Collision with the big guns

Te Awamutu-born Crowded House frontman Neil Finn is Billboard’s featured artist, just ahead of a planned studio project with his son singer Liam Finn, UK band Radiohead and American rockers Wilco. In a sequel of sorts to Finn’s 2002 live album ‘Seven Worlds Collide’, the as-yet-untitled project will be taped “over the next few months” in Auckland and will be released next year. All proceeds from the endeavour will benefit international development organization Oxfam. Finn and Crowded House will play five upcoming shows in Australia, beginning November 29 in Hobart. Billboard says Finn “has consistently proven his knack for crafting high-quality songs that combine irresistible melodies with meticulous lyrical detail, from his beginnings as the precocious junior member of Split Enz, through his leadership of Crowded House, and, finally, in his distinguished solo career.”