The Fridge Studio
The Fridge was Contact 89FM's recording studio, but was also used by a plethora of bands. Bands to record albums and live to airs on Contact at the Fridge included Grok, Nodrog, Hand of Glory, Big Muffin Serious Band, Dribbly Cat Attraction, The Emersons, Wendyhouse, BwaDaRiddim and an incredible number of others. One spectacular night of live non-stop noise was performed entirely by a revolving door of PLOP musicians - which lasted 12 hours. Greg Locke often used this studio to record bands as did Dave Whitehead, Scott Newth and Gordon Bassett. The Hamilton compilation CD The Fridge was entirely recorded in the studio. The desk was 16-track analogue and the room was actually an old industrial fridge, with no windows and complete with big fridge doors.
Although Contact89FM always used the booth (which was an old Firdge) to record advertisements, The Fridge Studios came into existence with the arrival of a 16 track recording deck and studio desk from Tandys Recording Studio. It was at the axis of analogue and digital audio recording. Tandys - a studio just out of Hamilton, which recorded mainly Hamilton rock and where Scott Newth and Dave Whitehead (later to be involved with sound design on Lord of the Rings) worked, was decommissioning its 16 track analogue reel to reel and studio desk. Previously this type of equipment was out of reach for student stations, but Contact89FM jumped at the chance and purchased the old equipment and drove it to Hamilton where it became the heart of The Fridge. The Fridge was born!
The Fridge was also offered at an extremely cheap price per hour for local students in an attempt to get students involved and support the then new music department at the University of Waikato.
Recent Activity
The Fridge was revived by Lauren Kerr-Bell, Nick Johnston, Daniel Howard and Daniel Reese for Contact 88.1FM. The studio operated from 2009 to 2014.
- The Prime Numbers - unreleased EP, 2009
- The Shrugs - Behold / Silver Bullet single, 2009
- Dynamo Go - Poor Alfred single, 2010
- Dead Fires - Hinterland single, 2011
- Dick Dynamite and the Doppelgängers - Live at The Fridge, 2011
- Hot Blooded Ripper - Live at The Fridge, 2011
- Penelope The - The Fridge Sessions, 2011
- Devilskin - demos, 2011
- The Shrugs - Costume Drama, 2012
- Sora Shima - You are Surrounded, 2014
- Wizz Kids - The Fridge EP, 2014
