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.

Queen Elizabeth II bestowed an OBE on both Neil and Tim Finn, in June 1993, for their contribution to the music of New Zealand.

Neil Finn ( vocals, guitar, piano ) and drummer Paul Hester ( ex-The Cheks, Deckchairs Overboard ) were former members of New Zealand band Split Enz, which spent part of 1975-6 in Australia and several years in England.

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.

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.

As the band's primary songwriter, Neil Finn was under pressure to create a second album to match their debut and the band joked that one potential title for the new release was Mediocre Follow-Up.

Neil Finn and his brother Tim recorded songs they had co-written for their own album, Finn.

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.

In June 1993 the New Zealand Government recommended that the Queen award an OBE to Neil and Tim Finn for their contribution to the music of New Zealand.

Neil Finn ( left ) and Mark Hart

The concert featured the line-up of Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, Mark Hart and Paul Hester.

Neil Finn released two solo studio albums, Try Whistling This ( 1998 ) and One Nil ( 2001 ), as well as two live albums, Sessions at West 54th ( 2000 ) and 7 Worlds Collide ( 2001 ).

Tim Finn had resumed his solo career after leaving the group in 1992 and he also worked with Neil on a second Finn Brothers album, Everyone Is Here, which was released in 2004.

Writing in 2010 Neil Finn said, " When we lost Paul it was like someone pulled the rug out from underneath everything, a terrible jolt out of the dark blue.

Matt Sherrod, Dublin, 2007. In 2006 Neil Finn asked Nick Seymour to play bass on his third solo album.

As the recording sessions progressed it was decided that the album would be issued under the Crowded House band name, rather than as a Neil Finn solo album.

As the primary songwriter for the band, Neil Finn has always set the tone for the band's sound.

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

During the Fourth Test news broke that prominent England players had agreed to take part in a " rebel tour " of South Africa the following winter ; three of them ( Tim Robinson, Neil Foster and John Emburey ) were playing in the match, and were subsequently dropped from the England side.

Mackenzie married Helen Neil ( 1826 – 1852 ) in 1845 and with her had three children, with only one girl surviving infancy.

Most biographers blame Lerner's professional decline on the lack of a strong director with whom Lerner could collaborate, as Neil Simon did with Mike Nichols or Stephen Sondheim with Harold Prince ( Moss Hart, who had directed My Fair Lady, died shortly after Camelot opened ).

This connection was first formally made by Dr George Bennett of the Australian Museum in 1871, but in the early 1990s, palaeontologist Pat Vickers-Rich and geologist Neil Archbold also cautiously suggested that Aboriginal legends " perhaps had stemmed from an acquaintance with prehistoric bones or even living prehistoric animals themselves ...

By the 1980s, widely popular drummers like Billy Cobham, Carl Palmer, Nicko McBrain, Phil Collins, Stewart Copeland and perhaps most notably Neil Peart were using large numbers of drums and cymbals and had also begun using electronic drums.

Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie had decided not to hold the defences on the Egyptian border, because the defensive plan there relied on his infantry holding defended localities, while a strong armoured force was held back in reserve to foil any attempts to penetrate or outflank the fixed defences.

Celebrity hearse enthusiasts include rock singer Neil Young and two-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Tony Stewart, who had his hearse customised for a television show.

He had four siblings: Lawrence, Billie, Neil, and Harry Jr.

Seibert said they had originally planned to use Neil Armstrong's " One small step " quote, but lawyers said Armstrong owns his name and likeness, and Armstrong had refused, so the quote was replaced with a beeping sound.

Although a lead vocalist named O ' Dean was auditioned, Lee had known Vince Neil from their high school days at Charter Oak High School in Covina, California and the two had performed in different bands on the garage band circuit.

After meeting with management several times, in September 2004, Sixx announced that he and Neil had returned to the studio and had begun recording new material.

Mötley Crüe had announced that the movie The Dirt, based on the book written by Mötley Crüe and Neil Strauss, might be released in 2009.

Foot resigned days after the election and was succeeded as leader on 2 October by Neil Kinnock, who had been tipped from the outset to be Labour's choice of new leader.

Neil Kinnock's showing in the opinion polls dipped ; before Thatcher's resignation, Labour had been up to 10 points ahead of the Tories in the opinion polls ( an Ipsos MORI poll in April 1990 had actually shown Labour more than 20 points ahead of the Tories ), but many opinion polls were actually showing the Tories with more support than Labour, in spite of the deepening recession.

Biden was elected Vice President of the United States in 2008 ; on 18 January 2009 Glenys Kinnock revealed on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that she and Neil Kinnock had received a personal invitation from Biden to attend the inauguration of Barack Obama and Biden on 20 January 2009 at the United States Capitol in Washington.

The super-group Crosby, Stills and Nash, formed in 1968 from members of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Hollies, were joined by Neil Young for Deja Vu in 1970, which moved away from many of what had become the " clichés " of psychedelic rock and placed an emphasis on political commentary and vocal harmonies.

Unable to deactivate the bomb apparently because Ra had rendered it impossible, O ' Neil and Jackson transport the bomb via the rings to Ra's ship in orbit where it explodes, killing Ra.

Labour Party and opposition leader Neil Kinnock made endless calls for a general election throughout 1991, but Major held out and decided not to call the election until he finally set an election date of 9 April 1992.

Later archaeologist Neil Faulkner believed that part of the reason why Childe decided to take his own life was that his " political illusions had been shattered " after he had begun to lose faith in the direction being taken by the world's foremost socialist state, the Soviet Union.

At the end of the reading, Neil Simon decided, " It doesn't work, but they do.

When Split Enz disbanded in December, Hester and Neil Finn decided to start a new group.

At that stage, DeMatteis also decided to step back, and DC instead approached popular writer Neil Gaiman and asked him to come up with a four-issue prestige-format series " about our magic characters ".

Rieber's last issue was issue # 50, coincidentally the point at which original co-creator Neil Gaiman decided that the time was right to stop " taking DC's $ 200 an issue and not doing anything " and resigned as creative consultant on the book.

The mayor of Guaynabo, Hector O ' Neil, offered Medina use of the Mario Morales Coliseum, located in Guaynabo, and Medina decided to split home games between the recently opened Puerto Rico Coliseum.

Scully decided to leave CBS in favor of a job calling baseball games for NBC ( beginning in 1983 ) following a dispute over assignment prominence ( according to CBS Sports producer Terry O ' Neil, in the book The Game Behind the Game ).

His tally dropped to five goals in 39 games during the 1993 – 94 season, though the club avoided relegation again, and he managed another five goals from 17 league games in the 1994 – 95 season before manager Alan Ball decided that he wanted younger partners for Le Tissier in attack, signing Gordon Watson and Neil Shipperley while dropping Craig Maskell and selling Dowie to Crystal Palace for £ 400, 000 on 13 January 1995.

After redistricting, State Representative Neil W. Kelleher decided to run in the newly redrawn 100th Assembly District.

After almost burning out due to efforts with Ultraspank, Pete Murray and Neil Godfrey decided instead to get back into music together, resulting in the birth of Lo-Pro.

DC Comics and Batman editor Dennis O ' Neil were already aware that Jason Todd had become unpopular with readers and decided to remove him from the Robin role.

The following week, Robb said in an interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell that he had found " doing things increasingly more difficult, I could be taking on more responsibilities especially in a public sense and decided to confront it a few weeks ago.

The band was then joined by Freeland Barbour ( accordion, bouzouki ) and Alastair Donaldson ( bass, flute ), who replaced Neil Adam in July 1975 when the latter decided to return to university.

In August 2011 manager Neil Lennon decided he would not pursue the goalkeeper any further.

In November 1952 while at Downing College, Cambridge University, Philip Hobsbaum along with two friends — Tony Davis and Neil Morris — dissatisfied with the way poetry was read aloud in the university, decided to place a notice in the undergraduate newspaper Varsity for people interested in forming a poetry discussion group.

After line editor Dennis O ' Neil decided to expand it into a larger epic, he and the Batman line writers Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench and Alan Grant convened an authors ' summit over a long weekend to flesh out the details and story points.

As the recording of the album continued, the band was still being pressured to reunite with Neil, and Corabi decided that he had had enough of the frustration of working under the pressure that the band and Humphrey were putting on him.

The producer Dario Sabatello read a story of Neil Connery losing his tools during his job as a plasterer in Edinburgh and decided to use him to make one of the many imitation James Bond Eurospy films that flourished in European cinema at the time.

While Blake had Phillip committed for having defied a court order to exhume Beth Raines's grave, Neil decided to tell Beth about her past and accompanied her to Lillian's house.

Unaware the baby really was Phillip's, Beth decided to be honest with Neil, but Blake, who stole Beth's file from the doctor ’ s office, told Neil before Beth could .!