Saturday 21st January

I first saw, and heard, Split Enz probably in ’76 or ’77.  It was at The Roundhouse.  And they were incredible.  No other way to describe them, except maybe zany, brilliant or original.  They were dressed in strange multicoloures clothes and had hair sticking out in all directions and coloured bright green or red or blue or yellow.  It was hard to tell how many of them there were because they kept running around the stage and grabbing each other’s instruments, but maybe 6 or 7 of them.

They were definitely not punk, but they were way different from all the bands I had seen before (or since).  The songs were mostly fast and pop-catchy with quite crazy lyrics “Hermit McDermot” and “I see Red” and “Crosswords”.  One slow number was my very favourite song for many years “Wake Up Charlie”.  As far as I know they only toured England the once, being based in New Zealand. I started buying their records – not all available easily and taped them.  Now they are incredibly expensive on CD, often around the hundred pound mark (who pays that sort of money?).  I am very slowly buying them again.

The leader of the band was Tim Finn, later joined by his brother Neil.  When Tim left in ’83 the band called it a day, except for one re-union.  Neil then formed Crowded House, one of the most successful bands of the late Eighties and Nineties.  And both Neil and Tim’s careers have drifted into sort-of obscurity – maybe another re-union is needed.