Who or what are crowded house? Is this a popular Australian Band? - deisenbud, probably USA

Crowded House were one of the most consistently popular rock bands in Australia, from 1985 until their demise in 1996. When I say popular, I don’t really mean that they dominated the singles’ charts. ‘Cos you know, drum-machine and synthesiser-filled mindless dance tracks almost always dominate the singles’ charts.

Actually, I’ve been wondering how good an indication of music sales the singles’ charts are? Surely these days the vast bulk of CD sales are of albums, not singles? So wouldn’t the album charts be a better indication? Ah, if I ran the world…

Anyway, back to Crowded House. Whether they’re Australian or New Zealanders could be debated - their albums were recorded in both countries, and their members also come from both countries.

Headed by very talented songwriter Neil Finn, their biggest US hit was “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, which reached number 2 in 1986. They had more hits in Europe, and apparently band members Neil and Tim Finn were awarded OBEs for their contribution to the arts.

Eventually the touring became too much for them, and they wound up the band in 1996, their final concert being a fundraiser on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, to just a handful of people. Well, okay, to about 100,000 people. But who’s counting?

Update 2007-06-01: Sadly the chances of Crowded House ever re-forming are long gone, as drummer Paul Hester committed suicide in 2005, though as-of 2007 the remaining members are recording and touring again.

• Wikipedia: Crowded House

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2002 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.