rugby tour.
Before Bob Brannigan and Steve McCabe met, Steve was playing in a two-piece band at Cashmere High School
called The Gorillas with Peter Rees, evolving comix maestro and classical guitarist.
Brannigan and McCabe met through a mutual friend and played gigs in Christchurch
and Dunedin
under many names including The Whining Plums, Hey, We're Wolves and The Twins in the early '80s. It was at a Twins gig at the notorious Empire Tavern in Dunedin in 1983 where Stu Kawowski was first unable to control himself and leapt on stage to commandeer the bongoes, instantly adding another dimension to the unit.
Art School Photography graduate, photography guru, filmmaker, artist, promotional maverick and explosives expert Kawowski was playing drums with Above Ground
, Bill Direen's band at the time he met the other members of the Axemen and soon 'joined' the Axemen as a permanent fixture.
Brannigan, McCabe and Kawowski remain to this day the 'core' of the Axemen, however many New Zealand musicians played with them over the years as guest / transient / semi-permanent members, making their influence and the influences they assimilated (like the borg) an important breeding ground and virtual swap-meet of ideas and influence in Kiwi music circles.
In February 2009, US record label Siltbreeze re-released the Axemen's 1984 protest album :Big Cheap Motel" on 12" vinyl. Originally the album was released as a cassette packaged in a small bubble-sleeve with a straw, mimicking the milk drink "Big M" that the album was aimed at. The Axemen were invited to play at Christchurch's "Summertimes" Festival in January 1984, a public music stage set up in Hagley Park. The band was shocked by the large-scale sexist "Big M" advertising surrounding the main stage, and decided to write a suite of protest songs about how the Christchurch City Council had "sold out" to the "Big M" sexist marketing. The Axemen recorded the concert, as well as studio versions of their songs and released a 45 min cassette entitled, "Big Cheap Motel"
A four piece Axemen (McCabe, Brannigan, Kawowski & Stojanovic) toured USA extensively for 5 weeks Oct/Nov 2009, opening for "Times New Viking" (Matador Records).
Starting out on the West Coast in Sacramento Oct 27, travelling down the West Coast, across the South, up the east to New York then heading west and ending in Chicago on Nov 28. The band played 26 shows and covered approx 7,000 miles on the tour. AXEMEN 2009 USA TOUR MAP
Currently the Axemen are preparing digital audio masters for a re-issue of double 12" vinyl album "Three Virgins :: Three Versions :: Three Visions" on Siltbreeze late 2010. This album was originally released on New Zealand label Flying Nun Records
in 1985. The first pressing was 667 copies made at the now closed EMI pressing plant in Lower Hutt, NZ. A mint copy of the 1985 vinyl was "needle drop" transferred to digital files at Shadoks Music Studio, Amrum, Germany. Then it was mastered at Fir International, Zaandam, Netherlands, and lacquers cut at Prairie Cat Mastering, Belvidere, IL 61008 USA. The vinyl was pressed at Record Technology Inc., Camarillo, CA 93012-8090, USA. The re-release will be happening May/June 2011.
Bob Brannigan currently plays in Shaft
, the band he formed with Stu Kawowski, Johnny Segovia and Danny Mañeto in Auckland
1992 before summarily firing them. (Kawowski, Segovia and Mañeto are no longer in the lineup, which is ever-changing but is currently made up of members of The Situations).
1981 Springbok Tour
The 1981 South African rugby union tour of New Zealand was a controversial tour of New Zealand by the South Africa national rugby union team, known as "the Springboks"...
, a tour which created great controversy, especially as was in contradiction to New Zealand's obligations under the Gleneagles Agreement
Gleneagles Agreement
The Gleneagles Agreement was unanimously approved by the Commonwealth of Nations at a meeting at Gleneagles, Auchterarder, Scotland. In 1977, Commonwealth Presidents and Prime Ministers agreed, as part of their support for the international campaign against apartheid, to discourage contact and...
.
The Axemen played in Chch Cathedral 1981 in response to the Springbok tour.
They also played at the protests for homosexual law reform in 1983, with member Little Stevie McCabe being severely beaten up in the Cathedral Square, Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, toilets.
The Axemen's founding members, Bob Brannigan, Little Stevie McCabe and Stu Kawowski had played in various bands, apart and together, in the South Island
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
cities of Christchurch and Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, but cohesed in reaction to Sprinkbok rugby tour.
Before Bob Brannigan and Steve McCabe met, Steve was playing in a two-piece band at Cashmere High School
Cashmere High School
Cashmere High School is a large co-educational state secondary school in Christchurch, New Zealand. The 2008 roll was approximately 1800 making it the second-largest school in Christchurch, after Burnside High School.The School has a Conductive Education Unit....
called The Gorillas with Peter Rees, evolving comix maestro and classical guitarist.
Brannigan and McCabe met through a mutual friend and played gigs in Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
and Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
under many names including The Whining Plums, Hey, We're Wolves and The Twins in the early '80s. It was at a Twins gig at the notorious Empire Tavern in Dunedin in 1983 where Stu Kawowski was first unable to control himself and leapt on stage to commandeer the bongoes, instantly adding another dimension to the unit.
Art School Photography graduate, photography guru, filmmaker, artist, promotional maverick and explosives expert Kawowski was playing drums with Above Ground
Above Ground
-History:Above Ground developed out the friendship of the four members. It played locally and at the Punakaiki Music Festival ; and would have been forgotten like a lot of bands had Stuart Page not recorded nearly every practice and concert and organised the cassette, rereleased in 2011 on vinyl...
, Bill Direen's band at the time he met the other members of the Axemen and soon 'joined' the Axemen as a permanent fixture.
Brannigan, McCabe and Kawowski remain to this day the 'core' of the Axemen, however many New Zealand musicians played with them over the years as guest / transient / semi-permanent members, making their influence and the influences they assimilated (like the borg) an important breeding ground and virtual swap-meet of ideas and influence in Kiwi music circles.
In February 2009, US record label Siltbreeze re-released the Axemen's 1984 protest album :Big Cheap Motel" on 12" vinyl. Originally the album was released as a cassette packaged in a small bubble-sleeve with a straw, mimicking the milk drink "Big M" that the album was aimed at. The Axemen were invited to play at Christchurch's "Summertimes" Festival in January 1984, a public music stage set up in Hagley Park. The band was shocked by the large-scale sexist "Big M" advertising surrounding the main stage, and decided to write a suite of protest songs about how the Christchurch City Council had "sold out" to the "Big M" sexist marketing. The Axemen recorded the concert, as well as studio versions of their songs and released a 45 min cassette entitled, "Big Cheap Motel"
A four piece Axemen (McCabe, Brannigan, Kawowski & Stojanovic) toured USA extensively for 5 weeks Oct/Nov 2009, opening for "Times New Viking" (Matador Records).
Starting out on the West Coast in Sacramento Oct 27, travelling down the West Coast, across the South, up the east to New York then heading west and ending in Chicago on Nov 28. The band played 26 shows and covered approx 7,000 miles on the tour. AXEMEN 2009 USA TOUR MAP
Currently the Axemen are preparing digital audio masters for a re-issue of double 12" vinyl album "Three Virgins :: Three Versions :: Three Visions" on Siltbreeze late 2010. This album was originally released on New Zealand label Flying Nun Records
Flying Nun Records
Flying Nun Records is an independent record label formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1981 by music-store proprietor Roger Shepherd.-History:The label was formed in the flurry of new punk rock-inspired labels forming in the early 1980s...
in 1985. The first pressing was 667 copies made at the now closed EMI pressing plant in Lower Hutt, NZ. A mint copy of the 1985 vinyl was "needle drop" transferred to digital files at Shadoks Music Studio, Amrum, Germany. Then it was mastered at Fir International, Zaandam, Netherlands, and lacquers cut at Prairie Cat Mastering, Belvidere, IL 61008 USA. The vinyl was pressed at Record Technology Inc., Camarillo, CA 93012-8090, USA. The re-release will be happening May/June 2011.
Roll-call of Members
- Little Stevie McCabe - songwriter / singer / guitarist / keyboardist / vocalist / percussionist / bassist / recording technician
- Bob Brannigan AKA Robert Cardy - songwriter / singer / guitarist / keyboardist / vocalist / percussionist / bassist / music teacher / librarian
- Stu Kawowski AKA Stuart PageStuart PageStuart Page is a New Zealand photographer, designer, documentarist and drummer.He graduated from Ilam School of Fine Arts with a Diploma Fine Arts in Photography in 1980. He has worked with artists on the Flying Nun label and many lesser known counterculture groups of his country.After travel to...
- drummer / percussionist / photographer / screenprinter / promotions, hustling for gigs, award-winning documentary film maker - Johnny Segovia AKA Rent Hamilton - seminal Christchurch session musician and member of just about every band in Christchurch at the time including The Axel Grinders and The Connoisseurs
- Doug Hamilton - songwriter and member of The Connoisseurs
- 'Shorty' Hamilton - bass player, The Axel Grinders and The Connoisseurs
- Patrick Faigin - songwriter and drummer, Say Yes To Apes, The Axel Grinders
- Mick S. Aggro AKA Mick Elborado - taxman, bass player for almost every original rock band in Christchurch including The Renderers, The McGoohans, Ritchie Venus and the Blue Beetles, Scorched Earth Policy, The Terminals, Shadow Of The Valley.
- Gordon Baird - fruitarian, square jawed bass player, formerly of White Noize, legendary radical Dunedin vegan band, animal rights activists and motorcycle enthusiasts where he played with brother Martin
- B.B. Ryan - guitarist of White Noize
- Gary Scott - session horn player
- Arthur Sheep - sax appeal
- Al Wright - sax appeal
- Peter Hall-Jones - communist, writer, trumpet-player
- Joanne Billesdon - bassist of The Thunderbirds, Demolition, Loliners
- Sharon Billesdon - Loliners
- Bev E. Rage - guitarist and singer, The Thunderbirds
- Screamin K Hawkins - guitarist, of Shoes This High
- Jessica Walker - violist, Shoes This High
- Lisa Preston - keyboards, backing vocals Nux VomicaNux VomicaNux Vomica is the second album by The Veils, released on September 18 2006. It was recorded in Laurel Canyon and produced by Nick Launay, during spring of 2006. A far heavier and darker sound characterises Nux Vomica, very different from the indie sound of the previous record...
, Loliners - Angela Dawson - vocalist, Scab Union
- Reta le Quesne - vocalist, Axel Grinders, The Wrongdoings
- Haydn Jones - drummer, The Renderers
- Dragan Stojanovic - Guitarist, backing vocals Vas DeferensVas deferensThe vas deferens , also called ductus deferens, , is part of the male anatomy of many vertebrates; they transport sperm from the epididymis in anticipation of ejaculation....
- George D. Henderson - Keyboards and backing vocals And Band, The Puddle
- Chris KnoxChris KnoxChris Knox is a New Zealand rock and roll musician, cartoonist, and DVD reviewer who emerged during the punk rock era with his bands The Enemy and Toy Love. After Toy Love disbanded in the early 1980s, he formed the group Tall Dwarfs with guitarist Alec Bathgate, much loved for their honest,...
- The EnemyThe Enemy (New Zealand band)The Enemy were a band from Dunedin, New Zealand, that are often seen as the starting point of the Dunedin Sound rock movement.Though the band did not release any official recordings, some of their performances are available in bootleg form. They are seen as hugely influential on the development of...
, Toy LoveToy LoveToy Love was a New Zealand New Wave/punk rock band fronted by Chris Knox. Other members were guitarist Alec Bathgate, bass player Paul Kean, drummer Mike Dooley, and keyboard player Jane Walker...
, Tall DwarfsTall DwarfsTall Dwarfs are a New Zealand rock band formed in 1981 by Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate who, through their do-it-yourself ethic, helped pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music. The duo formed out of the ashes of Toy Love.... - Peter GutteridgePeter GutteridgePeter Gutteridge is a Dunedin, New Zealand, musician. Best known as a singer/songwriter/guitarist, he was originally a bassist, playing in several bands during the 1980s. Initially he was a member of The Clean, alongside Hamish and David Kilgour, whom Gutteridge had known from his schooldays...
- Keyboards, of The CleanThe CleanThe Clean are an influential Indie rock band that formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1978. Led through a number of early rotating line-ups by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour, the band settled down to their well-known and current line-up with bassist Robert Scott...
, SnapperSnapper (band)Snapper was a New Zealand indie/alternative band formed by Peter Gutteridge, previously in The Clean, The Chills and The Great Unwashed.The band evolved from the line-up of another Gutteridge-led band, the Dunedin-based Phromes... - Richard (Dick's Riff) Cotton of EOE
- Billy Naylor of EOE
- Elron Hubbard AKA Zeberdee Holdall of Nux Vomica, also The National Sex Grid
- Brent Hayward - Dancer, vocalist of Shoes This High
- Davey G - Dancer, of Gestalt, The Rainy Days, Marty Sauce and the Source, EOE
- Gaylene - percussion, of Gaylene and the Undertakers
- Rich Mixture - Drums, supplementary guitar, bass, of Gestalt, The Rainy Days, Marty Sauce and the Source, The D4The D4The D4 was a rock band from Auckland, New Zealand. Their music was released by Hollywood Records in the U.S., Flying Nun Records in New Zealand and by Infectious Records in the UK....
- Larence Shustak(1926–2003) - recording engineer 3 Virgins, School of Fine Arts (Univ of Canty) Photography professor, musicologist, Stu's muse, subject of Stu's multi-award-winning documentary 'Shustak'
- Nick Roughan - recording engineer, producer Derry Legend, The SkepticsThe SkepticsThe Skeptics was a New Zealand postpunk band from 1979 to 1990. They became notorious in 1987 for an unusually graphic music video entitled "AFFCO".-Early recordings:...
- Jed Town - producer, 3 Virgins, Peter Wang Pud, Fetus Productions, JedEye, The Invisible ManThe Invisible ManThe Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H.G. Wells published in 1897. Wells' novel was originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, and published as a novel the same year...
, Ghost TownGhost Town"Ghost Town" is the title of a 1981 song by the British ska band, The Specials. The song spent three weeks at number one and ten weeks in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. Addressing themes of urban decay, deindustrialisation, unemployment and violence in inner cities, the song is remembered for...
, ICU, Sawtooth Recordings, The FeaturesThe FeaturesThe Features are an American indie rock band from Tennessee. Though they have had limited success in the United States, they have been very well received in the United Kingdom and have a very loyal following in the Southeastern United States.-Early years:... - Z. Bob - producer, recording engineer of Frisbee Records
- Matt Middleton - Sax, Keyboards, The Aesthetics
- Russel Covini - Drums, Loliners
- William Daymond - Bass, Guitar, keyboard, drums, other duties as required under employment contracts act Terror of the Deep, The Pickups, Green Eyed Owl
Bob Brannigan currently plays in Shaft
Shaft (New Zealand band)
Shaft is the now long-standing vehicle of prominent songwriter Bob Cardy , original guitarist for legendary band The Axemen and a stalwart of the New Zealand underground scene...
, the band he formed with Stu Kawowski, Johnny Segovia and Danny Mañeto in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
1992 before summarily firing them. (Kawowski, Segovia and Mañeto are no longer in the lineup, which is ever-changing but is currently made up of members of The Situations).