![]() ![]() “We were at that point called The Largest Living Things, or Barbara Stanwyck's Chest,” Finn told triple j in 2011. And people didn't really respond to it, either.” “I had seen the spectre of headlines that read ‘The Dullanes' or ‘The Malaise' or ‘The Mundanes', I thought the name was far too easy to manipulate. “We didn't want to be The Mullanes at that point,” Finn told Double J. The band, minus Hooper, decamped to Los Angeles and started making their debut album. “During the course of that album, with Mitchell Froom producing us, we kind of discovered ourselves and became a band,” Finn told triple j in 2011. We know now some of the mistakes to avoid.” "That is one advantage of having come from other bands. “We want to make sure the band's prepared, that we have the right guy to do it with, the right record company to push it. We know now some of the mistakes to avoid. That is one advantage of having come from other bands. “We're determined that whatever we release first is going to be pretty damn strong, we don't want to go into a studio ill-prepared,” he told triple j in 1985. With years of experience in Split Enz behind him, as well as a certain confidence in his songwriting skills, Finn wanted this new band to come out fully-formed. And some of the tapes from that tour are actually pretty good. We learned a cover version of Led Zeppelin's ‘Dancing Days' otherwise we did a whole bunch of new material. The crowds were small, but the music was good. The guy's going, ‘There you go, $2,000' and I had to go ‘Actually, sorry, it's $4,000 according to this piece of paper here.' They'd get really upset with me.” I was the guy who had to go in and count out the money over the ironing board. “We played to uniformly small audiences all around Australia and got reasonably good guarantees. So we basically burned every promoter from one end of the country to another. ![]() “We got good guarantees off the back of Split Enz but we didn't really pull any crowds at all,” Finn told Double J. The quartet called themselves The Mullanes (Finn's middle name and mother's maiden name) and embarked on a tour of the country, using the popularity Finn and Hester's prior outfit as leverage for generous payment at every stop. We basically burned every promoter from one end of the country to the other. I thought that was a positive, to have a different sound. "That was a sort of bass playing that I'd never played with before, it was very different to what Nigel Griggs in Split Enz did. “Nick played a really good, funky bassline over a song called ‘That's What I Call Love' and that's what got him the job. He did it with a smile on his face and I didn't mind too much. “He'd come around to our house and go on about me being a rockstar because I was in Split Enz. “Nick was on the fringes of a group of people that we knew he was a real smart arse actually,” Finn told Double J. Rounding out the line-up was bassist Nick Seymour, another member whose attitude was almost as important as his playing. He felt like having a blatt on guitar, which is what we wanted him to do. He's sick of playing keyboards now, he's sick of machines. "I think all the other bands blew it by asking him to play keyboards for them. “I've always admired Craig's guitar playing. “We're glad to have him on board,” Finn told triple j in 1985. Finn and Hester convinced The Reels' keyboardist and guitarist Craig Hooper to join, apparently no small feat as the musician was quite in demand. ![]() He'd come around to our house and go on about me being a rockstar because I was in Split Enz. Paul Hester and I were pretty full of beans and wanted to make a three-piece.” “The end of Split Enz was sort of frustrating on a few counts, but all those albums endure. “The transition between Split Enz and Crowded House was a highly energised time, really,” Finn told triple j in 2011. Split Enz ended only a year after Hester joined, but the two youngest members were determined to start something new. “He was also, obviously right from the beginning, a really funny guy. He was a good, hard hitter, played with enthusiasm and looked great when he played. He was a very simple drummer he didn't go in for fancy fills or whatever. “He was really solid, he had a great bass drum and had a nice swing in the way he played. “Paul auditioned for Split Enz and we were very impressed with him on a few levels,” Neil Finn told Double J in 2014. Hester got the gig, and the two men, who were both a number of years younger than the rest of the band, became close. Neil Finn met Paul Hester when the latter auditioned to become drummer for Split Enz, the hugely popular New Zealand art-rock group Finn's brother had formed over a decade prior. Feature by Dan Condon Chapter 1 Now We’re Getting Somewhere ![]()
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