"New Zealand music was made on beer-stained stages, in grimy toilets and smoky back rooms. Venues like Dunedin's Empire Tavern and the Gladstone Hotel in Christchuch were the cradle for scenes that won worldwide acclaim, where idiosyncratic styles were forged and local legends made. From the late 1950s until the early 1990s, live music ruled the night. Backstage Passes charts the stories of the country's most celebrated live music venues. In church halls, on flat-bed trucks, in dive bars, and dance halls; wherever there was a stage, there was a band. And where there was a band, there was a story"--Back cover.