Stephen CARR Obituary

For all of June, 2025

Hat day at work, 2005

Steve, 2005

Steve enjoying his wheels, 2005

Bob watching hang gliding, 2005

Happy New Year Steve, 2025

Merry Xmas Steve, 2024

I was at CHCH South Intermediate with Steve, John Steeve back in the 70's. Steve, David Caughley, Paul Le Beau and I were part of a very bad "Band" called the "Gasping Raspers". We were terrible, but we had fun. Safe travels Steve.

Shot taken by Steve driving along Thames Coast Road. Miss ya buddy.

Happy 4th July, 2023

Steve about to tuck into his favourites on Xmas day 2016 (thanks Jeff).

Lilies on Beamish, Merry Xmas Steve

RIP my dear brother, Steve. 22/6/1966-September 2023. Steve Carr / aka Stevie McCabe. Loved by all and loving brother, son, grandson, Uncle, friend, god-father, husband, cousin etc. who has passed away at Thames. Steve was a fine musician, artist, wordsmith, entertainer, cat-lover and cat-dad, philosopher, comedian, poet, singer, guitarist and the list goes on and on. To me he was my very unique and entertaining big brother (builder of go-karts, igloos, transistors and maker of 4 minute movies in my youth, who I always looked up to and who even let me play in his band from time to time - primarily the legendary Axemen and the Gorillaz. In those days he was also a creative force of nature, always on the go, playing gigs on the Christchurch pub-scene, seldom resting. He is also the brother whom I had thousands of laughs with, travelled with, played hundreds of games chess etc. with, grew up with, celebrated Christmas and birthdays with and who always entertained and surprised. I will forever miss those times and family gatherings. Farewell my free-spirited brother, always determined to follow your own unique path. Will love you always. You will be missed greatly by all, but never forgotten. Your legacy will live on and I like to think and hope that you are at peace, pain-free (and in tranquility), maybe at some musical heaven of your own design.

Something that I wrote about Steve not too long ago...
Stephen John Carr, aka Li´l Stevie McCabe, entered my consciousness one afternoon in the early 1980s when we were independently peddling our own-recorded, produced and packaged cassette releases to the EMI record store just north of Cathedral Square, Christchurch. Little did I know that within a year or so I would be thrown into an intensely creative and productive period of not just music-making, but artful collating and editing of the hundreds of recordings that both Steve and I made of every time the AXEMEN rehearsed, recorded or performed live. Often this would involve crash-editing from a home studio version with a good start, into a live version with a massive ending.

All of the AXEMEN releases included detailed inner sheet information including lyrics, personnel, photos and other descriptive material such as the recording process and p´raps a coffee wine recipe. Cassette releases were all packaged into 12" LP sleeves which were screen-printed in 4-colour plus silver and gold designs designed by all three members of the group. These releases would represent the best of the most recent recordings, and were selected by concentrated listening sessions and edited tape to tape and constitute what is now considered some of the most important pioneer `lo-fi´ releases of the 1980s by several US tastemakers such as Tom Lax (Siltbreeze), Byron Coley (Forced Exposure) and Brian Turner (Musical director at Radio WFMU).

In recent years, several of these cassette releases were re-mastered by Steve & I and released on vinyl by Siltbreeze USA, along with a re-issue of the 1985 `Three Virgins´ 2LP release, and a very high quality 100% analogue re-issue of 1989´s `Derry Legend´ LP on the US Luxury Products label. Several other releases including the debut `Equinox´ and the ensuing `Mick´s Dancefloor: MIX´ and 'A Scar Is Born´ releases have also been digitised and are awaiting transformation to vinyl by an as yet undetermined and unsuspecting label.

Meantime Steve and his band continues to dumbfound audiences in NZ, USA and Australia, most recently down south to celebrate ¬the Christchurch Art Gallery´s 12th birthday celebrations, less than a year before their subsequent re-opening, and a pop-up gig `OxStock´ in Christchurch´s Red Zone just after Xmas 2015 with celebrated itinerant guitarist Delaney Davidson joining Steve & I in a rootsy opening set. As always these shows are recorded and filmed, the now retired cassette recorder & Video 8 camera having been replaced by SD cards from HD camera & Zoom audio recorder.

As of 2016, there is a multitudinous backlog of historical cassette material both McCabe solo and from AXEMEN and other musical collaborations to be added to the ongoing digital archives. Much of this has previously served as reference material for the musicians themselves, as well as the best stuff having been culled for the aforementioned compiled releases. The capital´s Alexander Turnbull Library religiously purchased every McCabe solo & AXEMEN release as a matter of course, and would be an obvious destination for further digitized material, in it´s new National Library surroundings.

Steve has always been a very consistent cataloguer and chronicler of his work, as well as an excellent accountant of touring and recording expenses. I wholeheartedly recommend Steve as the perfect candidate for the Audio Foundation´s `artist-in-residence.´ As demonstrated above Steve is a significant character in the internationally recognized New Zealand do-it-yourself `lo-fi´ revolution of the 1980s... and a valuable role-model and ongoing unstoppable creative behemoth.

- STUART PAGE [aka STU KAWOWSKI] 9 Jan 2016

Davie and Steve, Moeraki boulders, 2003

Steve and Davie, Moeraki boulders, 2003

Steve and Davie kayaking, 2003

Davie and Steve kayaking, 2003

Steve McCabe recording vocals, Derry Legend sessions, at Skeptics' Writhe Recording, Wellington 1987 (Thanks Stu).

Little Stevie McCabe, his 11 yr old brother Jeff and Stu Kawowski at Summertimes, Christchurch, 1984, scene of the Big Cheap Motel protest gig (Thanks Stu)

Stevie McCabe and his 11 yr old brother Jeff at Summertimes, Christchurch 1984, playing the Big Cheap Motel protest gig (Thanks Stu)

My dear elder brother Steve. Gone too soon but never forgotten. Had lots of great memories and good times with my brother, from Childhood memories to overseas trips and even playing in his band at times. Greatly missed, but never forgotten. RIP my dear talented, clever, entertaining and kind brother.

Paul and Steve, DMD hat day, 2005

Steve in Korea, 2005

Steve and Angela in Korea, 2005

Steve adds ship steering wheel to deck at Titirangi, 2005

Steve adds ship steering wheel to deck at Titirangi, 2005

Bob's on a hang gliding trip in Kaikohe, 2005

Bob's on a hang gliding trip in Kaikohe, 2005

Bob's on a hang gliding trip in Kaikohe, 2005

Steve, 1980s

Steve, 1980s

House painting, Titirangi, 2005

Steve, Military Re-enactment Soc., 2005

Steve, Military Re-enactment Soc., 2005

Steve, Military Re-enactment Soc. , 2005

Steve, DMD Xmas party, 2005

Hang gliding, Muriwai, 2006

Hang gliding, Muriwai, 2006

Hang gliding, Muriwai, 2006

Hang gliding, Muriwai, 2006

Steve, AK Round the Bays, 2006

DMD, AK Round the Bays, 2006

Steve, Jeff, and Eunmi in Seoul, 2006

Steve and Jeff in Seoul, 2006

Steve in Seoul, 2006

Steve in Seoul, 2006

Steve in Seoul, 2006

Steve and Jeff trip to China, 2006

Steve and Jeff trip to China, 2006

Steve and Jeff trip to China, 2006

Steve and Jeff trip to China, 2006

Steve and Jeff trip to China, 2006

Steve and Jeff trip to China, 2006

Comrade Steve, 2006

Sandy and Steve, 2007

Rainbow over T-20, 2007

Te Puru, 2007

T-20 kitchen, 2007

T-20 deck building, 2007

T-20 deck building, 2007

T-20 deck building, 2007

Exploratorium (San Fran) gift from Steve (1990) still adding colour to my day, from Linda xxx

Steve and Tabitha, at Mic's, AK, 2007

Steve and Bob, K-Gorge, 2007

Steve, Te Puru, 2007

Linda, Walter and Suzanne, Te Puru, 2007

T-20, 2007

T-20, 2007

Steve, Te Puru, 2007

Steve, West Coast, 2008

Steve, West Coast, 2008

Steve, radio show with Ros in Lyttleton, 2008

Steve and Dragan, ChCh, 2008

Steve, ChCh, 2008

Steve and Diggles, 2012

Steve and Linda, 2012

Steve's mob, 2012

Boat to Tokelau for IT contract, 2013

Steve, Linda and Dinks, Titirangi, c. 2000

Steve at home in Te Puru, 2014

Steve at home in Te Puru, 2014

Steve with screenprinters hands, image taken by Stuart Page c.1983.

Angela, Steve and Harrison, 2015

Davie and Steve, 2015

Steve harvesting his grapes at Te Puru, 2016

Steve and Linda, Napier 2018

Steve at Hastings Farmers Market, 2018

Steve's favourite watering hole at Athenree, 2019

Steve's favourite watering hole at Athenree, 2019

T20, Steve and Sandy, 2003

T20, Te Puru, 2003

Exhibition Drive, Titirangi, 2002

Exhibition Drive, Titirangi, 2002

Steve and Bobs, 2005

MRS, Lake Waikare, 2oo5

Dune planting, Muriwai, 2005

Steve, walking the Waitakeres, 2005

Steve with Historical Re-enactment Society, 2005