Christine McVie
I’m so sad to lose Christine McVie. She was a unique and soulful musician, supremely gifted songwriter and a warm and wonderful friend and I am so grateful to have shared some hours in her beautiful presence.
Four Seasons In One Day
Hi everyone ,
I’m in Perth for the last of 3 nights in a row at the beautiful Kings Park, blue skies overhead and the people in great voice! The shows in Australia have been joyous and I think the band has reached new levels of elevation in between thunderstorms and torrential downpours. My admiration and respect to those of you hardy souls that braved the elements to see us play outdoors in recent days. I hope we warmed you up and lifted you out of your wet clothes for a spell. You sang like you really needed it and I am so grateful… thank you.
I have put together a few pictures of us on stage with Maistrato, the group of four fine men from Greece who have been opening up for us on this Australian tour. I can’t tell you how much warmth and pleasure it has given us to have these guys and their beautiful music playing on and off stage. The audiences seem to be embracing them too. Here’s a video of us doing 4 Seasons In One Day together. I have edited pictures from 2 performances, one from outdoors in Geelong where the heavens opened and the wind rushed in, the other 2 days later from the rather more dry and comfortable Rod Laver arena in Melbourne. The lyrics have never had more meteorological resonance!
Also I have some new developments with the site coming soon, stand by!
Hope you are all seeing light on the horizon.
Love
Neil
Footage courtesy of Simon Mark-Brown.
We Do It So They Can… a new song OH HI
Hi there good people
Here is a new Crowded House song, OH HI, still in development but delivered here in support of So They Can, a charity I have admired for many years.
They are building schools and providing shelter and support for thousands of kids in some of the poorest areas of Kenya and Tanzania. The real work is being done by the local communities, the teachers and carers over there, but we have the chance to keep the schools growing, to share in their dreams from over here. These kids are an inspiration and the world needs them, I reckon.
I think you’ll know what I mean when you see this video. Our new song Oh Hi is debuted here with pictures from two of the schools. The kids were hearing the song for the first time and dancing to it. It makes me feel very hopeful watching them. Check out the website below.
Neil
So They Can Global Dinner
Hi everyone,
I wanted to let you know that I will be appearing online and singing a few songs on Saturday 12 November AEST at a Global dinner event to benefit So They Can, a wonderful organisation I have been supporting for many years. As some of you already know, they have been very active in assisting some of the poorest communities in Kenya and Tanzania, build schools and support networks for young people. On the night I will also be debuting a new song that is inspired by these amazing kids.
Please join us if you can, make some dinner with well known NZ chef Peta Mathias, and feel connected. Register for free here.
Neil
Bourbon and Beyond
Hi there,
To all those who have plans to attend Bourbon and Beyond in Louisville Kentucky this weekend, let it be known that I will be there with my melodious son and vibrant bandmate Liam to perform a set of best loved tunes from Split Enz, Crowded House and Beyond.
This was a scheduled stop in our postponed Crowded House tour which we were very much looking forward to, so we’re delighted to able to represent, and we promise a spirited show with delights aplenty.
Neil
Thoughts from the piano
A few weeks now have passed since we took the necessary decision to postpone our U.S tour. I’ve been a bit quiet since then, kind of gathering my thoughts for how to do the best for our audience, some of whom have had to cancel travel plans, and certainly all of whom have waited a long time for Crowded House to come to town. It’s really upsetting to leave you hanging, we send our best wishes and apologies to everyone. At this point in our history, our audiences are in deep with the full body of songs and the band is in exceptional shape… that adds up to a great night for us all and we are putting urgency into rescheduling the dates, hopefully able to announce in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, Elroy’s back is continuing to improve with treatment and advice from very good professionals and the good practice of Pilates. He is assured there is no permanent damage and we are very confident the band will be back to its very best by the time we hit stages in Australia.
Some good news… We were able to record a few new songs earlier this year in Byron Bay with the studio doors open, the crickets chirping and the rain tumbling down. We will be spending a couple of weeks late this month working on those and making the most of this unexpected down time. We are excited to have new band music which to my ears sounds fresh and different, but still in thrall to the spirit, melody and bounce of Crowded House.
Music is as fascinating as ever… I remain forever in love with the mystery and magic and thank you all profusely for tuning in year after year, not just for nostalgia’s sake but for the way we have grown together and are still looking at the world with possibility and wonder.
Stay with us you good folk
Love
Neil
The band plays on
Hi there,
The warm glow of U.K, Irish and European shows is still upon us and we are gathering charms and charge for a long overdue tour of the U.S and Canada. I feel blessed to have the band sounding so good and to have the joy of hearing you sing with us. I really missed it, music is magic and it makes me so hopeful.
There are many new songs in the works, one of which we played a few times on tour, "Some Greater Plan”. It was a song that Tim and I wrote inspired by our dad’s war diaries in which he described the night he walked into a ballroom in Florence with a hot jazz band playing and saw a beautiful girl across the room. “She was out of my league,” he wrote, but there began a heady romance for the best boy rider in Te Rore. It was a moment that gave dad a sense of hope and possibility at a time when the world seemed very dark….. we could all surely use some of those moments right now.
I’m not sure what will happen in the world but I know that music is more important than ever and there’s no end to what might be possible.
We gave up on the world somehow
But now we start believing
And all that we can do
Is fill the room
With a song of love
Sing it if you want
To feel a part of some greater plan
Thanks for staying with us, it’s good to have you along.
Neil
See the Live page for Crowded House tickets
Finn Brothers - Finn
At last, the Finn record on vinyl! The folks at Needle Mythology have made this a labour of love and we are delighted you will now be able to spin one of our favourite records on your turntable. Lots of extra treats in there too, but most of all Tchad’s incredible sound given the analog treatment it deserves.
Hope you enjoy the full experience.
Neil
THE NEW RELEASE FROM NEEDLE MYTHOLOGY
WITH SLEEVENOTES BY ED O’BRIEN FROM RADIOHEAD
VINYL CUT BY MILES SHOWELL AT ABBEY ROAD
RELEASED 29th JULY 2022
AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW
UK pre-order here: https://orcd.co/tfbfinn
US pre-order here: https://recordstoreday.com/UPC/195081002132
Aus pre-order here:
https://www.vinyl.com.au/finn-finn-expanded-edition-vinyl
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/vinyl-finn-finn-expanded-edition-vinyl-2lp
https://www.vinyldestination.com.au/finn-finn-expanded-edition-vinyl
NZ pre-order: available at most record stores (eg JB Hi Fi, Marbecks, Southbound, Flying Out, etc)
“Quincy Jones says it’s about leaving space for God to walk through the room. I can hear that on Finn. You might not want to acknowledge it for fear that it’ll go as soon as it’s arrived. But it’s there. And if you can capture that moment on tape, it’ll be there forever.”
Ed O’Brien (Radiohead)
Needle Mythology are proud to announce that they will be reissuing a special expanded album edition of Finn, the debut album by The Finn Brothers.
Initially released in 1995 to acclaim both from critics and long-time fans who had followed the pair’s work since their time together in Split Enz and Crowded House, this is the first time that Finn has received a vinyl release.
Tim Finn: “Making this record felt like freedom. Neil, myself, and Tchad Blake carved out a space that (to quote Nabokov) was pure “aesthetic bliss”. We took a few half-written songs, a T-Chest bass, and an ancient Chamberlin into an Auckland studio and a few weeks later came out with a finished album that was unlike anything we’d done before.”
Neil Finn recalls the recording sessions: “From the first day in York St studios with Tim and Tchad, we felt free to make any kind of sound we fancied, there was no template to follow for a Finn Bothers record. We just wanted to play everything ourselves. The old Chamberlin keyboard I had just shipped back from LA played sampled loops and orchestra sounds with actual tapes. I really wanted it to be a big feature of the record, but the first time I started playing it and before we realised, all the tapes unspooled out off the back and ended up on the floor. It seemed to be a pre-emptive humbling, like a symbolic trial sent by the universe. Tim and I are not renowned at all for our practical Mr Fixit skills, but we spent the best part of the first day on the floor delicately untangling and restoring the tapes into place and voila... it worked (most of the notes anyway), the Chamberlin was back and ready to play a pivotal part in the sound of Finn. Mood Swinging Man, Where Is My Soul, Angels Heap, all dressed up with its wonky, exotic textures. That small victory set us on the path to discover other unexpected talents and find new ways of approaching arrangement.”
Compiled in close collaboration with Tim and Neil, Finn is accompanied by The Finn Demos, which gathers together ten songs from 1989’s legendary Murchison St sessions, remastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. Convening at Neil’s new Melbourne apartment with a view to making an album together, Tim and Neil embarked on an intensely productive period, writing songs that would result in Tim joining Crowded House. Songs from these sessions were eventually released on Crowded House’s Woodface & Together Alone and on Before and After by Tim Finn.
Assisted by the late Paul Hester on drums, the demos captured a host of songs that would be played in arenas around the world, including ‘Four Seasons In One Day’, ‘It’s Only Natural’ and ‘Weather With You’ which features an extra verse. The demos are making their commercial debut on vinyl along with the previously unreleased song ‘Four Stepping in 3/4 Time’.
For this release, long-time fan,and collaborator on Neil Finn’s ‘7 Worlds Collide’ project, Ed O’Brien from Radiohead, has contributed liner notes, hymning the album’s “heavy” beauty and its “elemental energy.”
The artwork for expanded Finn features newly unearthed images of Tim and Neil taken by Darryl Ward during the sessions for the album. For this release, Tim and Neil have also shared the “listening notes” submitted by their parents, something they would do for every song their sons wrote.
The expanded double album edition of Finn has been cut at Abbey Road by Miles Showell, who also mastered the demos, and pressed on 180g vinyl at The Vinyl Factory.
Of this release, Needle Mythology co-founder Pete Paphides says, “As a life-long fan of the Finn brothers’ music in all its incarnations, I’m grateful that Tim and Neil have given us the opportunity to re-present their work to the world in a manner that befits the magic of these sessions. The experience of hearing these songs emerge from the speakers at Abbey Road is one I’ll never forget.”
‘FINN’
Side One
Only Talking Sense
Eyes Of The World
Mood Swinging Man
Last Day Of June
Suffer Never
Angels Heap
Side Two
Niwhai
Where Is My Soul
Bullets In My Hairdo
Paradise (Wherever You Go)
Kiss The Road Of Rarotonga
‘FINN DEMOS’
Side Three
Catherine Wheels (Demo)
Prodigal Son (Demo)
Four-Stepping In 3/4 Time (Demo - previously unreleased)
There Goes God (Demo)
It’s Only Natural (Demo)
Side Four
Weather With You (Demo)
Strangeness And Charm (Demo)
Four Seasons In One Day (Demo)
In Love With It All (Demo)
How Will You Go (Demo)
UPDATED FAQ FROM NEEDLE MYTHOLOGY:
Q: 'Will it be available in Australia / NZ?'
A: yes , we are shipping to Aus / NZ via Rocket and Southbound.
Q: 'Will it be available in Europe?'
A: yes though best to enquire now via your favourite independent. Needle Mythology is distributed by The Orchard.
Q: 'Will it be available in US/Canada?'
A: yes again it's best to enquire via your favourite independent. Needle Mythology is distributed by The Orchard.
Q: 'Will it be available on CD?'
A: Yes, definitely. We are experiencing some delays with production .
Read Pete Paphides’ interview with Neil and Tim Finn on the making of the album.
Message from Neil, April 2022
Hi everyone ,
After the disappointment of having to postpone 4 shows in Australia, I am pleased to report that Liam and I are now back in tip top shape and I only have an itchy elbow from last night’s mosquito bite to complain about.
Very grateful to have announced a North American tour finally, been wishful thinking about it for 2 years. Also relieved and fully pumped about getting over to the U.K, Ireland and Europe to do the tour that has been planned now for 2 years.
The band was sounding so good in Australia and the audiences were in truly magnificent voice. It was a cruel blow to have to pull up short but all shall be made good. We are finalizing a new tour routing right now and should be able to announce the replacement dates very soon for the good folk of Perth, Hobart, Canberra, Days On The Green and yes, adding Brisbane!!!
In the meantime I must once again acknowledge and thank all the people tirelessly working on the front line for the good health and well being of the community. They are out there defending science and reason every day and that’s why we can now return to the stage.
We are so fortunate to have music in our lives and our families close. May good health and positivity come to bless you over the coming weeks and months.
Love
Neil
Xmas message
Hi everyone,
Christmas is always a strange time with jolliness and stress performing an unholy dance, but I hope you will manage to find a little peace and even some comfort and joy this holiday season. I know that’s not so easy this year for many people.
I’ve been quietly working away on new music in my little room most of the year, and with my family close at hand I’ve really got nothing to complain about, even with the pent-up frustrations of being stuck at home and not being able to take to the stage.
I find myself getting annoyed with TV presenters and Covid modellers. My dad used to keep a running list of TV presenters in 3 categories: 1. Really annoying 2. Not so bad 3. Quite good. I’m not at that stage yet, but I can feel it coming. Next year I should avoid TV altogether and curtail my phone time. This may help avoid the existential unease which always seems to be lurking just beneath the surface.
I am so looking forward to being amongst you all again next year, singing together, carousing and cavorting with my band in your town.
In the meantime, go well, and here’s a little song I made to say thank you.
Peace and love
Neil