Crowded House are a pop rock band formed in Auckland, New Zealand in 1985 by lead-vocalist and primary songwriter, New Zealand-born Neil Finn.

Crowded House are referred to as The Crowdies by Australian fans.

Originally active from 1985 to 1996, the band have had consistent commercial and critical success in Australia and New Zealand and international chart success in two phases, beginning with their self-titled debut album, Crowded House, which reached number twelve on the US Album Chart in 1987 and provided the Top Ten hits, " Don't Dream It's Over " and " Something So Strong ".

Neil is the younger brother of Split Enz founding member Tim Finn, who joined Crowded House in 1990 on vocals, guitars and keyboards for the album Woodface.

At Capitol's behest, the band's name was changed to Crowded House, which alluded to the lack of space at the West Hollywood apartment they shared during the recording of the album Crowded House.

Crowded House, San Francisco, April 1987.

L to R: Paul Hester, Neil Finn, Nick Seymour. Thanks to their Split Enz connection, the newly formed Crowded House had an established Australasian fanbase.

They began by playing at festivals in Australia and New Zealand and released their debut album, Crowded House, in June 1986.

L to R: Seymour, Finn, Hester. In June 1987, a year after its release, Crowded House finally reached number one on the Kent Music Report Album Charts.

Crowded House undertook a short tour of Australia and Canada to promote the album, with Eddie Rayner on keyboards.

Crowded House took a break after the Canadian leg of the Temple of Low Men tour.

Following the recording sessions with Tim, Neil began writing and recording a third Crowded House album with Hester and Seymour, but these tracks were rejected by the record company, so Neil asked Tim if Crowded House could use the Finn songs.

Tim left Crowded House during the Woodface tour in November 1991, part-way through the UK leg.

For their fourth album, Together Alone, Crowded House used New Zealand-based producer Martin Glover ( aka Youth ) and invited touring musician Mark Hart ( guitar & keyboards ) to become a permanent band member.

Crowded House at the Café De Kroon, Amsterdam, June 1996.

Crowded House were mid way through a US tour when Paul Hester quit the band on 15 April 1994.

In June 1996, at a press conference to announce the release of their greatest hits album Recurring Dream, Neil revealed that Crowded House were to disband.

Paul Hester 1959 – 2005. Following the 1996 break-up of Crowded House, the members embarked upon a variety of projects.

He formed the band Largest Living Things, which was the name rejected by Capitol Records in favour of Crowded House.

Following the breakup of Crowded House, Neil went solo.

The band was formed by Morris, Urlich, Coleman and Dobbyn, students at Sacred Heart College in Auckland, which was the same school that Neil ( Crowded House ) and Tim Finn ( Split Enz ) went to.

Some of the more influential bands in the 1970s were Th ' Dudes ( whose guitarist Dave Dobbyn formed DD Smash in the 1980s ), Dragon, Hello Sailor and Split Enz, fronted by Tim Finn, and later, his brother Neil Finn who went on to form Crowded House.

Kubiszewski played percussion on some of Reznor's early Nine Inch Nails tracks and went on to drum for The The, Crowded House, Prick and Stabbing Westward.

In May 1999 Crowded House issued a compilation of unreleased songs, Afterglow, which included the track " Recurring Dream ", recorded when the group were still called The Mullanes and included Craig Hooper on guitar.

Crowded House played at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, Arizona on 26 April as a warm-up for their appearance at the Coachella Festival on 29 April in Indio, California.

Nick Seymour, Barcelona, October 2007. Crowded House began recording their follow-up to Time on Earth in April 2009, at Finn's own Roundhead Studios.

Former Crowded House drummer Peter Jones died from brain cancer on 18 May 2012 aged 49.

* Trouser Press commentary on Crowded House, Neil Finn and Tim Finn discography

More recently, their sound has been compared, on successive albums, to that of Radiohead, Massive Attack, Keane, Crowded House, The Blue Nile and Talk Talk, although not consistently comparable sonically with any of these acts.

The album itself differs significantly from the first pre-release version of it that had circulated: the songs " Us ", " Deeper ", " Don't Pass Me By ", " Too Far Gone ", " Northern Lights ", and " Loser Like Me " were cut, and " Down and Out of Time ", " A Million Parachutes ", " Tonight ", " Waiting on the Sun ", and a cover of Crowded House's " Don't Dream It's Over " were added.

In 2006, following the death of Hester, Finn reformed Crowded House ( adding Beck's former drummer Matt Sherrod ) and released their first studio album in over 13 years, Time on Earth, and the band began a world tour.

Later the album Afterglow was released, which contained Crowded House tracks not previously found on any of the band's albums.

The song " I Love You Dawn ", available on Afterglow ( an album of unreleased Crowded House tracks and B-sides ) was penned in her honour.

She has appeared on backing vocals on various albums such as Crowded House and Alex Lloyd's Watching Angels Mend She also features prominently on the new 7 Worlds Collide project, co-writing ( and sharing lead vocal ) the track ' Little By Little ' with her husband and sings on the track ' Isolation ' on the new Crowded House album, Intriguer.

Several Methodist Episcopal clergy ( including Frank Mason North, author of " Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life ") organized the Federation to direct church attention to the enormous human suffering among the working class.

Holtby's early novels-Anderby Wold ( 1923 ), The Crowded Street ( 1924 ) ( re-published by Persephone Books in 2008 ) and The Land of Green Ginger ( 1927 )-met with moderate success.

On 6 December 2008 Crowded House played the Homebake festival in Sydney, with warm up gigs at small venues in Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney.

* Buchan, James, Crowded with Genius: the Scottish Enlightenment ; Edinburgh's Moment of the Mind ( 2003 ).

Crowded with Genius: The Scottish Enlightenment: Edinburgh's Moment of the Mind ( 2004 ) excerpt and text search

He has worked as a session musician and writing collaborator with artists including The Pretenders, Bryan Ferry, Pet Shop Boys, Billy Bragg, Black Grape, Talking Heads, Crowded House, and Beck.

* The first line of " Weather with You " by the New Zealand group, Crowded House, is " Walking ' round the room singing ' Stormy Weather.

Along with his brother Tim Finn, he was the co-frontman for Split Enz and is now frontman for Crowded House.

While his brother Tim Finn left for England, Neil was the founder of Crowded House with Split Enz's final drummer Paul Hester in 1985.

He ended Crowded House in 1996 to embark upon what was to become a moderately successful solo career, and has released two albums with his brother Tim under the title the Finn Brothers.

In 2010, Finn commenced another world tour with Crowded House in support of their 2010 release, Intriguer.

Performing with Crowded House in 1996

In January 2007, it was announced that Crowded House were reforming with Neil, Nick Seymour, Mark Hart and new drummer Matt Sherrod ( following the suicide of Paul Hester in 2005 ).

Most of the original members of Crowded House have returned, along with several new additions including Jeff Tweedy and three other members of Wilco, Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, and notable New Zealand songwriters Don McGlashan and Bic Runga.

In 1986 Finn performed with The Rock Party a charity project initiated by The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse ( NCADA ), which included many Australasian musicians such as Reg Mombassa from Mental As Anything, Eddie Rayner, Tim Finn, Nick Seymour and Paul Hester of Crowded House, Geoff Stapleton, Mark Callaghan and Robbie James of GANGgajang, Mary Azzopardi of Rockmelons, Andrew Barnum of The Vitabeats, Lissa Barnum, Michael Barclay, Peter Blakely, Deborah Conway, Jenny Morris, Danny De Costa, Greg Herbert ( The Promise ), Spencer P Jones, Sean Kelly ( Models ), John Kennedy, Paul Kelly, Martin Plaza ( Mental as Anything ), Robert Susz ( Dynamic Hepnotics ) and Rick Swinn ( The Venetians ).

Other records by Crowded House with Hester are: Temple of Low Men ( 1988 ), Woodface ( 1991 ), Together Alone ( 1993 ), and the Best-of collection Recurring Dream ( 1996 ).

Hester remained with Crowded House until 1994, when the pressure of touring and the birth of his first daughter made him want to stay home, rather than remain on the road.