Returning to the ‘96 Crowded House Farewell
Twenty-five years ago, much-loved band Crowded House bid farewell to the world, performing a free concert at the Sydney Opera House to a crowd of more than 100,000 people. The Sydney Morning Herald has…
Tag Archives: Neil Finn
Crowded House Is Back and Loving It
With this month’s release of Crowded House’s latest album, Dreamers Are Waiting, journalist Russell Brown interviews the “reconstituted” band for The Sydney Morning Herald at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios in Auckland. They’re fresh from a…
Neil Finn and Son Liam Get Dreamy on Lightsleeper
“Lightsleeper is the result of another crowded house at the Finn residence. The album principals, father Neil and son Liam, get the rest of the family involved – mother Sharon, son Elroy, nephew Harper…
Neil and Liam Finn Video Premieres
Despite its young cast, Neil and Liam Finn’s new video for guitar ballad “Anger Plays a Part” deals with grown-up problems in the real world. The single is on the duo’s new album, Lightsleeper, which is out now. In the…
Neil Finn to Join Fleetwood Mac
Legendary band Fleetwood Mac has announced that Neil Finn of Crowded House and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers will replace departing guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. The band’s firing of Buckingham over the group’s…
There Are English Trees in Neil Finn’s Garden
A recent Guardian reader-curated playlist about trees includes songs from the Beach Boys, Esperanza Spalding, the Shamen and Crowded House. “Since time immemorial trees have provided people with shelter, food, lumber and even medicine. They…
Neil Finn’s Latest is a Quiet Masterpiece
Neil Finn’s latest solo album, Out of Silence, offers us the gift of catharsis in a season of unpredictable politics and societal division. This month, the Crowded House singer has returned with ten songs…
Neil Finn’s Sound a Lifelong Process
Neil Finn will headline the second Skyfields outdoor concert at the picturesque Bluff headland in Devonport, Tasmania on 11 March, and will be joined on stage by Crowded House member Nick Seymour. “We’ll be able…
Crowded House to Be Inducted into ARIA Hall of Fame
Cherished rock-folk group Crowded House will be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame during the ARIA Awards in Sydney on 23 November. Crowded House’s induction has a touch of serendipity about it. This year,…
Québec Music Fans Enjoy Neil Finn’s Summer Set
Neil Finn performed at the recent Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) playing a mixture of Split Enz and Crowded House favourites, as well as some of his own tracks, “in smooth style” according to…
We’re All Thinking Number One
Just about every famous New Zealander, including Lorde, the Flight of the Conchords, Kimbra and Shihad’s Jon Toogood, have packed into Neil Finn’s studio to record Team Ball Player Thing, a fundraising effort for…
Forgotten Crowded House Song Helping Refugees
Songs can grow and assume new shapes with time, and pop’s power to engage people has taken Crowded House’s 16-year-old ballad Help is Coming and given it new life as a charitable ode to…
Tim Finn Loves Writing Songs More than Ever
Forty years in the music business, one of New Zealand’s most celebrated singer-songwriters, Tim Finn, 63, recently performed his new collaboration, White Cloud at the Galway International Arts festival. White Cloud may be derived from…
Neil Finn with Jim Carter Commemorating Anzac Day 2015
Commemorating the centenary of the Gallipoli landing, Neil Finn and Jim Carter have re-recorded “Blue Smoke”, composed by Ruru Karaitiana in 1940. Jim Carter played steel guitar on the…
Crowded House the ARIAs’ First Superstars
At the inaugural Australian Record Industry Association awards (ARIAs) in 1987, New Zealand judge (and now Australianised) Jenny Morris was joined by a countryman whose second band was named best new talent and went…
Special Night for Dubai’s Neil Finn Fans
Neil Finn thrilled fans in the United Arab Emirates on stage at the Dubai Tennis Stadium last week “demonstrating why he is regarded as the songwriters’ songwriter”, according to Gulf News senior writer Leslie…
Right at Home in Manchester
Now on a UK and European tour promoting his third solo album Dizzy Heights, Neil Finn, 55, talks with the Manchester Evening News about why the British city has always been a very homely…
Neil Finn performs White Lies and Alibis: Live Session
Take a seat back and listen to the soothing voice of Neil Finn as he performs his song, ‘White Lies and Alibis’, from his album Dizzy Heights. The song…
Neil Finn’s Latest Solo Album His Funkiest
“Neil Finn makes pop music, and good pop music at that. He can’t help it,” espouses the Sydney Morning Herald’s senior music writer Bernard Zuel, and he “makes the oddest and, to these ears,…
Finn to Release Third Studio Album The Nihilist
Liam Finn has announced the release of his first full-length studio album in three years, titled The Nihilist. The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter has also unveiled the album’s first single, Snug As F-ck. The track…
Bringing Something Different to Every Party
Neil Finn, who is playing at Australia’s Falls Festival in December, has had a colourful career so far. Wild in Split Enz, he’s been a straightforward balladeer, the front man of a…
Cry Over This
Crowded House song Together Alone is what British music blogger Paul Sinclair wants played at his funeral. Sinclair chose the track as part of the Guardian series ‘Six Songs of Me’. “The…
Antipodean McCartneys
Message to My Girl is a “latter-day classic from Split Enz” and “the missing link between I Got You and Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over according to the Guardian’s Russell Cunningham writing for…
Squared to Power of Awesome
Neil Finn’s “Kraut-inspired” Pajama Club recently performed a special set on Later With Jools Holland enlisting Ladyhawke on drums. Pajama Club also features Sharon Finn, Sean Donnelly and Alana Skyring. The band…
Love Song to Opera House
New Zealanders musician Neil Finn and opera star Teddy Tahu Rhodes have been included in a line-up of artists chosen to perform sections of Nick Cave’s classic The Ship’s Song for a Sydney Opera…
Finn Plays SXSW
Musician and songwriter Liam Finn launches his first-ever full band tour beginning with two gigs in Austin at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival. Finn’s next album is set for a spring…
Covering the dream
Britain’s got Talent star Susan Boyle performed Crowded House classic Don’t Dream It’s Over on The Oprah Winfrey Show in October with the cover also included on Boyle’s new Christmas album The Gift. “Don’t…
Classic Q for Finn
Neil Finn, 52, earned a Classic Songwriter Award at the Q Awards 21 held in London at Grosvenor House on October 25. He was presented with the award by Scottish singer KT Tunstall, who…
Musical portraiture
Photographic portraits of New Zealand musicians Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn and Neil Finn are included in a new international coffee table book, called Music, shot by renowned New York photographer Andrew Zuckerman. Zuckerman flew…
Return post-change
Crowded House head to South Africa in October performing concerts in Cape Town and Durban before ending their tour in Johannesburg on the 3th. Neil Finn said he and the band have fond memories…
Second wave cohesion
Crowded House performed with Lawrence Arabia July 13 at Montreal’s Metropolis as part of the band’s North American tour promoting Intriguer, the second album of the “second wave”. Frontman Neil Finn says the band’s…
Compelling qualities
Crowded House will release their first studio album Intriguer in June through Universal Music worldwide. The ten-track album Intriguer, recorded in Auckland, is the follow-up to Time on Earth, which hit No. 1 in Australia and New…
Seizing the Spirit
Crowded House are proving popular in the UK as a second concert at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall was added “due to phenomenal demand after tickets for the first night went on sale,” the Express &…
Family affair
Neil Finn, his brother Tim and sons Liam and Elroy are just four of the 21 songwriters, 14 backing musicians and a dog collaborating on the album The Sun Came Out just released in…
Sun out soon
Crowded House frontman Neil Finn has collaborated with the Smiths’ Johnny Marr, Radiohead’s Phil Selway and Ed O’Brien and new additions Wilco to produce a double-disc collection called The Sun Came Out, proceeds of…
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…
Finn unpacked
Auckland artist Martin Ball’s portrait of singer Neil Finn is up for Australia’s most prestigous art award, the Archibald Prize. Ball won the Archibald Packing Room prize, selected annually by backroom staff at the…
Crowded House on Love and Loss
An LA Times review finds Time on Earth, the new album by the recently reformed Crowded House, to be a moving exploration of love and loss. “Pop music reunions are, more often than not,…
Don’t Dream it’s Over
A new album and world tour by Crowded House, has made headlines across the globe. According to chief songwriter Neil Finn, he and bass player Nick Seymour have been considering regrouping since the tragic death of…
A House Less Crowded
March 26 saw the tragic death by suicide of drummer Paul Hester, Melbourne-born member of seminal NZ bands Split Enz and Crowded House. “We all knew him as an effervescent, vivacious fireball of talent,” said soul singer Renee…
Time is on their side
A Scotsman interview with Tim and Neil Finn finds that time and age has turned sibling rivalry to “sibling revelry, mate.” “There’s always a tension there between us,” says Tim. “One of us backs…
Good things take time
An Australian Rolling Stone feature examines the intimate and lengthy process behind the making of Everyone Is Here, the first collaborative album by Neil and Tim Finn in nearly a decade. “Hyperbole can’t…
Finn-tastic
The Finn brothers’ headlining performance at Summerstage Central Park thrilled fans and critics alike. NY Times: “Rock bands of brothers aren’t known for amity The Finn Brothers … set out to be the…
Charting the Edge
Sydney’s Morning Herald publishes its 2003 top-10 lists for global rovers with Aotearoa again destination du jour. The chart toppers – Wine: Marlborough (“with its combination of bush, mountains and coastline … Cloudy Bay, Cairnrae and Allan…
Finn-spiration
Legendary Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has nothing but praise for Neil Finn, who he collaborated with on Seven World’s Collide. “That experience with Neil was one of the highlights of my musical life so…
The Dream’s Not Over
Neil Finn continues to promote One All abroad, with his second successful U.S tour in 6 months. Boston Globe: “Finn’s chief gift is crafting melodies that are the envy of most songwriters. His subtle…
Heavenly pop hits
Aotearoa musical ambassador Neil Finn’s One Nil launched in the US as One All, and draws in at No.2 on Salon’s audio charts. New songs and collaborations with Wendy and Lisa of Prince…
Finn No Warbler
Chicago Tribune’s Kevin McKeough wonders “what kind of birds are fluttering around he sings melodies that are just plain gorgeous.” Finn’s performance before a packed Park West Stadium (Chicago)…
Finn Family Fun
A laid back Tim Finn ponders his career, fatherhood, his NZ-homecoming, getting picked up by Iggy Pop, and more on the eve of an Aussie tour and muses on the power of song:…
Don’t Dream it’s Over
7 Worlds Collide, Neil Finn’s acclaimed live album and testament to his “prodigious talent.” is also Finn’s statement of “relevance and intent. It’s one to believe in” with “7 Worlds” worth of guests: including…
Pleasantly Rough: 7 Worlds Collide
Neil Finn’s latest album, 7 Worlds Collide brings together Pearl Jams’ Eddie Vedder, Tim Finn, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and ex-Smith’s legend Johnny Marr. BBC: “Finn is a consumate master of his craft”.
Strutting in their genes
New Zealand’s “young kid band with famous fathers”, otherwise known as Betchadupa, tours Australia for the Big Day Out series. Frontman Liam Finn bears the iconic surname of Split Enz and Crowded House…
The Odder Rock Tour
Neil Finn has just completed one of rock’s great experimental tours. He started off playing with friends from Radiohead and the Smiths in New Zealand, and ended up on stage with complete strangers in…
Fur Patrol on patrol
Ex-Wellington band Fur Patrol build up a loyal fan base in Melbourne, their new home, clocking up 2 miles supporting acts like Neil Finn and Killing Heidi.
Finn forum
Neil Finn at the Forum: “It was magic. It was intimate, it was funny. And above all, reverential”. Also, Finn in Sydney.
Seven Worlds will Collide
“It’s like stumbling into your own birthday party – you don’t know where to look first. Centre stage is Neil Finn, hair greying but still a hint of that haphazard Crowded House quiff, a…
