Split Enz

Split Enz biography

Split Enz were a New Zealand band of the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved chart success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada during the early 1980s "’ most notably with the single "I Got You", and built a cult following elsewhere. Their musical style was eclectic and original, incorporating influences from art rock, vaudeville, swing, punk, rock, new wave, and pop.

The group formed in 1971 at the University of Auckland with the original lineup of Phil Judd, Tim Finn, Mike Chunn, Robert Gillies and Noel Crombie. From 1972 the band became a full-time occupation for the friends, and they called the band Split Ends. The spelling was later changed to Split Enz shortly before their first trip to Australia, to signify their New Zealand roots (NZ is a common abbreviation for New Zealand). The group was widely known for their unique visual presentation. Their costumes and hair were wild, colourful and inventive.

The group's career falls into two phases. The first was rooted in folk and the progressive rock scene of the early 1970s. From 1977 onwards, with the departure of Judd and the enlisting of Neil Finn, the group's sound began to change from a progressive rock sound to New Wave and pop. The early 1980s proved the group's most commercially successful period, with a string of popular albums in the bourgeoning New Wave style. The group further established a legacy that is still recognised as a distinct musical style after over twenty years from their departure. Since then, the group has reunited as Split Enz several times, though its members have gone on to create other successful musical groups with one another since the breakup in 1984, such as Crowded House, Schnell Fenster, Citizen Band and the Finn Brothers.

The origins of Split Enz lay in the friendships that developed amongst a group of young students in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After finishing primary school, Brian Timothy Finn attended Sacred Heart College boarding school, where he met Jonathan Michael Chunn. They wrote songs and played music together there over the next five years. In 1971 Finn and Chunn went to Auckland University, and there they met and befriended a group of art students including Philip Judd, Geoffrey Noel Crombie and Rob Gillies.

The close friendship between Finn and Judd became the core of Split Enz; the band soon started writing together with Judd working out the basic form and lyrics and Finn (who was strongly influenced by classic British pop like the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Move) providing melodies.

As the partnership developed, they began stockpiling songs and decided to form a group as an outlet for their compositions; the material they wrote together in this original burst of creativity provided the bulk of the Enz repertoire for several years. They approached classical trained violinist Miles Golding, reed player Mike Howard and together with Chunn they formed a five-piece acoustic group called Split Ends in October 1972.

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