Split Enz

aka Split Ends

Brian White

16 Apr 2013

Arguably the most important New Zealand band of all time, and certainly the most successful, Split Enz redefined the way New Zealand wrote, created and enjoyed music, traversing a path from eclectic folkies to stadium filling superstars in their 14 years.

Split Enz emerged from the leftfield of the New Zealand music scene in the mid-1970s, but they gradually built a mainstream audience on both sides of the Tasman. Although based in Melbourne and signed to the indie Australian company Mushroom Records for most of their career, they remained as strongly identified with New Zealand as the buzzy-bee and the All Blacks.

Bold As Brass

Phil Judd backstage 1976

Split Enz - Late Last Night (1976)

Down at the old saloon, Auckland, 3 February 2020. A reunion with (from left) Mike Chunn, Murray Grindlay, Barry Coburn, and music journalist Phil Gifford. In December 1972 promoter Barry Coburn presented Split Ends at its second gig, at Levi's Saloon on Customs Street, Auckland. Grindlay and Gifford, of course, also have many tales to tell.

Photo credit: Tyler Coburn

I Got You

1975 publicity shot in Auckland domain. L to R: Noel Crombie, Tim Finn, Phil Judd, Eddie Rayner, Mike Chunn, Paul Crowther, Wally Wilkinson.

I See Red

1973 press ad for the first single

Message To My Girl

Tim Finn, Split Enz, Auckland Town Hall, 1975

Photo credit: Bruce Jarvis Collection - Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1704-1043B-21

Tim Finn, Split Enz, Auckland Town Hall, 1975

Photo credit: Bruce Jarvis Collection - Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1704-1043A-15A

1974 Students Arts Council tour

Photo credit: Murray Cammick Collection

Homegrown Profiles: The Finns (2005)

Poor Boy

Tim Finn and Noel Crombie, Split Enz, Auckland Town Hall, 1975

Photo credit: Bruce Jarvis Collection - Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1704-1043C-18A

Mike Chunn, Split Enz, Auckland Town Hall, 1975

Photo credit: Bruce Jarvis Collection - Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1704-1043A-23A

Split Enz "Spellbound" documentary, 1993, narrated by Sam Neill (part one of five, all five parts are available via NZ On Screen)

Split Enz, 1978 - clockwise from bottom left: Malcolm Green, Eddie Rayner, Neil Finn, Tim Finn, Noel Crombie, Nigel Griggs

Early 1977: Michael Gudinski and a Mushroom colleague celebrate with Tim Finn and Mike Chunn.

Neil and Tim Finn interviewed in 1984

The press release for the first single 'Split Ends' / 'For You'

Photo credit: Murray Cammick Collection

Noel Crombie in a shoot for Cha Cha magazine, mid-1980s

Photo credit: Murray Cammick Collection

Tim Finn and Mike Chunn, Split Enz, Auckland Town Hall, 1975

Photo credit: Bruce Jarvis Collection - Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1704-1043A-32A

Canadian cover for the 1980 single 'Poor Boy'

Phil Judd, 1976

1976-77

Split Enz "Spellbound" documentary, 1993, narrated by Sam Neill (part five of five, all five parts are available via NZ On Screen)

Maybe (1975 Telethon performance)

Tim Finn and Phil Manzanera having a chat (2021)

Live at the Auckland Town Hall, 1976

Promotor Ian Magan with Tim Finn in the early 1980s. Magan, a "pirate" founder of Radio Hauraki, worked with Split Enz for a decade as their promoter, from the 1975 university tours to the later stadium shows.

Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick

Enz With A Bang (Final NZ tour 1984)

Split Enz "Spellbound" documentary, 1993, narrated by Sam Neill (part two of five, all five parts are available via NZ On Screen)

Split Enz, c 1979/1980

Mental Notes publicity shot - L to R: Wally Wilkinson (back), Timothy Finn (front), Noel Crombie, Eddie Rayner (back), Jonathan Michael Chunn (front), Philip Judd, Emlyn Crowther (as they were called on the album)

Photo credit: Simon Grigg Collection

Split Enz, Auckland Town Hall, 1975

Photo credit: Bruce Jarvis Collection - Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1704-1043B-02

The promo pack sent out by Split Enz's management for the 1975 release of the Mental Notes album

Split Enz fanclub magazine, 1982

Noel Crombie in the early 1980s

1976

Photo credit: Murray Cammick Collection

Split Enz fanclub magazine, 1977

Split Enz, 1977 - back: Neil Finn, Tim Finn, Nigel Griggs, Eddie Rayner; front: Malcolm Green, Noel Crombie

'Haul Away', live in Canada, June 82.

1980: L to R: Neil Finn, Tim Finn, Nigel Griggs, Eddie Rayner, Malcolm Green, Noel Crombie

History Never Repeats

Tim Finn finds that the visual side of the Split Enz show can be a little uncomfortable at times. Noel Crombie creating the 1976 trademark Finn hair in London.

1978-79 - L to R: Noel Crombie, Tim Finn, Eddie Rayner, Neil Finn, Malcolm Green, Nigel Griggs

Split Enz "Spellbound" documentary, 1993, narrated by Sam Neill (part four of five, all five parts are available via NZ On Screen)

I Got You (Paul Hogan Show 1980)

Spellbound (Live on Grunt Machine 1975)

A slide of the original Phil Judd painting used for the cover of 1975's Mental Notes album. The original is now in Te Papa

Split Enz receive platinum records from PolyGram New Zealand in 1980 for sales of the True Colours album. After a dispute with Festival Records in NZ over their promotion of the Frenzy album Enz moved their local distribution to PolyGram for three albums. With them is PolyGram's Stuart Rubin.