Tim Finn
Few pop musicians have had such a varied career as New Zealander Tim Finn. He always gets good reviews in the right places and consistently plays small clubs in major markets in the US, while selling out theatres in much of the rest of world.
It began, of course with Split Enz, the artrock band that was mega in Australasia, but didn’t crack the rest of the world until the timing was right to package the Enz as “New Wave.” Here are early pre-hit videos for "My Mistake" and "Bold as Brass."
The early band was as much about design as it was about their neurotic, jerky and close-to-prog-rock musical excesses, that made them truly distinct and quite essential. However, even guided by Roxy Music’s innovative guitarist Phil Manzanera, who produced the album "Mental Notes," the band couldn’t make it above the equator.
The US sales breakthrough came when Neil Finn, Tim’s younger brother, took over the artistic control of the band by default when a series of classic power pop tunes with attractive videos proved perfect for MTV-programming. Here is the video for chart success "I Got You."
Unable to sustain sales in the America, Tim left Split Enz before the prophetically titled final Enz album "See Ya 'Round" and brother Neil morphed the group into the Mullanes (for a few days!) which then evolved into the great Crowded House.
Tim released solo albums including "Escapade" in 1983 which included this video; "Made My Day."
He collaborated with Brit Folk Rock God Richard Thompson. Here they sing “Persuassion.”
He worked with the combo ALT (with Andy White and Liam O'Maonlai of The Hothouse Flowers) in 1994. Here is a video for "Look What You’ve Done."
He also re-joined briefly his brother in Crowded House and contributed to the highly successful (everywhere but in the US) record, “Woodface.” Here is the first single from the album; "Chocolate Cake."
Despite tension between the brothers both being in da House at the same time, they went on to record successful albums together. Here is the video for "Won’t Give In" from 2004’s "Everyone Is Here."
Here is a 13 minute 2006 interview on Oz tv. I think it’s the Australian “60 minutes.”
Both brothers have contributed music to movie soundtracks (and Tim was romantically linked to Australian movie star Greta Scacchi in the late eighties). Every few years the brothers do re-union projects with members of Split Enz. The final performance of Crowded House, featuring both Finns, on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in 1996 (Farewell to the World) has just been released on CD, and DVD (January, 2007 in the US).
Here’s a video for the single "Couldn't Be Done" from Tim’s new album, "Imaginary Kingdom," as well as a brief interview.
Here's a link back in this site to a series of recent video interviews with Tim.
This entry may not have a very long life. EMI has decided to sue YouTube and many of these releases are on EMI or associated labels, so could be pulled any second..... As a bonus link: Here are the lyrics to the Sex Pistols' song EMI.
Enjoy now, and buy Tim's new album.
