January 30th’s playlist and the final track on it. A band I’m familiar with, but a song that I’ve never previously heard.
I don’t know about anyone else, but the first thing I ever heard from Split Enz was their 1980 UK hit single I Got You. It hung around in the Charts for a few weeks and narrowly missed out on the Top 10. I think the only reason I didn’t buy it was the fact that I was 14 and most of my cash was being spent on stuff by The Jam, Madness and the like. Oh – and Love Will Tear Us Apart joined the record collection around that time as well.
But something struck me about that song – I can’t really say what it was, there was just something about it – and Split Enz joined my mental list of “bands I want to hear more of”. To be honest, in the ensuing 43 years, I can’t say I’ve done all that well on that particular front. I do recall a song from the following year, History Never Repeats (and indeed it didn’t, as it peaked at #63) – this would become an early purchase from the iTunes Store in 2006. I did go so far as to buy their 1982 single Six Months In A Leaky Boat, the release of which unfortunately coincided with a lot of very large boats sailing from the UK to the South Atlantic, and thus lost out on airplay, so as not to upset anyone. Or something.
At no point have I ever purchased a Best Of, listened to anything earlier than 1980, or played any of their albums on Spotify. In fact their later albums aren’t actually available on that streaming service, save for the odd track, which is where the Discover Weekly list kicks in
This one’s from 1983 an I’d not heard it before. I can see why it wasn’t commercially successful, when I think of what was getting radio airplay around that time, but I like it very much and once again it’s another direct hit for the DW algorithm.
Oddly, as you’ll be aware, the next project for the Finn brothers was Crowded House, who I was into from the off, even before I was aware of the connection. I have all their albums and saw them live with Mrs TGG a few times during the 90’s. Not even that prompted me to investigate the Split Enz back catalogue.
Once again, they’re on a mental list of “bands I want to hear more of”. This time I need to deliver on that.
TGG
Wasting time in the study 
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