City News

Crowded House announce full UK tour for Summer 2010

London 26th January 2010 – Crowded House have today announced that they will be returning to the UK in May/June this year for a nationwide tour.

The seeds of Crowded House were sewn in 1977 when, at the age of 19, Neil Finn joined his elder brother Tim’s band Split Enz as singer/guitarist. They toured the globe with hits penned by Neil such as ‘Message To My Girl’, ‘One Step Ahead’ and ‘History Never Repeats’.

From Split Enz, Neil and drummer Paul Hester went on to form Crowded House, a three piece completed by Nick Seymour on bass. Along the way, they became an excellent live band , performing acoustic sets with just an acoustic guitar, bass and snare drum. Playing to such intimate crowds, 3 part harmonising their way through lounge rooms and restaurants they learnt how to draw their audience in, how to sing together like it was a party.

Four albums later, they had achieved massive worldwide success and had a catalogue of songs that people everywhere loved to sing along to – ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’, ‘Fall At Your Feet’, ‘Better Be Home Soon’, ‘Something So Strong’, Weather With You’, ‘4 Seasons In One Day’ – the list goes on and on. But pressure of such success caused the band to loose their joy for making the music they so loved and in 1995, they broke up.

Tragically in 2005, Paul Hester died, but out of this tragic loss, was born a new spark of creativity in Finn and Seymour and later that year, they began to make music together again. Enter Matt Sherrod on drums and with the return of Mark Hart on keys in 2007 their fifth studio album ‘Time on Earth’ was released. The tour that followed in Finn’s words ‘turned us into a great band again, much more than nostalgia, it gave us the scent of something new.’

And so the freshly inspired Crowded House (Seymour, Sherrod, Hart and Finn) began work on their new album last year at Roundhead Studios in Auckland with Jim Scott as producer. Speaking of the new album, Finn has the following to say

‘This 11 track album is exotic in parts, traditional in origin, through many a twist and turn we fashioned some drama and intrigue. You will find some threads that go back through all that history and some new discoveries as well that will need to be followed up. Its part of the continuum and it may just be the best thing we’ve done ……till the next one.’

With fresh promise and the bit well and truly between their teeth, Crowded House are sure to prove that they are as much a force to be reckoned with now than they ever have been when they return to tour the UK this summer. Neil says

‘The intention is the same as ever, to get the people involved, to hit some heights and leave the songs hanging in the air.’

Clear your throats Ladies and Gentlemen and get ready to sing along, The Crowdies are back!

Crowded House plus special guests
7.30pm, Monday 24 May 2010
Symphony Hall, Birmingham
£35.00

Tickets on sale 10am Friday 29 January 2010