Crowded House
Crowded House is an Australian- New Zealand rock band around the singer -songwriter Neil Finn. The band was founded in 1985, dissolved in 1996 and celebrated their reunion in 2007. Among her biggest hits include the singles Do not Dream It's Over (1987 ), Something So Strong ( 1987), Weather With You (1992 ) and It's Only Natural (1992).
Band History
The band was formed from members of the well-known New Zealand glitter rock group Split Enz, an oceanic equivalent of the English Roxy Music. Singer, guitarist and principal songwriter was the New Zealander Neil Finn ( b. 1958 ), brother of the former bandleader of Split Enz, Tim Finn ( b. 1952 ). Tim Finn had his younger brother Neil brought a few years earlier to Split Enz and leave the group even 1983. Neil, who had become after the departure of his brother's de facto new bandleader of Split Enz, the new group 1985, after the dissolution of Split Enz ( December 1984) together with the Split Enz drummer Paul Hester (* 1959, † 2005 ) and bassist Nick Seymour ( b. 1959 ). The first album by Crowded House should be far less elaborated at the request of Finn sound as Split Enz and be based on the clear rock song structures, and American bands. The band recorded so the work on the debut album in Los Angeles, where it was completed in 1986 and first published. After a long and unsuccessful first doctoral work in the U.S. and Europe, the breakthrough came in the spring of 1987 in America, as the third single, Do not Dream It's Over, # 2 on the Billboard -Charts; the fourth single Something So Strong reached # 7
The second album Temple of Low Men by 1988, then far less successful and produced no hit single. Since then, a gradual decrease of popularity in the U.S. was observed in England and continental Europe, with an increase of the same; from the third album Wood Face, published in 1991, for the Neils brother Tim was briefly joined the band, made it 1992 Single Weather with You in the Top Ten of Britain and other countries. In Australia and New Zealand Crowded House were superstars. The following year the band was honored as " Live Act of the Year" at the Brit Awards; Neil Finn was awarded the " Q Magazine" Songwriter of the Year. The fourth album, Together Alone, now with multi-instrumentalist Mark Hart, who had worked among others with: Supertramp, was recorded in 1993 in a beach house at Karekare beach in the vicinity of Auckland and is considered by many fans along with Wood Face as the best of the band. Despite the success of Paul Hester Crowded House left due to personal problems end of April 1994 and was replaced by the Dead Star drummer Peter Jones, who accompanied the band at their gig at the London Fleadh Festival. One result of live performances again significantly increasing popularity despite sparked Neil Finn on the band in 1996 while she was promoting her straight 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, even returned Paul Hester briefly to Crowded House back, who published also in the three new songs for the 1996 Best of album Recurring Dream participated. In 2001, once again came to a quasi- reunion than with a solo performance Neil Finn and Nick Seymour and Paul Hester went on stage for a few songs.
The suicide of depression suffering Paul Hester in 2005 brought the rest of the band back together: In June 2007, the first studio album by Crowded House appeared since 1993 entitled Time on Earth, which was originally planned as a solo album by Neil Finn. Successor of Paul Hester was Matt Sherrod, who had already tumbled for Beck. On July 7, 2007, she appeared as part of the Live Earth concerts in Sydney. In October 2007, the band played several concerts in Germany and in Switzerland. The end of 2010, she released her sixth album Intriguer.
Known in Germany in addition to the radio hit Weather with You mainly Locked Out ( from the soundtrack of the film Reality Bites ) and Do not Dream It's Over, in the meantime by such diverse artists as Sixpence None the Richer, Paul Young and the Star -Search winner Florence Joy was covered.
Style
Musically the band is classified in the range guitar rock. Finn's melodies are modeled similar to the Beatles to folk songs. The lyrics of the songs deal with a lot of inner moods, but also expect sometimes satirically with consumer culture (cf. Chocolate Cake on Face Wood 1991).
Discography
Albums are highlighted.