Crowded House

Crowded House
Crowded House 2007 during a performance in Hyde Park, London
General information
Genre (s)	skirt
founding	1985, 2007
resolution	1996
Website	http://www.crowdedhouse.com
Founding members
Vocals , guitar	Neil Finn
Bass , vocals	Nicholas "Nick" Seymour
Drums , vocals	Paul Hester (1985–1994, 1996, † 2005)
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar	Neil Finn (since 1985)
Bass, vocals	Nicholas "Nick" Seymour (since 1985)
guitar	Liam Finn (since 2019)
Drums	Elroy Finn (since 2019)
Keyboards	Mitchell Froom (since 2019)
former members
Vocals, guitar, keyboards	Tim Finn (1990-1991)
Drums	Peter Jones (1994-1996)
Guitar, keyboards, vocals	Mark Hart (1993–1996, 2007–2015)
Drums	Matt Sherrod (2007-2015)

Crowded House is an Australian - New Zealand rock band around singer-songwriter Neil Finn . The band was formed in 1985, broke up in 1996 and celebrated a reunion in 2007. Her biggest hits include the singles Don't Dream It's Over (1986), Something So Strong (1987) and Weather With You (1992).

Band history

The band was formed from members of the famous New Zealand glitter rock group Split Enz , an oceanic counterpart to the English Roxy Music . Singer, guitarist and main songwriter was the New Zealander Neil Finn (* 1958), the brother of the former band leader of Split Enz , Tim Finn (* 1952). Tim Finn had brought his younger brother Neil to Split Enz a few years earlier and left the group himself in 1983. Neil, who de facto became the new bandleader of Split Enz after his brother left , founded the new group in 1985 after Split Enz split up in December 1984 together with Split Enz drummer Paul Hester (* 1959; † 2005) and bass player Nick Seymour (* 1959).

At Finn's request, the first Crowded House album should sound far less elaborate than Split Enz and should be based on the clear rock and song structures of American bands. The band began work on the debut album in Los Angeles, where it was completed and first released in June 1986. After a long and unsuccessful promotion work in the USA and Europe, the breakthrough came in January 1987 in America when the third single Don't Dream It's Over reached number 2 on the American Billboard charts. The fourth single Something So Strong also reached the US top ten with a 7th place.

The second album Temple of Low Men , released in July 1988, was then far less successful and did not produce a single hit. Since then, there has been a gradual decline in popularity in the United States with a simultaneous rise in popularity in England and continental Europe. In the US, the band was considered a one-hit wonder.

From June 1991 released third album Woodface , for which Neil's brother Tim had briefly joined the band, made it in February 1992 the single Weather with You in the top ten in Great Britain and several other European countries; in Australia and New Zealand, Crowded House were now superstars. The following year the band was named Live Act of the Year at the Brit Awards; Neil Finn was named Songwriter of the Year by Q Magazine . The fourth album, Together Alone , now instead of Tim Finn with multi-instrumentalist Mark Hart , who had worked with Supertramp among others , was recorded in 1993 in a beach house on Karekare Beach near Auckland and is considered by many fans and critics together with Woodface as the best in the band. Neil Finn received several awards for his songwriting.

Despite the success, Paul Hester left Crowded House due to personal problems in late April 1994 and was replaced by the deadstar drummer Peter Jones , who accompanied the band during their performance at the London Fleadh Festival.

Despite a considerable increase in popularity due to live performances, Neil Finn disbanded the band in the summer of 1996 while they were promoting their greatest hits album. For the subsequent big farewell concert Farewell to the World in front of the Sydney Opera House , which was attended by more than 100,000 fans, Paul Hester even returned to Crowded House, who also played the three new songs for the best song released in June 1996. of album Recurring Dream .

In 2001 there was a quasi-reunion when, in a solo performance by Neil Finn, Nick Seymour and Paul Hester also appeared on stage for a few songs.

The suicide of depression sufferer Paul Hester in 2005 brought the rest of the band back together: In June 2007, Crowded House released the first studio album since 1993 entitled Time on Earth , which was originally planned as a solo album by Neil Finn. Paul Hester's successor was Matt Sherrod , who had already drummed for Beck . On July 7th, 2007 they performed at the Live Earth concerts in Sydney. In October 2007 the band played some concerts in Germany and Switzerland. At the end of 2010 she released her sixth album Intriguer . Just like Time on Earth , the album was particularly successful in Australia and New Zealand, but received little international attention. In 2016, Crowded House were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame .

The European tour planned for 2020 has been announced with personnel changes. Instead of Hart and Sherrod, Neil Finn's sons Liam and Elroy and the Crowded House producer Mitchell Froom are listed as band members.

Style and level of awareness in German-speaking countries

Musically, the band can be classified in the field of guitar rock. Finn's melodies are often based on folk songs, similar to the Beatles' . The lyrics of the songs deal a lot with inner moods, but also sometimes satirically account for consumer culture (cf. Chocolate Cake on Woodface 1991). In German-speaking countries, in addition to the radio hit Weather with You, Locked Out (from the soundtrack of the film Reality Bites ) and Don't Dream It's Over , which has now been performed by such different artists as Sixpence None the Richer , Paul Young and the Star-Search, are mainly known -Winner Florence Joy was covered.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)							Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	AU	NZ
1986	Crowded House	DE44 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	UK99 silver (1 week)UK	US12 platinum (50 weeks)US	AU27 × 6 Six-fold platinum (13 weeks)AU	NZ3 platinum (50 weeks)NZ
1988	Temple of Low Men	DE57 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	-	US40 (19 weeks) US	AU1 (27 weeks) AU	NZ2 platinum (24 weeks)NZ
1991	Woodface	DE26 (19 weeks) DE	AT8thAT	CH12 (11 weeks) CH	UK6th × 2 Double platinum (93 weeks)UK	US83 (17 weeks) US	AU2 (50 weeks) AU	NZ1 platinum (58 weeks)NZ
1993	Together alone	DE55 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK4th platinum (33 weeks)UK	US73 (7 weeks) US	AU2 (18 weeks) AU	NZ1 platinum (33 weeks)NZ
1996	Recurring Dream - The Very Best Of	DE57 (8 weeks) DE	AT43 (5 weeks) AT	CH17 (10 weeks) CH	UK1 × 4 Quadruple platinum (91 weeks)UK	-	AU1 × 13 13 times platinum (68 weeks)AU	NZ1 platinum (36 weeks)NZ	Greatest hits album
1999	Afterglow	-	-	-	UK18 (2 weeks) UK	-	AU36 gold (2 weeks)AU	NZ30 (2 weeks) NZ	contains B-sides and previously unpublished items
2006	Farewell to the World	-	-	-	-	-	AU43 (1 week) AU	-	Live album
2007	Time on Earth	DE95 (1 week) DE	-	CH89 (2 weeks) CH	UK3 silver (5 weeks)UK	US46 (2 weeks) US	AU1 platinum (12 weeks)AU	NZ2 gold (10 weeks)NZ
2010	Intriguer	DE79 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK12 (3 weeks) UK	US50 (2 weeks) US	AU1 (5 weeks) AU	NZ3 (7 weeks) NZ
	The Very Very Best Of	-	-	-	UK49 silver (1 week)UK	-	AU11 × 2 Double platinum (20 weeks)AU	NZ12 gold (4 weeks)NZ	Greatest hits

Singles

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)							Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	AU	NZ
1986	World Where You Live	-	-	-	-	US65 (8 weeks) US	-	-	First published: August 1, 1986
	Now we're getting somewhere	-	-	-	-	-	-	NZ33 (3 weeks) NZ	First published: September 1, 1986
	Don't Dream It's Over	DE13 (13 weeks) DE	-	-	UK25th gold (13 weeks)UK	US2 (24 weeks) US	-	NZ1 (20 weeks) NZ	First published: October 1, 1986
1987	Something so strong	-	-	-	UK95 (1 week) UK	US7 (21 weeks) US	-	NZ3 (12 weeks) NZ	First published: May 1987
1988	Better Be Home Soon	DE59 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	-	US42 (11 weeks) US	AU2 (18 weeks) AU	NZ2 (14 weeks) NZ	First published: June 12, 1988
	When you come	-	-	-	-	-	AU27 (9 weeks) AU	-	First published: September 1, 1988
	Sister Madly	-	-	-	-	-	-	NZ26 (4 weeks) NZ	First published: August 1988
	Into temptation	-	-	-	-	-	-	NZ38 (3 weeks) NZ	First published: November 29, 1988
1991	Chocolate Cake	-	-	-	UK69 (2 weeks) UK	-	AU20 (10 weeks) AU	NZ7 (11 weeks) NZ	First published: May 27, 1991
	Fall at Your Feet	-	-	-	UK17 (8 weeks) UK	US75 (6 weeks) US	AU31 (9 weeks) AU	NZ24 (7 weeks) NZ	First published: August 4, 1991
1992	Weather with You	DE23 (26 weeks) DE	-	CH8 (20 weeks) CH	UK7th silver (9 weeks)UK	-	AU27 (8 weeks) AU	NZ9 (9 weeks) NZ	First published: February 27, 1992
	Four Seasons in One Day	-	-	-	UK26 (5 weeks) UK	-	AU47 (2 weeks) AU	NZ33 (3 weeks) NZ	First publication: 1992
	It's only natural	DE59 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	UK24 (4 weeks) UK	-	AU15 (9 weeks) AU	NZ31 (6 weeks) NZ	First published: February 1992
1993	Distant Sun	DE70 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	UK19 (6 weeks) UK	-	AU23 (9 weeks) AU	NZ5 (9 weeks) NZ
	Nails in My Feet	-	-	-	UK22 (4 weeks) UK	-	AU34 (3 weeks) AU	NZ11 (4 weeks) NZ
1994	Locked out	-	-	-	UK12 (5 weeks) UK	-	-	-
	Fingers of Love	-	-	-	UK27 (4 weeks) UK	-	-	-
	Private Universe	-	-	-	-	-	AU46 (1 week) AU	-
1995	Together alone	-	-	-	-	-	-	NZ37 (4 weeks) NZ
	Pineapple Head	-	-	-	UK27 (3 weeks) UK	-	-	NZ50 (1 week) NZ
1996	Everything is good for you	-	-	-	-	-	AU10 (7 weeks) AU	-
	Instinct	-	-	-	UK12 (5 weeks) UK	-	-	NZ17 (4 weeks) NZ
	Not the Girl You Think You Are	-	-	-	UK20 (3 weeks) UK	-	AU37 (3 weeks) AU	NZ41 (1 week) NZ
2007	Don't stop now	-	-	-	UK41 (2 weeks) UK	-	AU34 (5 weeks) AU	-
	Pour le monde	-	-	-	UK51 (1 week) UK	-	-	-
2015	Help is coming	-	-	-	UK88 (1 week) UK	-	-	-

More singles

• 1986: Mean to Me
• 1989: I Feel Possessed
• 2007: She Called Up
• 2010: Saturday Sun

Video albums

• 2006: Farewell to the World (AU:× 3Triple platinum )
• 2002: Dreaming - The Videos (AU:× 2Double platinum )

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Belgium 1996: for the album Recurring Dream - The Very Best Of  Canada 1991: for the album Woodface 1994: for the album Together Alone 2003: for the album Recurring Dream - The Very Best Of  Netherlands 1992: for the album Woodface 1998: for the album Recurring Dream - The Very Best Of

Platinum record  Canada 1987: for the album Crowded House 1988: for the album Temple of Low Men 2 × platinum record  Spain 1996: for the album Recurring Dream - The Very Best Of

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	-	gold1	27 × platinum27	1,650,000	aria.com.au
Belgium (BEA)	-	gold1	-	25,000	ultratop.be
Canada (MC)	-	3 × gold3	2 × platinum2	350,000	musiccanada.com
New Zealand (RMNZ)	-	2 × gold2	5 × platinum5	90,000	nztop40.co.nz
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	2 × gold2	-	100,000	nvpi.nl
Spain (Promusicae)	-	-	2 × platinum2	200,000	Sólo éxitos: año año, 1959-2002
United States (RIAA)	-	-	platinum1	1,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	4 × silver4th	gold1	7 × platinum7th	2,930,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	4 × silver4th	10 × gold10	44 × platinum44

literature

• Chris Bourke, "Something So Strong", Sydney 1997, ISBN 0-7329-0886-8 .
• Kerry Downey and Chris Twomey: "Private Universe", London 1996, ISBN 0-7119-4816-X .

swell

1. ^ ARIA Hall of Fame. Australian Recording Industry Association , accessed August 6, 2017 . 
2. ↑ News blog of band leader Neil Finn. Neil Finn , accessed December 16, 2019 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} DE AT CH UK US AU NZ

Web links

• Official website (English)
• Official German homepage ( Memento from May 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
• English fansite
• Crowded House at laut.de
• Crowded House at Discogs (English)
• Crowded House at Allmusic (English)