Bio

Originally from the Kapiti Coast, this three-piece punk band moved to Wellington for their tertiary education at the beginning of 1999. They are signed to Palmerston North independent Punk Record Label, Stakeout Records.

In November 1997 Dave McDonald and Matt Sherborne started talking during a Physics class at Kapiti College about the possibility of having a jam sometime. Sometime within the next few weeks a jam of some sorts took place where another guy from their school came along to give vocal duties a go, but something just wasn't right with his bark so Dave and Matt ended up practicing by themselves for a while.

In the summer holiday between '97 and '98, Dave and Matt looked around their rural home area of Kapiti for some more people, in the hopes of getting together a band. They found themselves playing with James Bryant on bass and Toby Paice on rhythm guitar, both of which they knew from college. Eventually the four managed to come up with some random noise that slightly resembled music. The band name Monotone even reared its ugly head for a while.

In early 1998 they said goodbye to Toby as things just weren't working out between them. With him went the name Monotone. The now-three piece decided that they were going to start to take this whole music thing a bit more seriously. First thing was first - a name. It was James who suggested Channel, and the feeling from Matt and Dave was positive, but that it needed something else. Someone suggested a channel number as the solution, and the number 13 was unanimously agreed upon.

Under this new persona they played their first show in May 1998 with fellow school band Son of Spank in the Kapiti College school hall. The next few months saw many developments in C13's sound, leaning more and more towards the inviting punk style. August of that year saw them play in the Wellington Rockquest Regional Finals. Dave recalls a group of little punkers jumping round in gnome outfits at the heats, which he swears had members of Floorpie in it. After this, Channel Thirteen started to play shows in Wellington and discovered the very supportive scene that exists there, with the likes of Dave Brown, Sarah Radford and Paul Tansley, who have continued to give the band advice and support since their first "real" show at Thistle Hall.

Dave and Matt moved into Wellington for their tertiary education at the beginning of 1999. With this move, James decided to leave the band. A replacement was found in the form of Mike Penhall, who Matt had met in a lecture that Mike wasn't even supposed to be in. With Mike the band got more of a ska feel, and they started off their new set backing up New Zealand hardcore legends Shinkasta at the Wellington show of their come back tour with Ghidrah and Sommerset. It was at this show that people started to recognise Channel 13 seriously and the new trio were described to fit together "like a hand in a glove".

Through 1999 the band continued to play shows around Wellington with bands like Brubeck, Blake, Floorpie, The Offbeats, Royal Rumble and many other local bands.

"The perfect blend of punk and ska with just the right amount of attitude" Punk As

Band Members:
Dave McDonald (drums)
Matt Sherborne (guitar)
Mike Penhall (bass)