After disbanding in 1996, the members of Crowded House began working on a variety of different projects. However, they didn’t rule out the possibility of getting together again for anniversary events; after all, it wasn’t as it they were fed up with each other’s company. . But when co-founder and drummer Paul Hester took his own life, fans feared that reunion would never occur. In 2007, however, Neil announced plans to release a new Crowded House album as a tribute to Paul and began auditioning for new members. He had originally set out to record a solo album that would help him deal with the loss of one of his best friends, but decided that putting a Crowded House badge to it would be more appropriate. The resulting album ‘Time On Earth’ was received enthusiastically by all Crowded House fans, spawning the single ‘Don’t Stop Now,’ which Neil himself refers to as ‘their theme song for the moment.’
After extensive touring, Neil and the new lineup began preparing for a new album, which was released in 2010. Unlike the previous ‘Time On Earth’ which was basically a Neil Finn album, ‘Intriguer’ is very much a collaborative effort. The new members are featured on all tracks, with contributions from numerous guest artists including his wife Sharon and son Liam. The members may be different, but it still resonates with the sounds that have endeared the band to so many people in the past and in the future too.

Richard and Robert Sherman arewho were responsible for creating the music of such Disney classics as Mary Poppins and Jungle Book One of the most successful songwriting teams in history has to be Richard and Robert Sherman. Together, they’ve written some 1,000 songs, including all-time favourites for Disney classics such as Mary Poppins and Jungle Book. Professionally, they were a perfect match. But they were notorious for not getting along together.. The same is true for the Everly Brothers, the Davies brothers who formed the Kinks and the Gallagher brothers of Oasis. If you google the words ‘feuding brothers’, these are the names that you’ll come up with. Fortunately, that is not the case for the Finn Brothers Tim and Neil. Core members of the Split Enz and Crowded House, they’ve also released several solo albums. But the synergy created when they come together as the Finn Brothers is hard to beat. Their second album ‘Everyone Is Here’ highlights the best of their songwriting talents. Full of beautiful melodies and exquisite harmonies, the main theme of the album seems to be about family, with the word ‘brother’ appearing quite often.

After the success of his exquisitely beautiful ballad ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’, Neil Finn says he felt the pressure was really on him. The songs he wrote for Crowded House’s second album ‘Temple of Low Men’ showed his progress as a songwriter, but it failed to meet the expectations of fans and critics who’d been wowed by the band’s debut album. Having said that, the album went to No.1 in New Zealand and Australia, with the country-like single ‘Better Be Home’ soaring to No.2 in both countries.
Neil, however, was disappointed with the lukewarm reaction in Europe and the States. Rather than setting off on an overseas tour, he decided to step back awhile and concentrate on writing some songs with his big brother in preparation for their first duo album. The work went extremely well, and after recording 14 songs, Neil started to prepare for Crowded House’s next album. This, however, gave him a hard time. So, he turned to his big brother Tim and asked him to join the band so that he could release the songs they’d worked on together as a Crowded House project. Tim agreed, and the resulting ‘Woodface’ went platinum in the UK, with the single ‘Weather With You’ reaching the Top 10 in six countries. As a result, both Tim and Neil were awarded OBEs from the Queen for their many years of contribution to the music of Australia and New Zealand.
It wasn’t long after this that Tim decided to quit the band to concentrate more on his solo activities. In 1993, the band regrouped to record their fourth album, ‘Together Alone’ which enjoyed worldwide success, leading to extensive touring. By the end of 1994, Neil decided to cut back on the touring so that he could spend more time on writing and his family. In 1995, he and his brother Tim finally released their long-awaited duo album ‘Finn’. The following year, Neil officially broke up Crowded House, releasing one final single, ‘Everything Is Good for You’, which was included in their Best Hits compilation album ‘Recurring Dream’.

After the break up of Split Enz in 1984, Neil Finn, who had assumed leadership of the group for a brief period following his big brother’s decision to go it alone, teamed up with two Aussies—Split Enz drummer Paul Hester and bassist Nick Seymour— to form a trio called the Mullanes, Neil’s middle name. The concept, according to Neil Finn’s comments on the Crowded House official site, was ‘to form a 3 piece band that could fit into one rental car.’ It didn’t take them long to sign with Capitol Records. But before commencing on their first album, the label persuaded them to come up with a different name — Crowded House.
Their self-titled debut album was packed with a string of Beatles influenced pop tunes that showcased Neil’s talent in writing delectable melodies. However, because of insufficient promotion from their label, they failed to get the kind of reaction they hoped for in New Zealand. Rather than setting off on a major PR tour, the group decided to take a more down-to-earth approach, playing for small crowds at restaurants, record stores and whatever. Through their music and ability to quickly establish a rapport with their audience, their popularity and their album sales began to rise. In January 1987, the first single ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ charted in the U.S. and by April had soared to second place. This was followed by the success of their album, which eventually peaked at No.12
Their success in the States helped stimulate sales back home. And in June 1987, almost a year after the albums release, ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ finally made it to the top. The album also peaked at No.3, leading to the release of their second hit single ‘Something So Strong’, cementing Neil’s reputation as a singer-songwriter who had the talent comparable to Lennon and McCartney. His first hit as Crowded House remains a favourite to this day and has been covered by many musicians, including Paul Young, Sixpence None the Richer, Susan Boyle and most recently, Japan’s own Hitomi Yaida who recorded a Japanese version as the flip side of her latest EP. In 2001, it was voted as the second best New Zealand song of all time.

After the success of three consecutive hit albums—True Colours (1980), Waiata(1981) and Time and Tide (1982), Split Enz’s leader Tim Finn was restless for change. He took time out to record his first solo album ‘Escapade’ which became a major hit in New Zealand and Australia. The single ‘Fraction Too Much Friction’ also entered the top 10.
Encouraged by this success, Tim returned to Split Enz only to announce his decision to leave for good, passing on the baton to his kid brother Neil. But Neil and the other members were also eager to branch out into new territory. After releasing their 9th and final studio album, appropriately titled ‘See Ya Round’, Neil decided to fold the band for good, ending their illustrious career with a farewell tour, Enz with a Bang, joined of course by his big brother Tim.
The single ‘I Walk Away’ was later rerecorded by Neil and his new group Crowded House, which is often mistaken to be Australian! More about this next time.

With the success of their 1979 album ‘True Colours’, Split Enz became the first New Zealand group to enjoy success in Britain and North America. They recorded their next album ‘Waiata’ during a brief interlude in their hectic touring schedule. Although it failed to achieve the success of their previous work, it spawned two hit singles, one of which was ‘History Never Repeats Itself’. The music video was one of the first to be aired on MTV’s very first broadcast on August 1, 1981.
The song remains a favourite to this day and in 2001 was selected the fifth most popular song in New Zealand’s recording history. In Japan it was released under the title ‘Aotearoa no kaze’ which translates as ‘The Wind from Aotearoa’ and received heavy airplay. But in the UK, the release coincided with the Falklands Conflict between Britain and Argentina. Although the song was about the first settlers to New Zealand who made the difficult voyage from Europe in the 19th century and about the group’s own long and winding road, there were some who felt that it was a criticism towards Britain’s expansionist policies in the past. Because of this, the song was removed from play lists in the UK.

Although their song ‘My Mistake’ made it to the Top 20 in Australia, things didn’t go very well for Spit Enz in Britain where punk rock had become the mainstream. Discouraged, they decided to return to New Zealand to recover their losses. However, they didn’t have a record deal, and with no booking agent or manager they had a hard time getting gigs. It wasn’t long before they were forced to go on the dole.
Fortunately, however, they were able to obtain a 5,000-dollar grant from the New Zealand Arts Council, which they used to book a small studio in London to record 28 songs in five days. Upon returning to New Zealand, they released one of the songs as a single. Written by Tim Finn, whom John Lennon once praised as being one of his favourite songwriters, the song ‘I See Red’ charted in Australia.
The success of the song, which by the way was selected in 2001 as the 28th most popular New Zealand song ever recorded, lead to a record deal and the release of the album ‘Frenzy’. However, the band was still struggling financially, forcing them to change direction, lose the makeup and over-the-top theatrics, and go for a more pop-oriented sound. The result, ‘True Colours’ became a No.1 hit in both New Zealand and Australia. The single ‘I Got You’ written by Neil Finn, also topped the charts in Canada, and peaked at No.12 in the UK, establishing Spit Enz as the first NZ group to achieve international fame.

Despite having a population of a little over 3 million, New Zealand boasts an amazingly rich and diverse music scene full of incredibly talented and original artists. The Finn brothers, Tom and Neil are members of what you might call New Zealand’s rock royalty. As soloists and producers and as founding members of NZ’s first rock groups to achieve international fame, Split Enz and Crowded House, also performing together as the Finn Brothers and accompanying Neil’s son Limm, they’re responsible for some of the best songs to come out of the Land of the Long White Cloud. Of the 100 best NZ songs selected in 2001, 15 were written by the Finn brothers.
In 1971, Tim Finn and a group of friends who were attending Auckland University decided to form an acoustic group called Split Ends. And in 1973 came out with their first single ‘For You’.
A year later,, they added keyboard and saxophone and changed their name to Split Enz to emphasize the fact that they were a Kiwi band even though they eventually hoped to make it big in Australia. It was from around this time that they began to sport bizarre hairdos, colorful costumes and theatrical antics which became their trademark.
In 1975, they went on their first tour of Australia, which lead to a contract with Mushroom Records. But the group were unhappy with their first album which didn’t have much production and was recorded in a mere fortnight. It did, however, succeed in getting the attention of Roxy Music’s guitarist Phil Manzanera, who invited them to come to London to redo the album. Before leaving for the UK, they released a new single ‘Late Last Night’, which was accompanied by a music clip, something that was still quite rare in NZ at the time.
Following the rerelease of their first album ‘Mental Notes’, one of the founding members dropped out and was replaced by Tim’s younger brother Neil, who brought with him a more pop-oriented style. Their 1977 album ‘Dizrhythmia’ became a major hit in Australia, with the single ‘My Mistake’ become the group’s first Top 20 hit.

Andrew Keoghan is an Auckland based singer-songwriter who made his recording debut last year at the age of 30. His music is sometimes compared to that of Andrew Bird, the popular American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who creates exquisite harmonies with his violin, whistling and glockenspiel. That’s because Keoghan, like Bird, plays the violin. But although he received violin and voice lessons from the age of 5, Keoghan plays his grandfather’s 130-year-old violin like a ukulele, plucking and strumming it to create percussive rhythms. He also plays various other instruments including the saxophone, French horn, piano, guitar and drums, which are cleverly mixed using a loop pedal. All this plus his beautiful voice and lyrics make him one of a kind.
After many years of classical voice training, which included singing in Puccini’s opera Turandot , Keoghan spent several years singing jazz, after which he became a TV reporter. But at the age of 24, he realized he wanted to concentrate on his music. He moved from Christchurch to Auckland and began writing and performing live. Most of his songs are stories that reflect his fascination with human encounters, including of course love. Clean Sheets And A Fishbowl, for instance, is about an encounter he had with a street girl who accidently flagged down his car.
His debut album released last March was widely acclaimed by critics and was selected by the New Zealand Herald Tribune as being the fourth best album of the year. Keoghan may have been a late bloomer, but we’ll definitely be hearing more of what’s been referred to as chamber pop in the months to come.

The Great NZ Songbook is a 2-disc compilation of 42 tracks featuring some of the best New Zealand hits from the ‘Last Century’ and ‘This Century’. One of the songs, however, is by a youngster who at the time of the release was still unsigned. Her name is Annah Mac and her song ‘Home’ was included as representative of New Zealand’s up and coming talent.
Although Anna has just turned 20, she’s a veteran of the stage, having won her first song competition at the age of 6. When she was 15, she entered an original composition in the nationwide songwriting competition for secondary school students and won with ‘Blue Butterfly’.
Anna hails from the scenic coast of Southland which has provided the setting for numerous films, including ‘Narnia’ and ‘Lord of the Ring’. Her family’s sheep farm was pretty isolated—60 km outside the city, with no neighbors. And so, when she wasn’t helping out with her farm, she spent most of her time dabbling in music. So in her case, the isolation helped hone her music.
After winning the songwriting competition, she began to think seriously about a career in music, and at the age of 17 she moved to Auckland and won a scholarship to study in Memphis. Her first single, ‘Focus’, released in 2009 went to No.3 on the New Zealand charts, followed by ‘Baby Don’t Change’ and then the song included in the Great NZ Songbook, ‘Home’.
In September 2011, she released her first album from Sony, ‘Little Stranger’ featuring 12 tracks selected from the many songs she’d written over a period of two and a half years. A mixture of catchy pop, R&B and heartfelt ballads, the songs reflect her personal experiences and observations of the world around her. One of the latest singles from the album, ‘Celia’ was nominated for the Silver Scroll Award, the most prestigious songwriting award in New Zealand.