30 things you need to know about Crowded House on their 30th anniversary
Today (November 4) marks the 30th anniversary of Crowded House’s formation in Melbourne. They went on to release six studio albums and a rarities collection between 1986 and 2010.
To mark the occasion, their full catalogue is issued globally. Compiled by Neil Finn and audio archivist Jeremy Ansell, each album will be reissued with a wealth of previously unreleased material – over 100 tracks.
Their record company put together 30 facts to accompany the global re-issue.
The Crowded House re-issues collection is comprised of Crowded House, Temple Of Low Men, Woodface, Together Alone, Afterglow, Time On Earth and Intriguer. Full info atwww.crowdedhouse.com
Crowded House will be inducted into the ARIA Hall OF Fame at this year’s ARIA Awards. The band collected the ARIA Award for Song Of The Year and Best New Talent at the very first ARIA Awards, 30 years ago.
Nick Seymour has designed this year’s artwork to celebrate the 30th Annual ARIA Awards.
Crowded House play four Sydney Opera House shows later this month: November 24, 25, 26, 27. All shows sold out in minutes and hark back to the location, 20 years ago, where over 100,000 people witnessed the band say ‘Farewell To The World’.
Celebrating Australian Music Month, the live show on Sunday November 27 is scheduled for live-broadcast on ABC1 (TV), Double J and iView and live-streamed on the ABC TV Facebook page (@ABCTV).
In Australia the band have chalked up album sales in excess of 26x Platinum, 16 ARIA Top 50 Singles and 5 ARIA #1 albums, spanning 1986 to now.
Outside of Australia, Crowded House’s six studio albums have achieved platinum sales in NZ, UK, United States and Canada.
Crowded House’s ‘Recurring Dream: The Very Best Of’ collection from 1996 spent ten weeks at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart, boasting Australian accreditation of 13x platinum and closing in on sales of 1 million units.
The 1986 debut album Crowded House (Australia #1, NZ #3, Canada #8, US #12) is expanded from 11 tracks to 28 tracks, including new liner notes from foundation fan club president Peter Green.
1988’s Temple Of Low Men (Australia #1, NZ #10, Canada #10, US #40) is expanded from 10 tracks to 31 tracks, including new liner notes from studio engineer on the album, Tchad Blake.
The 1991 album Woodface (Australia #2, NZ #1, UK #6, Canada #20) grows from 14 tracks to 35 tracks, including new liner notes from Australian journalist Dino Scatena.
The 1993 album Together Alone (Australia #2, NZ #1, UK #4, Canada #18) is expanded from 13 tracks to 27 tracks, including new liner notes from UK journalist David Hepworth.
The 1999 rarities collection Afterglow (Australia #36, UK #18), originally with 13 tracks, now has 27 tracks, including new liner notes from UK journalist Pete Paphides.
The 2007 album Time On Earth (Australia #1, NZ #2, UK #3) grows from 14 tracks to 27 tracks, including new liner notes from Australian music industry identity John O’Donnell.
Intriguer from 2010 (Australia #1, NZ #3, UK #12) is expanded from 10 tracks to 26 tracks, including new liner notes from the album’s producer, Jim Scott.
Track selection and curation of the reissue project has been overseen personally by Neil Finn and Nick Seymour.
Each album includes new interview transcriptions with Neil Finn and Nick Seymour detailing song inspirations, insights into the origins of artwork, unseen photos and more – housed in a 36-page book for each album.
Each album will also be reissued on luscious 180 gram vinyl, out today. Afterglow will be on vinyl for the very first time.
Crowded House was initially called The Mullanes (after Neil’s mum’s family name) and upon formation, circulated demos – and were signed by Capitol US under that name. The Crowded House deluxe edition includes these Mullanes demos.
Rolling Stone USA’s review of the first Crowded House album gloated that it included tunes that Paul McCartney would kill to write.
ARIA, in partnership with Twitter, is creating custom-made Crowded House twitter emoji for the ARIA Awards.
Crowded House Facebook is 260,000 followers strong. Fans can follow Crowded House on Facebook for daily interviews, snippets and insights behind previously unheard tracks – a HUGE content rollout which will continue through until Christmas.
Remember the time Miley & Ariana covered Don’t Dream It’s Over in animal onesies?
And in September, Chris Martin and Eddie Vedder covered Don’t Dream It’s Over?
A version of Better Be Home Soon is on this week’s ARIA #1 album, Jessica Mauboy’s Secret Daughter.
Crowded House will grace EMI Music/ Universal Music’s William Street, Woolloomooloo window for the month of November. The design is an update of a billboard placed in London in 1994 after their Best International Act win at the Brit Awards that year.
If all 7 reissued albums, plus the existing Very Very Best Of album re-enter the ARIA Top 50 next week, it will be the first time an Australian act has achieved 8 albums in the Top 50.
CrowdedHouse.com is selling exclusive bundles, with mirror sites launched in the UK and US.
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