Finn felt the familiar alchemy last month when Split Enz came back together and played their first gig of the 2026 tour at Electric Avenue Festival in Christchurch. There, the band\u2019s 1000th show, they were met by an enthusiastic, intergenerational crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe songs have travelled through the years, and they don\u2019t seem to get older. When you get to play them live, they\u2019re in the air again, and they live and they breathe, and it\u2019s a magical thing,\u201d Finn says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very up-tempo set. It\u2019s the energy level of the band around the time of True Colours, when we really stepped it up in terms of the songs. So it\u2019s got a real energy, and we\u2019re more than capable of delivering that, which is a lovely thing to know when we\u2019re not quite as young as we used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
“The songs have travelled through the years, and they don\u2019t seem to get older,” says Neil Finn.<\/p>\n
Finn first saw Split Enz as a spectator. It was his big brother Tim\u2019s band. They were art students, and they were delivering something wholly unique in 1970s New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a gateway into other worlds. This incredible band was unlike any other \u2013 they completely had their own way of doing things,\u201d Finn recalls.<\/p>\n
He officially joined in 1977. Nigel Griggs had just entered the mix and Phil Judd had left the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spent time at a place called The Old Mill house in the Welsh countryside, which now has sort of mythical status for us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the birth of a new band and the jamming is what I remember. Nigel always used to record the jams, and he\u2019d have them edited up the next morning for us to listen to. Some of them spawned actual songs, and some of them were just delightful moments in time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Split Enz have reunited for live shows in 2026, the first time they’ve played together in 18 years. Photo \/ Karen Inderbitzen-Waller<\/p>\n
Electric Avenue was the first show of their 2026 comeback. The band plays two shows in Wellington and two in Auckland in May, and on Thursday announced two new shows in Hamilton and Christchurch due to \u201coverwhelming demand\u201d.<\/p>\n
But one thing fans won\u2019t see on this tour is Split Enzs\u2019 signature makeup, worn by the band in their heyday. Asked why, Finn is frank.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019d be nothing worse than seeing a sweating, heavily made-up face start to crack halfway through the set on those big image screens, so we thought better of it. It\u2019s one thing to be young and fresh-faced and put heavy makeup on \u2013 that has a certain allure glamour \u2013 but we just thought it might end up looking a bit unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he assures fans, the OG glamour is still well and truly on display. Their legendary suits are out and proud, and in line with Split Enz tradition, have been made by percussionist Noel Crombie and his wife Sally-Anne Mills.<\/p>\n
Split Enz at Electric Avenue. Photo \/ Radlab<\/p>\n
\u201cThey printed all the fabrics themselves from scratch on some linen they bought several years ago,\u201d says Finn. \u201cSo it\u2019s a pretty comprehensive job, and you\u2019d expect no less from Noel and Sally. They\u2019re both meticulous and extremely resourceful. The suits were wonderful to wear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crombie has played a key role in the band\u2019s look. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was, in many ways, the emblem,\u201d Finn says of his bandmate. \u201cHe was emblematic of the band as a personality on stage, but also in his contribution to the look, to the styling, to the haircuts, to all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Split Enz in 1976, before Neil Finn joined the band. From left, Emlyn Crowther, Eddie Rayner, Phil Judd, Tim Finn, Noel Crombie and Rob Gillies (band member Mike Chunn is missing).<\/p>\n
Alongside Finn and Crombie, this band features original members Tim Finn and Eddie Rayner, and pays tribute to Nigel Griggs, who was unable to travel for the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy suit is a very enlarged and exaggerated pinstripe, reminiscent of a suit that Nigel, our bass player, wore several years ago. It\u2019s a homage to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe missed him, but the addition of James Milne [Lawrence Arabia] and Matt Eccles [Betchadupa] on bass and drums brought a new fresh energy as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both accomplished musicians in their own right, Finn says they fitted right in to the band.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just were sort of people that might have ended up in the band. They understand the humour and they have a kind of band aesthetic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve known them for a long time. So there\u2019s a sort of soulfulness to that. They\u2019re not strangers, they\u2019re not session musicians, they understand the dynamic of bands, and they put themselves into it, heart and soul.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finn says that once they start playing the songs, \u201cthey have their own way of kicking in muscle memory\u201d, giving a connection to the songs again and to the band.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel strange that we\u2019re still laughing about the same things and we\u2019re still just as adolescent with our jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n
From decades of experience as a musician, he knows this is special.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel sorry for bands that don\u2019t get on, and there\u2019s quite a few of those that get together and can\u2019t even be in the same room, and they\u2019re doing it purely for the money. I don\u2019t knock anybody for playing music for any reason, particularly if it\u2019s good music, but we have the benefit of really liking each other\u2019s company and really enjoying the laughs and the camaraderie and the rehearsals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both the band and the crowds at Electric Avenue enjoyed the sense of nostalgia from Split Enz first performance in 18 years. Photos \/ Radlab<\/p>\n
In an age where artificial intelligence is playing an increasing role in music production, he says those rehearsals and live gigs are a gift.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beautiful thing about live music is that it can\u2019t be replicated. A band like ours, we\u2019re not on a computer grid. We\u2019ve got time to stop if we want to talk, to jam on an ending, to extend things, to shorten things. It\u2019s a beautiful thing that\u2019s responsive to an audience, and we\u2019ll throw it back to them, and they\u2019ll throw it back to us, and I think people are appreciating that more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because songs and music, he says, are something that can be relied on in uncertain times.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s positive. It\u2019s going to make you have a better day. It\u2019s going to comfort you in your sad times. There\u2019s a lot of things that are separating us now from humanity, not the least being these little things that we\u2019re talking on here,\u201d he says, pointing to the phone. \u201cFeeling slightly connected to a chat group is completely different than being in an audience, singing a song and sharing that communal feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
A feeling he says will be captured in the Auckland and Wellington shows this May.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think those songs are ingrained in the psyche of many New Zealanders so I would expect it\u2019ll be a unifying thing. You\u2019ll come and listen to songs like Nobody Takes Me Seriously, and enjoy the drama and humour of it. You can expect a high-energy set, some good humour, amazing visuals courtesy of Noel and a fully immersive experience of Split Enz.\u201d<\/p>\n
Split Enz take their Forever Enz Tour 2026 to Hamilton\u2019s Claudelands Arena on May 2, Christchurch\u2019s Wolfbrook Arena on May 4, Wellington\u2019s TSB Arena on May 6 (sold out) and May 7, and Auckland\u2019s Spark Arena on May 9 (sold out) and May 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finn felt the familiar alchemy last month when Split Enz came back together and played their first gig…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2246,23930,34726,32131,41220,4915,7062,32565,156,168388,38268,1888,1874,4508,11788,111,139,69,90,1855,3111,186706,26660,8692,186707,5433,223,186708,165,208,86662,1533,1530],"class_list":["post-352796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-2246","tag-band","tag-bands","tag-bold","tag-capture","tag-classic","tag-costumes","tag-display","tag-entertainment","tag-enz","tag-finn","tag-first","tag-found","tag-hits","tag-neil","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-original","tag-out","tag-recapturing","tag-sound","tag-split","tag-spoons","tag-stage","tag-the","tag-theatrics","tag-their","tag-tour","tag-truly","tag-will","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}