Wellington Venue Bodega To Close At the End Of The Year

In what will no doubt be a considerable blow to the Wellington live music scene, the owners of Bodega have announced the bar's imminent closure. The iconic Ghuznee Street venue, which originally started life in Willis Street in 1991 but moved in 2002 to make room for the inner city bypass, will be closing its doors for good at the end of the year, due to the sale of its current premises.

Here is the full statement from the owners of Bodega, Murray Hepple and Catherine Popert:

It is with considerable sadness that, for reasons beyond our control, we regret to announce the closure of Bodega's doors at the end of this year, after 25 years of faithful and committed service to live music in Wellington. Whilst unhappy at this turn of events, we are proud of our history in bringing so many and such a wide variety of seminal, local, national and international acts to the Bodega stage.

We are of course indebted to the loyalty of our patrons, our fabulous staff, and the exceptional talent that has graced our stage over the years. It has been a privilege to bring internationals as varied as The White Stripes, Steve Earle, Killing Joke, ASAP Ferg, Midge Ure (Ultravox), Tech N9ne, Bad Manners, The Melvins, Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order), Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Lloyd Cole, Roni Size, The Misfits, Ghostface Killah, Lydia Lunch, Nik Kershaw, Ace Frehley, The Fall, The Selecter, Earl Sweatshirt, Everclear, Peter Murphy (Bauhaus), The Beat, The Buzzcocks, to name but a few, some of whom e.g. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, KT Tunstall, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Pokey La Farge, Kitty Daisy and Lewis, have returned repeatedly and are kind enough to have listed Bodega as one of their all-time top ten gigs. Likewise, we are proud to have played host to so much exceptional local and national talent, including the likes of Tim Finn, Fur Patrol, Gin Wigmore, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Hollie Smith, Fat Freddy's Drop, The Chills, Avalanche City, Opshop……….the list goes on. In light of all of this, we will finish off the next 6 months celebrating these 25 years of magical live music in Wellington. We will start to announce some great gigs in the coming months. Watch this space.