"Neil Finn and Nick Seymour, you are charged that in the year 1985 in the city of Melbourne you did form a four-piece group called The Mullanes which within a year was a three-piece group called Crowded House who had a couple of hits in America, before becoming in 1991 a four-piece involving Neil's brother Tim who left soon afterwards just as you were having your biggest British hits in the shape of ‘Weather With You’ and ‘Four Seasons In One Day’, and furthermore that by breaking up in 1996 just as people were getting to know who you were via your greatest hits album ‘Recurring Dream’ and now reforming ten years later, you clearly qualify as the most confusing band in the history of popular music. How do you plead?"
Neil Finn: "At least we're top of one list."
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On March 15th 2007 in the curious surroundings of a moored pleasure craft in the city of Bristol the new line-up of Crowded House – Neil Finn, Nick Seymour and Mark Hart plus recently recruited drummer Matt Sherrod – set forth on the latest stage of an interrupted journey in front of a few hundred ecstatic fans. Later this summer as they play big shows at Coachella in the Californian desert and at Hyde Park in London's swinging West End, those crowds will surely swell as die-hard enthusiasts who go back to Split Enz days are joined by the legions of fans who were fatally smitten by the likes of ‘Weather With You’ and ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ in the previous decade and the ever-rolling stream of new supporters who have grown up with the music but never before had the chance to clap eyes on the people who made it.
On July 2nd ‘Time On Earth’, the first album of new Crowded House material since 1993's ‘Together Alone’ appears. This started life a couple of years ago as a Neil Finn solo record but the intervention of time, chance and tragedy have transformed it into a fully-fledged band album. After playing a number of dates with Neil and his brother Tim in 2005 Nick Seymour was invited to supply bass on the early sessions which were conducted with producer Ethan Johns at Neil's Roundhead Studios in Auckland. The notion of this triggering a reunion of the band was not fully discussed but, as Nick says, "it was probably in the ether. It transpired that we were becoming more collaborative as we tried more songs and it became more of an organic thing based on our familiarity."
"It was starting to brew in the back of my head," says Neil "but I thought, I don't want to go there. I may have been worried about the naysayers, the people who just think you're doing it for the money. By the end of last year we were both thinking about it and thinking there's a lot to commend it. This feels like a Crowded House record because we've all been in there and it feels like a band record."
The death of original drummer Paul Hester in 2005 had further concentrated Neil's mind: "I thought, these relationships that you have in your life are rare and precious. Why wouldn't you just grab them?"
"We both realised that if it was going to be like that we had to have a brilliant drummer. The whole thing wasn't worth confirming until we had that drummer in place." Matt Sherrod, who has previously played with Beck, arrived after auditions while U.S.-based keyboard player Mark Hart, a veteran of the line-up who made ‘Together Alone’ in 1993, was the recipient of the time-honoured "we're putting the band back together" call.
Neil: "With Matt on the drum stool the energy that Paul brought to bear with his drumming was there again. He has a certain pizzazz in the way he puts things down that is the reason we liked him most of all the drummers we played with. There was a certainty. Like Paul he's anchored in the bass drum."
By the time this new line-up was starting to bed down Neil had written more material and so the four of them went into Mickie Most's old studio in London with producer Steve Lillywhite to "get the whole band on the record - in style."
"Obviously we wanted to have the band on it," says Neil, "but also as soon as you call something Crowded House it ups the ante. The record up to then was more reflective and melancholy. There's a certain energy that we brought to bear as Crowded House that we'd like to have represented on the record too."
These sessions produced ‘Don't Stop Now’, ‘She Called Up’, ‘Transit Lounge’ (adorned with a ten year old Nick Seymour recording of a particularly sexy PA announcer at a German airport) and ‘Even A Child’, co-written with old friend Johnny Marr. If proof were required that this is a band album they lie in these songs and the attitude with which they were approached.
"You have to live up to the responsibility of the name," says Neil. "There's a mysterious alchemy of sorts that the name is part of and the personalities as well. It brought out good things in us."
Nick and Neil are keen to stress that this is not one of those "let's try a few shows and see how it goes" reunions.
Neil: "We are an unfolding story. Loads of bands reform, but how many commit themselves to being a band to all intents and purposes after ten years? We are more attracted to the idea of being a band again than ‘appearing’ as a band again, with all of the comfort and companionship that that brings with it."
"When you become a solo artist you become more internalised. I've had ten years of it and became more closed just to get through it. When it's all about you your name is on it, you're the only one doing the interviews or in the pictures and the level of scrutiny tends to close me down. When I'm with Nick I tend to be more outgoing."
Nick concedes that personal relationships are a lot easier now: "Now we're a lot less likely to try to make each other like ourselves. I used to find that in Crowded House we were always expressing a lot of energy in not understanding why we were different. We used to think, why can't you be more like me? Those tensions don't exist any more because we've experienced so much more."
Neil agrees: "We're more tolerant of each other and more appreciative of the differences, which is difficult in a band because they always come with baggage. When you're younger you don't accept that one characteristic comes with another. You think the person should be the full package. Now I realise that that's what a band ‘is’. You don't get a photo-fit model partner. You get somebody who challenges you and confronts you and that's what's good about it."
"Once you're in the band you're in the band forever and there's always the same dynamic in the relationship. If it's amicable after all those years then it's a glorious thing. But if it goes the other way it's terrible. That's why people can feud their whole lives because of three years they spent together when they were twenty-four."
Without deviating in any way from the self-effacement that has always been part of Crowded House's DNA, the communication with the outside world should be easier this time around. "We fell between the cracks before", says Neil "because we weren't English, weren't American, weren't fashionable."
Nick, who has once again designed ‘Time On Earth'’s packaging, says: "I remember hearing Chris Evans one day on the radio saying how much he loved Crowded House but he didn't know anything about us. He didn't know the story. It used to really frustrate me that we couldn't get this identity over that could connect the music with the name of the band. "
"But the strange thing was that we became more familiar posthumously in a way”, Neil continues. “The ads for our Greatest Hits said 'you know more Crowded House songs than you think you do' and it was a very effective line. Also if you stay away long enough somehow people's affection for you seems to increase. I think it's harder to keep going because even the biggest fan will lose interest for a while. If you stay away and give people a break they do seem to look on you quite fondly."
And thus, with live music once more in the ascendant and strong songs at as much of a premium as ever, this happy few with its strong bond with a worldwide audience and its exceptionally deep catalogue of songs, sets forth on a new voyage with something of the dauntless, damn-the-torpedoes spirit of third ages on an adventure holiday.
This time they promise to enjoy being in a band more. Neil points out that now that his children have lives of their own he may no longer be in such a tearing hurry to get home between dates. "We're footloose and fancy free."
"The songs have endured and the spirit of the band has endured. There was always a sense that we invited people into our lounge room. We still do. We have innate confidence about this record. It represents us well. The spirit and the energy and the vitality that we feel about the band will roll out."
As for the veteran fans who will inevitably miss the antic spirit of Paul Hester, to whom ‘Time On Earth’ is inevitably dedicated, Neil offers this: "We miss him too. But I think we can contain the same spirit in our performance without Paul. We test the edges. That won't change."
David Hepworth, April 2007
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RIGHT - THE LINK I PUT ONLINE YESTERDAY DOESNT SEEM TO WORK! SORRY - LINK AT BOTTOM!
HI THERE HOPE ALL IS WELL IN YOUR WORLD. MY NAME IS TAMMIE AND I AM A HUGE CROWDED HOUSE FAN. I HAVE BEEN SHORT LISTED FOR A REPORTING GIG IN GERMANY AT A FESTIVAL THE KILLERS AND MASSIVE ATTACK ARE PLAYING AT. ITS THROUGH VODAFONE / MUSIC UNLIMITED / MTV.
I DID MY ENTRY VIDEO AT THE CROWDED HOUSE GIG IN THETFORD FOREST A COUPLE OF WEEKS BACK. THERE IS A PRE-GIG VIDEO ON THE COMPETITION SITE AND THEN A POST GIG ON MY SITE, THE POST GIG IS ONLY 10 SECONDS LONG AS I WAS EXCITED - GOT ONE OF NEILS PLECTRUMS! LITTLE THINGS PLEASE ME.
IF YOU HAVE A MOMENT TO VOTE A TEN FOR ME THAT'D BE GREAT. YOU WILL HAVE MY RESPECT FOREVER. I WOULD THEN LET EVERYONE KNOW IF I WON. THANK YOU. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND TAMMIE X
Hi guys, after a very long wait the website is finally live and my debut album "This is Joy" is available for CD purchase and track download. Tnx for all the support ;) James. www. jamessullivanmusic. com
Hey there I need help! Big big Crowded House Fan in need of votes for the Vodafone Music Unlimited competition. Video pre-gig and post gig on my site.... Link below. Help out a friend in need....xxxx
Loved seeing you guys on this European tour (Murcia, Madrid, Salzburg-3 gigs-am I mad? Probably:) Thanks for being real troopers and performing for us. Madrid was out of this world :)) You guys are real gentlemen and that makes the music sound even sweeter.
Dear Neil, Mark, Matt & Nick! Thank you so much for a great gig yesterday@ Bospop in the Netherlands! Finally the change to see you guys performe again, it was worth the long train ride (4,5 hours)! Also i would like to thank Nick for taking the time to get out of the bus and sign a random piece of paper i could find and for the picture! You really made a dream come true for me! My (childhood) dream for almost twenty years!I apologize for me being nervous, i just couldn't believe you were standing next to me!So what i yesterday wanted to say was, thank you for your music! It means so much to me and helped me trough some tough times! You guys (including Paul) are more special in a lot of unknow lifes than you realise!! Hope i also get the change to one day meet Neil,Mark & Matt (sorry you guys were al sleeping), that would make the circle complete! Thanx so much!
Hi guys, Nice concert in Madrid, but Barcelona was so much better for me, I discovered your music around 1992 and I thought that never more could come to a crowded house's concert, but, now you are still on the road, so please return to visit us to barcelona more times, don't stop now¡¡¡¡ jose
Hem pujat una nova cançó. “Yo sé” Visita’ns i escolta-la! I Després ens dius que t’ha semblat! Hemos subido una canción nueva. “Yo sé” Visítanos y escúchala! Y luego nos dices que te ha parecido! We uploaded a new song. “Yo sé” Visit us and listen it! And then tell us what you think about it!
hay guys what a show last night every one was up for it last night. i wish you all well with the rest of the tour and hope to see you guys soon... last time i saw a kind of crowded house line up was in the domain in sydney while the games of 2000 was on and i must tell you i dont remember much after the gig but it was and still is one of the best nights of my life.......thanks guys! matt
Wow you guys rocked last night.I had to laugh at Neil having a go at Crowd control. Very funny. First time i've seen you guys, will certenly not be my last. Enjoy the tour and as you said last night Neil. I'll be back.
Woohoo you rocked last night at Liverpool guys, totally awesome and everything i knew you would be. Thanks for playing "my song" and look forward to seeing you again soon!Keep rocking!
I've ordered the sunshine for tonight 16 years and 2 days ago I saw Crowded House for the first time - the day before my 21st and now the day after my 37th! You rock - so looking forward to it, just blasting my kids and neighbours out with some live Crowded House - see you tonight your gorgeous guys! xx
ive just come home from the crowded house concert in liverpool.and they were brilliant i screamed my head off .1st time ive ever seen them and it wont be the last thanks crowded house for comeing to liverpool . love jenny
