Homecoming concert

By Dean Taylor

Tim Finn plans to renew his relationship with his hometown when he concludes his short nationwide ‘Imaginary Kingdom’ tour here on Saturday, December 2. Te Awamutu was purposely chosen for the tour finale.

As the elder Finn brother says, “there’s a shared history there that is good to revisit once in a while. Although I have no immediate family still living there, I have old friends, and it means a lot to Dad to come over from Cambridge every so often,” he says. “He regularly does it on Anzac Day for example.”

Tim’s new solo album is being described as the best yet. For a songwriter and bandsman who has written such Split Enz classics as ‘Poor Boy’, ‘I Hope I Never’, and ‘Dirty Creature’, co-written Crowded House’s ‘Weather With You’, ‘Four Seasons In One Day’ and ‘It’ Only Natural’ and had solo hits such as ‘How’m I Gonna Sleep’, ‘Persuasion’ and ‘Fraction Too Much Friction’ that is high praise.

But for Tim the songwriting is the easy part. And at 54-years-old, his passion to perform is still strong.

No doubt buoyed by the success of the last Finn brothers project, which saw them touring the world on-and-off, both as a duo and with band, for nearly two years, Tim shows no sign of slowing down. In fact many of the new songs were written while touring. He says the very act of touring and playing inspires the creative juices, so the songs kept coming.

And the inspiration comes from everywhere - including his Te Awamutu childhood. “Astounding Moon’ harks back to his days as a boy with a telescope on the deck of his Teasdale Street home.

He says he is not so much driven to write and perform, “the songs seem to flow easily from a more regularly patterned life and strong relationships. It’s not ‘happy ever after’ and white picket fences - there will always be problems and a degree of suffering - but I now have a balance and the songs seem to come along unbidden,” he says.

Tim says balancing work and family life is easiest during a writing phase and hardest during a touring cycle.

“I have a very understanding wife, in fact she motivates me and is my ‘conscience’,” he says. “She believes very strongly in the power and beauty of music and that makes it all so much easier.”

Tim is promising a good balance of material to keep all the fans happy on this tour, with plenty there for fans of Split Enz.

And keeping him on his toes is a great band, full of energy and a youthfulness. Mareea Paterson, whom Tim worked with on his last solo tour, is back on bass, ex-Mocker Brett Adams is on guitar and vocals, providing as Tim describes ‘great harmonies and brilliant guitar work’, Simen (the Norwegian with an unpronounceable surname) is on keyboards and completing the line-up is ex-betchadupa drummer Matt Eccles, who also worked on Tim’s ‘Feeding The Gods’ album.