After 70 years of gatherings and congregations, the building was sold in 1983 to local businessman Brian Finch, who transformed it into The Church of the Southern Cross Recording Studio.<\/p>\n
The studio recorded local artists of all genres, including The Colonials, Brenda Coley Anderson, John Martin, Emulsifier, Bluebeard Blues Band, Wicked Sensation, M.A.D and Third Party, although there were rumours Elton John, Sting and Santana once recorded in the space.<\/p>\n
Pritchard said Finch had connections to Santana and Elton John through his businesses, but the truth was harder to determine.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one can confirm those rumours.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was one of the few all-age venues in the region and was instrumental in starting the careers of Hawke\u2019s Bay musicians, sound techs and roadies.<\/p>\n
But the doors to the church were shut in the mid-90s after many noise complaints and compliance issues, with Finch remaining owner until his death in 2024.<\/p>\n
Inside the abandoned concert venue and recording studio The Church in Ahuriri. Photo \/ Lee Pritchard<\/p>\n
Between the closure of the church and Finch\u2019s death, no bands performed inside.<\/p>\n
The church was put on the market and sold this year. After the sale and before the new owner took over, Pritchard contacted the real estate agency and was allowed inside the shuttered building.<\/p>\n
There he found the building\u2019s chattels and musical equipment, including the recording desk, PAs, guitars, amps and speakers, in the same place as when the last gig was performed, covered with a thick layer of dust and pigeon droppings.<\/p>\n
With the building sold, Pritchard said he wasn\u2019t sure what was next for the old church, but felt privileged to have logged its history before it was potentially demolished.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat church could be taken away, and everything would be gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pritchard\u2019s article The Church of Rock can be found on the AudioCulture website.<\/p>\n
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke\u2019s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 70 years of gatherings and congregations, the building was sold in 1983 to local businessman Brian Finch,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3589,8831,1558,135487,12897,5201,25759,17353,45606,41141,156,793,2082,57982,14648,2944,296,13840,440,289697,157,3607,111,139,69,1118,9716,289696,171,1361,8475,223,2044,289695,3593,55857,1316,1965,1530],"class_list":["post-588683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-3589","tag-an","tag-been","tag-capsule","tag-church","tag-closed","tag-concert","tag-cross","tag-dust","tag-dusty","tag-entertainment","tag-felt","tag-for","tag-gathering","tag-hed","tag-inside","tag-into","tag-like","tag-local","tag-mid1990s","tag-music","tag-napier","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-old","tag-onceloved","tag-southern","tag-that","tag-thats","tag-the","tag-time","tag-ventured","tag-venue","tag-walked","tag-when","tag-writer","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}