I love Split Enz but here’s the kicker – I don’t like Crowded House. There, I’ve said it. I’m aware that this is controversial and may make me a pariah in some quarters. I revealed my feelings on this on the weekend at afternoon tea with friends who were into music and are around the same vintage.
They just looked at me.
“How can you not like Crowded House?” my friend asked mystified.
“Easy,” I replied. “I just don’t. They’re a bit too vanilla for me. Too sentimental and schmaltzy.”
As to why we were even having the conversation, well, that’s because I had just heard that Split Enz are coming to Byron Bay Bluesfest in April 2026.
Festival director Peter Noble says the pioneering rock visionaries will be performing their first Australian show in more than 20 years at Bluesfest. The reunion features original members Tim Finn, Neil Finn, Noel Crombie and Eddie Rayner with Matt Eccles on drums and James Milne on bass – the first show in almost two decades marking their 50th anniversary. (I do like Neil Finn in Split Enz, not so much outside Split Enz.)
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“These Kiwi art-rock legends will bring their timeless energy, theatrical flair and era-defining hits back to the stage – kicking off their long-awaited return with the first show right here at Bluesfest,” Noble explains. “This will be their first Australian show since 2006, right here at Byron Bay Bluesfest.
“With 25 platinum and seven gold albums to their name across Australasia, Bluesfest fans will be the first to see them play in Australia following their triumphant return show in New Zealand. And that’s just the start. Split Enz will be delivering hit after hit after hit (I See Red, Six Months in a Leaky Boat, History Never Repeats and more).”
While Split Enz is Bluesfest’s headline act, the April 2062 line-up is rich and deep and includes iconic US band Earth, Wind & Fire along with Buddy Guy, The Black Crowes, Mental As Anything (sans the late Greedy Smith) and many other acts.
Seeing Split Enz live again will be a treat. It’s, um, been a little while since I’ve experienced that. In fact, the last time was in Rockhampton when I was a cub reporter at The Morning Bulletin. It would have been 1980. Yes, back in the Stone Age.
I can see online records of them playing at the Municipal Theatre in Rocky but that history doesn’t entirely gel with my recollection. Because the gig I saw was definitely at the Rockhampton Showgrounds, which they packed out. I can remember it so clearly. I was the young reporter dude tasked with doing the rock music stories back then on account of the fact that I had long hair and John Lennon glasses.
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I interviewed Aussie Crawl when they came to town. I remember them all sitting together on a couch in a second-rate motel while I sat in a tatty armchair. I also interviewed Sports.
I’m a Tim Finn man. I guess it’s kind of like – are you a Paul McCartney or John Lennon guy?
When Split Enz came to town, I was dispatched to chat to them on a hot, sultry Rocky day. They emerged together from their hotel, blinking in the blaring sunlight and looking a bit worse for wear. They were probably asking themselves – what the hell are we doing in Rockhampton?
One of them – I think it was Noel Crombie – was just coming off a migraine. We conducted our short interview in the blaring sun while the photographer snapped away.
I was already a fan and as far as Finns go, I’m a Tim Finn man. I guess it’s kind of like – are you a Paul McCartney or John Lennon guy? I love Paul too but I grew up as a solidly John Lennon man having the glasses to boot. And my birthday is the same day as John’s.
Neil Finn is terrifically talented but, as I said, I’m a Tim guy and I know he was in Crowded House early in the piece and wrote some good songs for them but after he left, well, that was it for me.
I have been lucky enough to interview Tim Finn a couple of times more recently when he was over here from Auckland writing the music and lyrics for the stage musical Ladies in Black.
He has toured in Queensland a bit in the past decade or so. And it will be amazing to see him and Neil Finn back together with the others in Split Enz, which is really where it all started.
Split Enz was quirky and arty, with that carnivalesque costumery and those dada kinds of performances. A Split Enz concert was always tantamount to performance art, even at the Rockhampton Showgrounds.
If I close my eyes now, I can still see them on stage there playing I See Red at full throttle to an adoring crowd. As for Byron Bay Bluesfest 2026, well, bring it on.