40 Years Of Colours

Tim Finn talks to Karl Puschmann about re-releasing Split Enz’s classic album

Forty years ago Split Enz released their fifth album, True Colours. It featured songs that would become hits before ascending to true classic status; we’re talking Shark Attack, Poor Boy, I Hope I Never and, of course, their globe-conquering breakthrough, I Got You.

This powerhouse tracklist made True Colours

the band’s most commercially successful album. It spent two weeks in our No 1 spot before pingponging up and down the Top 20 for a whopping 54 weeks and becoming the global breakthrough that had, until that point, been one step ahead of them.

As an album, True Colours does not muck about. It barrels out of your stereo surfing a wave of frenzied energy and fearless ideas with a cool, self-assured confidence.

“There was desperation there,” Tim Finn reflects. “We knew it was make-or-break time for the band. We were up against it.”

Was desperation their true colour? Perhaps. By 1979 Split Enz were hometown heroes, both here and in Australia, but despite their best efforts and the quality of early material like I See Red, Give it a Whirl, My Mistake, Charlie and Late Last Night, the rest of the world remained simply uninterested in the theatrical art-pop being made by this group of outlandish kooks in multicoloured suits.

“We had two really tough years in England before we came back to live again in Australia in 79. Some real struggles,” Finn continues. “We’d lost our label and our management and didn’t have any money. Some of the band had to get day jobs.”

These hard times are not apparent when you spin the album, with Finn describing it as having “an up energy”. “We knew how good we were live and were feeling that confidence within ourselves,” he says. “We had played hundreds of shows so we were really tight. We knew that we had it as a band.”

It was a precarious mental state to be in, with one foot dangling over the precipice ready to fall, the other confident on the security of steady ground.

“We weren’t that young anymore,” he says, sighing. “Neil was young, probably 21-22. I was 27. You can get a bit dark and a bit desperate and feel things bearing down upon you. But every time we rehearsed we could just go back into that ecstatic state. It was definitely moving between those two states.”

Finn suggests that this is what makes True Colours such an exciting record to listen to.

“It has something special about it. The feeling of desperation balanced with the feeling of power and intensity and good themes that people connect with. The lyrics have a nice elliptical quality, bittersweet. I Hope I Never is an example of that. You can feel the yearning of the song but at the same time the lyric is saying, ‘I hope I never have to see you again’.”

He chuckles softly, tickled by the juxtaposition between the song’s pining musicality and its antagonistic lyric, before saying, “I was having a lot of fun with words. I like to theatrically embody a feeling and really play it out large. Wordplay and rhyming: I’m addicted to it to this day and there’s a lot of that in the record.”

To celebrate its 40th anniversary a remixed and revitalised True Colours has just been released. The group’s synth player, Eddie Rayner, handled remix duties while percussionist and artist Noel Crombie looked after the cover art, the vinyl reissue coming out in an assortment of striking colour combinations just as it did in 1980. Finn says he bounced between the two.

“There are little treats all over the place,” he enthuses, clearly chuffed by the open and spacious sound of the new mix, which allows long-lost nuance to shine and reveals sonic treasures for Split Enz trainspotters to discover.

“Dave Tickle [original producer] was obsessed with streamlining, which really worked on radio and we were happy to go along with that. But to hear those restored after so many years is really great.”

Finn says the anniversary “sort of crept up” on him, although Split Enz had recently been on his mind.

“There had been some talk earlier last year about possibly doing a show,” he says casually down the line. Sensing rapidly escalating excitement levels, he quickly adds, “That hasn’t come to anything at this point,” before moving on to some True Colours trivia.

“Right up until the last minute no one was sure what the first single should be, which sounds amazing now, but it was a toss-up between I Got You and I Hope I Never,” he says.

“You couldn’t imagine two more different songs. We knew in the end we should put out

I Got You, but no one had any idea that it was going to do what it did. It screamed up the charts. There was just so much buzz around that record. There are still people who come up to me to talk about a certain song or what it means to them. There’s a lot of enjoyment and pleasure to be had if you do connect with people.”

He gently laughs as he’s struck by a memory. “I remember driving around Melbourne at the time and I did an illegal U-turn across the tram tracks, just blatant disregard for the law, and this cop pulled me over. As soon as he saw me he went, ‘Oh! G’day Tim’ and then waved me on. That sounds trite in a way but it was a good feeling.”

Being let off a ticket is the best feeling in the world, isn’t it?

“It doesn’t happen so much these days, I have to say,” he jokes. “I got yelled at in Melbourne a year back by this cop because I did a little bit of jaywalking. You know, ‘You bloody idiot!’”

Then Finn grins and says, “He obviously wasn’t connecting to my new solo record.”

Leading child health advocate Frances Benge says New Zealand’s effort to contain Covid-19 in such a short time ought to inspire those fighting to overcome many health issues that have been afflicting Kiwi kids for generations.

“I think the Covid-19 situation has amplified the fact that if we really pull together to deal to something, we can,” she says.

Benge, the CEO of Cure Kids, the charity which has raised almost $55 million for child health research since it was founded in 1971, says children continue to suffer from conditions like respiratory ailments, skin infections, rheumatic heart disease and oral health problems.

She says in some cases the incidence of these illnesses is escalating: “Conditions like rheumatic fever are Third World problems and we are performing poorly; we have been able to contain Covid-19 in a short time, so surely team New Zealand can wrap its arms around these (other conditions) and approach them with (similar) focus.”

Her comment comes as Cure Kids was gearing up for its annual Red Nose Day fund-raising drive. The charity is hoping this year’s appeal (Red Nose Day was held on July 31) will raise $250,000, although it will be a few weeks before the final figure is known.

“We are hoping the funds will help us support meaningful research projects into issues like respiratory ailments,” Benge says. “Every year 40,000 kids are admitted to hospital with preventable illnesses and we want to be able to shift the dial on these; research into child health has never been more necessary.”

Benge says she realises 2020 is a year that will be tough financially for many New Zealanders and is encouraging people to give what they can. “I want to thank all New Zealanders who give generously as the positive impacts of Cure Kids research have only been possible because of these donations.

“This year we are facing significant funding restraints due to a softening of traditional donations as the effect of Covid-19 takes hold,” she says. “But we want to share the positive impacts of Cure Kids research and let Kiwis know it has helped save, extend and improve the lives of children diagnosed with serious life-impacting and life-limiting health conditions.”

Cure Kids is the largest child-health research funder outside of the government and its funds have been responsible for many medical breakthroughs, some of which have been highlighted in the recently released Cure Kids Impact Report.

Benge says the report, an independent evaluation of the research projects the charity has funded throughout its history, systematically demonstrates measurable benefits to the health of children.

One, a study into the risk factors for sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) has, Benge says, prevented around 200 deaths every year (Stats NZ figures released in 2018 show the average rate of infant mortality is dropping and went from five deaths per 1000 live births in 2008 to 3.8 deaths per 1000 in 2018).

Benge says another study partly funded by Cure Kids on maternal sleep position led to evidence which could reduce the risk of stillbirths by 50 per cent (Ministry of Health figures released in November last year show the number of fetal deaths in 2016 equated to 6.8 per 1000 total births, a figure which since 1996 has fluctuated between 6 and 8.5 deaths per 1000 total births).

The report says Cure Kids funded research has led to a number of other breakthroughs including innovative treatment of brain injury in infants, the invention of a patented car-seat insert, evidence that babies born prematurely at 23-24 weeks can survive and thrive, the engineering of full-thickness human skin in a lab to treat burns or scalds and increasing the life expectancy of cystic fibrosis sufferers by diagnosing the condition at birth.

Benge says Red Nose Day this year highlighted four Cure Kids child ambassadors who live with serious health conditions requiring further research investment.

“Our brave ambassadors are an important aspect of how the public learns about our work,” says Benge. “They help put real-life faces and names to our outcomes-driven research.”

The four are:

Ben (3) — is one of the approximately 700 babies born pre-term every year. He was also the first unborn Kiwi to undergo surgery for spina bifida.

Eva (12) — born with only half a diaphragm (the primary muscle used in breathing) after suffering a diaphragmatic hernia during fetal development, she has been fighting to survive her entire life. Eva also has a hospital-acquired MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a type of bacteria) bug.

Corin (10) — suffers from a rare genetic condition in which a lack of elastin in his arteries and veins causes them to grow closed. His condition was discovered when he went blue while feeding one afternoon. He was rushed to hospital where he underwent the first of two open heart surgeries.

Mela (10) — suffers from Moebius syndrome, a rare neurological condition that paralyses her face and affects her eating and breathing.

For more information and to donate go to: https://curekids.org.nz/ https://rednoseday.co.nz/