Go Live Festival 2026

Opshop – Push Push – Pluto – There’s A Tuesday – Volts – The Boondocks - Into the Void – Caitlin – The Eastern - Velveteen – Lunar Intruder – Saint Peter’s Thursday – Kenring

Now firmly established as a cornerstone event on the Christchurch cultural calendar, Go Live Festival brings generations of fans together under one roof for a unique celebration of live music.

This year’s lineup blends chart-topping acts that helped define the sound of the 90s and 2000s with cult favourites from the alt-rock underground, alongside exciting new voices shaping the future of the local scene.

Opshop will headline the festival armed with a catalogue that defined a generation of Kiwi pop-rock, with multiple platinum albums and massive national hits like Maybe and One Day.

They’re joined by Push Push, one of the defining breakout bands of the early 90s, whose era-shaping chart-topping smash Trippin’ helped cement their place in New Zealand music history.

Also on the bill is Pluto, the alt-rock legends behind enduring Kiwi classics like Long White Cross and Dance Stamina.

Joining them will be noise art outfit Into the Void, There’s A Tuesday, The Boondocks, Caitlin and more.

Expect nostalgia, sing along anthems, some heavy guitars, and fresh discoveries across four stages, showcasing both local and national artists.

Tickets are almost sold out!

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Ōtautahi’s Bryony Matthews releases powerful new concept album, BRAIN STORM, ahead of NZ tour

Ōtautahi-based singer-songwriter Bryony Matthews has today released her new album, BRAIN STORM – a deeply personal and powerful concept album that lays bare the challenges she faced after a life-changing accident. The record includes the lead single ‘Storm’. 

Raw and honest, with dark undertones, ‘Storm’ comes from a place of vulnerability and quiet fear. “It follows the story of my head injury and the recovery afterwards. I cannot remember the accident, but this song came from strange, warped visions, fears and ideas that I had when I was released from hospital two weeks later,” says Bryony.

“It was a very intense, hard time and this song holds a lot of the trauma that I felt in the very early days of recovery.”

‘Storm’ serves as the first chapter in a story made up of six chapters/songs - each which reflect where Bryony was at the time in her recovery journey. It sits on BRAIN STORM alongside the already-released single ‘Recovery’ (released on July 3), as well as new tracks ‘Tinnitus Train’, ‘Drunk Symptom’, ‘Trauma Waves’ and ‘A Letter To My Brain’. 

“I am very much a lyrically focused songwriter. Words are very important to me and I often write things as poetry first and then turn them into music, as I did with most of these tracks on this album. I was unable to make music for six months after the accident, but I could write things,” explains Bryony.

BRAIN STORM also marks a significant evolution in Bryony’s songwriting. “This song, along with the album, was an interesting time in terms of writing. I couldn’t sing as well for a long time after my accident and I decided to use those flaws in my singing style, instead of trying to perfect them.

“It was liberating and fun to use my voice in different ways. I feel this song and album reflects me feeling comfortable in trying new ideas that I enjoy, without inhibitions,” she says.

The strong emotion that ‘Storm’ evokes is depicted in a beautifully shot video directed by Maria Webb, with cinematography and editing by Harry Knight. The video conveys the dark shadowy ideas that go along with the song’s lyrics. 

“Capturing the contrasts between light and shadow, sharp edges and blurry figures, this video is made to bring the watcher and listener into the gloomy depths of images that my mind created after my accident and how I pictured it all. It is made to feel sinister and unearthly, uncomfortable but artistically beautiful.”

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To mark the release of BRAIN STORM - co-produced with Steven Marr (Doprah, The Veils, Yumi Zouma) - Bryony is embarking on a five-date New Zealand tour, giving audiences the chance to immerse themselves in her world. The multi-sensory theatre show will combine live music along with storytelling, soundscape and visual art. 

Christchurch - August 13 & 14 - Little Andromeda Theatre

Wellington - September 2 - BATS Theatre

Whanganui - September 3 - Repertory Theatre

Auckland - October 14 - Tītirangi Theatre Lopdell Precinct

Hamilton - October 15 - The Meteor

“The purpose of this whole project is to help people understand others that may have gone through head injury experiences and the symptoms people can live with afterwards, and to hopefully help those people feel a bit more understood and less alone, hearing me talk about my own experience. I hope to make more people aware of Laura Ferguson Brain Injury Trust and what they do for people like me and the amazing support they have available.”

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Anderson Rocio Releases Our Kind on World Ranger Day in Support of Global Rhino Protection

Following the success of Power In Us, Anderson Rocio partners with Saving The Wild for Our Kind, donating 100% of streaming revenue to support rhino protection efforts and frontline conservation.

Singer-songwriter and environmental storyteller Anderson Rocio releases “Our Kind” on World Ranger Day, a powerful new single created in partnership with conservation organization Saving The Wild and The Power In Us Project.

The release follows Rocio’s acclaimed 2023 single “Power In Us,” which reached more than one million views within its first month, became a finalist for the Environmental Music Award, and donates 100% of its streaming revenue to ocean conservation efforts. With Our Kind, Rocio continues her mission of using music as a platform for environmental storytelling and global impact.

Inspired by her recent expedition to South Africa’s Greater Kruger region with Saving The Wild founder Jamie Joseph, Rocio spent time alongside wildlife rangers, anti-poaching teams, veterinarians and conservation leaders working on the front lines of the rhino protection crisis.

Our Kind launches alongside Saving The Wild’s campaign to build global support for meaningful legislative change and stronger protections for rhinos.

  “Changing legislation and establishing specialised wildlife courts ultimately comes down to the power of people,” says Jamie Joseph, founder of Saving The Wild. “The greatest superpower on Earth is public opinion.”

Released through The Power In Us Project, Rocio’s global nonprofit initiative connecting artists with environmental causes, Our Kind combines music and storytelling to bring audiences closer to one of the planet’s most urgent conservation challenges.

  “This song is a tribute to the people who stand between these animals and extinction,” says Rocio. “Spending time with the rangers on the ground changed the way I saw conservation. I wanted to create something that connected people everywhere to what is happening in Greater Kruger—the understanding that, together, we all have a role in the future of these animals.”

Through Our Kind, Rocio and Saving The Wild unite music and conservation to amplify the voices of frontline conservationists and bring the fight to protect rhinos to a global audience.

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About Anderson Rocio

Anderson Rocio is an internationally recognized singer-songwriter whose cinematic pop blends emotive storytelling with global perspective. Her music has been featured across film, television, and global campaigns, including her breakout single “Paradise,” which gained international attention following its placement in Netflix’s Lucifer. Her 2023 single “Power In Us” reached over one million views in its first month, donating 100% of its streaming revenue to ocean conservation. Rocio is also the founder of The Power In Us Project, a global non profit connecting popular music with environmental action.

About Jamie Joseph

Jamie Joseph is at the helm of the groundbreaking charity Saving the Wild. Since 2016, the non profit has led the crusade against corruption enabling rhino poaching in South Africa, pursuing high level targets and fighting organised crime. But with so few poachers and traffickers going to prison, Saving the Wild is now on a mission to ignite generational decision making, and is laser focused on advocating for specialised courts and meaningful legislation.

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Morgan La Fae releases debut single Cigarettes and Coffeefrom upcoming dream-pop EP Full Immersion

Ōtautahi/New Zealand artist Morgan La Fae introduces her ethereal debut single Cigarettes and Coffee along with its accompanying visualiser, marking the first release from the upcoming dream-pop EP Full Immersion.

The track sets the tone for a concept EP of 5 songs with each one relating to each of the 5 senses. The project is rooted in emotional immersion, nostalgia, and the blurred line between reality and fantasy.

Cigarettes and Coffee is a soft yet gritty offering that captures a specific kind of romanticism. It holds a sense of nostalgia for something that may have only existed behind rose tinted glasses.

It’s a love song for those who don’t believe in love.

This dream-pop anthem was written and performed by Morgan La Fae and recorded by Ryan Fisherman who also holds down the bass. Multi-instrumentalist Sam White adds the drums as well as the grit on guitar, while Frankie Daly brings her talent to the keyboard. Alice and Jonathan Tanner recorded the strings that bring the track to that dream-like state.

The accompanying music video was recorded by Morgan La Fae in her grandparents garden on a perfect summer's day, which encapsulates the beauty of the song, while the low quality of the Photobooth captured footage creates that hazy, daydreaming atmosphere that the song places you in. The overlay of flowers meshed with the slow motion and distorted footage leaves you mesmerized and hypnotised.

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Although this is Morgan La Fae’s first official release, she has already had years of experience in the music industry. Growing up surrounded by creatives led her straight to receiving her Bachelor of Music from Ara Music Arts. She has performed over her years of experience with local talent such as Marlon Williams, Dictaphone Blues, and Adam Hattaway and The Haunters, and has shared the bill with Ben Woods, Mousey, Mim Jensen, 1 Drop Nation, Loveta, This Dog, and Josette

She has been the opening acts for local and touring artists such as Jason Parker and Ravines, as well as playing headline shows at Space Academy, Darkroom, and Wunderbar. She has also toured as a vocalist in a 12 piece band

As well as her performance experience, she also works hard behind the scenes of the music industry, helping artists and venues with marketing, promotion, event planning, music videos, and content creation. All of this learning sits in her back pocket as she makes her mark with this first-ever release.

Don’t miss the opportunity to catch this upcoming artist for her first-ever release, and keep an eye out for her upcoming EP and bright career ahead.

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Imperial April are back with single ‘Wake Me From My Sleep’

The best indie-pop songs can make devastation sound deceptively carefree. On their first new original music release in over a year, Imperial April pull off that balancing act with "Wake Me From My Sleep," a bright guitar-pop song that carries the weight of chronic illness beneath its sun-bleached hooks.

Built around strummed bass chords and shimmering, atmospheric guitars, "Wake Me From My Sleep" occupies a sweet spot between the emotional directness of Soccer Mommy, the melodic rush of Alvvays, and the fuzzy catharsis of Bully. Beneath its buoyant exterior, though, the song grapples with the realities of living with the common but little understood condition, endometriosis. The cycles of pain, uncertainty, and the constant search for relief.

"Needles wake me from my sleep / Peace is fleeting like a dream," the band sings, distilling that experience into one of the song's most striking moments. Rather than surrender to despair, however, "Wake Me From My Sleep" pushes forward with quiet determination.

It's a welcome return from Imperial April, a band that understands how some of the most affecting guitar-pop songs are the ones that carry heavy truths beneath their brightest melodies.

Catch Imperial April playing with No Pilot at Space Academy on the 31st of July.

Wake Me From My Sleep is available on all major streaming platforms on July 29th. Fans can follow Imperial April on social media for updates on upcoming releases.

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Imperial April · Wake me from my sleep

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BETH TORRANCE 'Your Favourite' (EP)

Tāmaki Makaurau singer-songwriter Beth Torrance releases her new EP, Your Favourite, out now, through Particle Recordings. A hooky, bittersweet, indie rock collection about new connections, overthinking, escapism, and the strange thrill of wanting to be known.

Your Favourite marks a new chapter for Torrance, whose earlier work moved through intimate indie-folk, delicate guitars, and poetically honest songwriting. The four-track EP doesn’t leave that world behind: it turns it up a notch. Written from the outset with a full band recording in mind, the EP captures the feeling of standing on the edge of something new: a new city, a new sound, a new connection, a new version of yourself.

At the centre of the release is the focus single, Your Favourite, a fuzzy, magnetic indie rock track about wanting to be someone’s first choice. The song leans into the bright and chaotic excitement that comes with a new attraction: the moment when someone lets you into their world and suddenly you find yourself wanting to be part of every corner of it. It’s poppy, direct, and full of nervous energy, balancing sweetness with the kind of self-awareness that comes from thinking a little too much and feeling everything at once.

Across the EP, Torrance builds a world of almost-connections. The previous single, Suzy May, is punch-drunk and sparkling, circling the person you know but don’t really know, though perhaps want to know. I’ve Got A Record, the first song ever written for the EP, acts as a bridge between Torrance’s earlier work and this new era, beginning in a softer emotional space before opening into something wider and more band-driven. The closing track, Don’t Get Weird, is the EP’s emotional climax and the most cinematic moment: a road-trip song of sorts, full of volatility, humour, longing, and the untethered feeling of being in motion with nowhere fixed to land.

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That sense of movement carries through the making of the record. Composed, produced, and written by Beth Torrance, Your Favourite features Torrance on vocals, Jordan Lim (Preacher) on drums, and John Heywood (Alex G) on bass. Recorded and mixed at Bigpop’s Drake Street Studios by Jacob E. Rush and mastered by Howard Rogers, the EP brings grit to Torrance’s natural melodic instinct, pairing her lyrical softness with a solid and tight rhythm section.

For Beth Torrance, Your Favourite is not just a sonic shift, but a fuller picture of who she is becoming as a songwriter, musician, and performer. The songs still carry her poetic sensibility, but now they hit harder, further engage you and hold a stronger sonic space.

Beth Torrance will celebrate the release of Your Favourite with an EP release show at Whammy Bar, Auckland on August 1st; tickets from UnderTheRadar.

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SAME NAME CONFUSION ANNOUNCES UPCOMING ALBUM 'SNC'

Enigmatic band Same Name Confusion is making a return, and doing it their way. After a multi-year hiatus, the Auckland / Melbourne-based group is returning with their second full-length album, SNC. Born across distance and refined over time with intentional, "slow" songwriting, the record captures a groove-focused, Randy Newman inspired record with a knack for finding the playful, romantic (and occasionally absurd) beauty in everyday life.

“I’m just singing about my ordinary life, the most ordinary things. And I’m talking about these things in the way that comes natural to me. I’m usually poking fun at myself and the people around me… that’s how I am in real life too.” (Luke Courtney)

“For me this record is a groove record. It’s meant for dancing or at the very least tapping your toes with a grin.” (Andrej Radosavljevic)

SNC is a trans-Tasman collaboration, with formerly Christchurch, then Wellington co-writers Luke Courtney and Andrej Radosavljevic now split between Auckland and Melbourne, bouncing demos back and forth for months before finally bringing it all together with a full band. With songs written over a span of years, Luke and Andrej would go through a number of iterations before bringing it to the band where long-time collaborator Josh Dominikovich translated MIDI drum grooves into real life, and new recruits Arran Cargill-Brown, Logan McAllister, Ensai August and Dayle Jellyman helped create basslines and other parts that served the song. Finally, the band spent 3 days recording with James Goldsmith at The Surgery Studio in Wellington, where they tracked all the songs live, in the room, with as little overdubs as possible to make sure it felt as organic as they could.

“One of the things I hoped to capture on this record, other than great songs, was for the listener to feel like they were in the room with us and I think James did a great job of that.” (Andrej Radosavljevic)

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SNC will be released in two parts. Side A is simply the first four tracks on the album, and a chance for listeners to settle into a big chunk of the record right off the bat. Serving as the centerpiece for the first act, This Family Counts Calories is a song born at a K Road gym - a self-deprecating reflection on Luke’s experiences as a first-time gym-goer alongside the stark contrast of having a partner who is a powerlifter.

“She has to watch her calories when she’s coming up to a powerlifting competition. But I’m always trying to get more calories in, trying to put some meat on these bones! Now I’ll read the back of the cans of baked beans to find the one with the most calories!”

Built on a booming, looping bassline and a driving, straightforward groove, the sparse arrangement provides a blank canvas that allows for filling in with shoegazey/dreampop guitar textures and for Luke to “croon along with my silly gym-observations”.

SNC is the second full-length album from Same Name Confusion, and will be released on September 25th via Winegum Records. SNC (Side A), featuring the first four tracks from the forthcoming album is out now, alongside pre-orders for the full album.

Same Name Confusion was formed in Ōtautahi Christchurch in 2016 by singer Luke Courtney and guitarist Andrej Radosavljevic. Both engineering students at the University of Canterbury, they met when Courtney asked around for someone who could play guitar solos on his existential rock songs. Their DIY debut album followed soon after.

Ten years on, Same Name Confusion continues as a songwriting project between the pair. Courtney lives in Auckland and is in the early stages of a PhD in philosophy of education. Radosavljevic lives in Melbourne and is making short films. For each, Songwriting happens in stolen moments, in bursts of inspiration. Demos are refined slowly, iteratively, and often despite heated disagreements. A second album, titled SNC, is the result of several years of this slow trans-tasman collaboration.

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EXCEL Students Step Beyond the Classroom Six-Week Tour | 20 July – 28 August 2026

Tāmaki Makaurau. Auckland, NZ – More than 30 talented young music and dance students from diverse cultural backgrounds at EXCEL School of Performing Arts are preparing to bring two years of learning to life as they embark on a six-week tour of Auckland, Whangārei, Kaitaia and Hamilton, performing at high schools and community concerts.

For these emerging artists, the tour marks an important milestone. It's their opportunity to step beyond the classroom, perform for live audiences, apply everything they've learnt over the past two years, and experience what it means to work as creative professionals.

Working together as a professional touring company, students will showcase their talents while gaining invaluable experience in live performance, teamwork, communication and professionalism—skills that will support them throughout their creative careers.

"This tour is far more than a performance. It's the culmination of two years of learning, growth and dedication, giving our students the confidence to step into the next chapter of their creative journey." — Deborah Knight, Principal

For more than 30 years, EXCEL School of Performing Arts has been creating opportunities for young people to discover and develop their creative potential. Guided by experienced specialist tutors and industry professionals across music, vocals, dance and the performing arts, students receive practical, hands-on training while building the confidence, discipline and resilience needed to pursue meaningful careers in the creative industries.

Small class sizes, personalised mentoring and real-world performance opportunities ensure every student is supported to develop not only their artistic ability, but also the professionalism, teamwork and character that will serve them throughout their careers.

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2026 TOUR DATES

20–24 July — Auckland

27–29 July — Whangārei

31 July – 2 August — Kaitaia

3–7 August — Auckland

10–14 August — Auckland

17–21 August — Hamilton

24–28 August — Auckland

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Real-World Learning

The tour forms an important part of the students' Level 5 New Zealand Diploma, providing an authentic learning experience where students apply their skills before live audiences while working together as a professional touring company.

"This tour is a crucial practical assessment. Performing live on the road allows our students to demonstrate industry readiness under real-world conditions while completing a significant component of their NZ Diploma qualification." — John Knight, Academic Manager

As the tour travels through Auckland, Whangārei, Kaitaia and Hamilton, audiences will experience more than live performances. They'll witness a new generation of talented young artists taking one of the biggest steps of their lives—moving from students to emerging artists, and from emerging artists towards becoming creative professionals.

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