Together Alone: The Story of the Finn Brothers

by Jeff Apter

The hits of Neil and Tim Finn read like a checklist of recent pop history. And to think it all began in sleepy, rural Te Awamutu, New Zealand, where Brian Timothy Finn fell in love with the Beatles, an obsession that would also work its way straight into his younger brother Neil's DNA. Success for the brothers was a long time it took several turbulent years in Split Enz before they produced a genuine hit and connected with the mainstream. And it was achieved by one of Neil's songs, 'I Got You', which wasn't the sweetest pill brother Tim had ever tasted. After all, Split Enz was his band, his odyssey, his obsession. When the Enz came undone, their paths split. Neil led world-beaters Crowded House, while Tim immersed himself in a series of bold, if not always successful, solo projects. Eventually the brothers reunited, leading to Woodface, an album considered by many to be Crowded House's finest. Based on interviews, critical analysis, extensive research and the author's 30-plus

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

322 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

Jeff Apter is the author of more than 30 books, many dealing with the world of music. He has written biographies of Keith Urban, Malcolm and Angus Young of AC/DC, Jeff Buckley and the Bee Gees. As ghostwriter, he has worked with ARIA Hall of Famers Kasey Chambers and Richard Clapton, and AC/DC’s Mark Evans. He was also the creative consultant for the award–nominated live production A State of Grace: The Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley and spent four years on staff at Rolling Stone Australia.

Reviews

[Anthony Eaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a general rule, I'm not a massive reader of biographies. I am, however, a massive fan of both Tim and Neill Finn, and so when Apter's summary of their lives and works crossed my desk, I decided to give it a go.

And, for the most part, it was an interesting enough and engaging enough read. I'm just old enough to recall the end of the Split Enz era - their glory days, if you will, and songs such as 'Six Months in a Leaky Boat' and 'I Got You' are both foundation stones in the soundtrack of my childhood. It was Crowded House, though, who burned their brightest through my teenage years, and who I still play (loudly) to this day. Reading the background of the landmark songs and albums produced by both bands was certainly enjoyable.

That said, though, 'Together Alone' (the book, not the song) didn't really rock my world. While Apter is a competent writer, and a formidable researcher, for me this book's biggest failing was that it didn't really manage to fully capture, or take me into, the relationship between the two Finns in anything other than the most superficial sense (They're brothers, they love each other, they're both incredibly talented, but they're also horribly competitive. This could, I suspect, describe almost any brotherly relationship.)

In part, this is likely because - as Apter makes clear in his introduction, and also in the conclusions - the book was written without input or approval from either Finn (Tim Finn made some interested noises early in the piece, but then backed away as the work progressed), and so the book lacks any real feeling of intimacy which, to my mind, is the element of biography which elevates it from being a list of facts and dates, to being a moving and human portrait of a person or, in this case, relationship.

So it's a good enough read. One for the fans, definately.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book, and of all the books I know of telling the story of the the Finn brothers, this is the easiest to get ahold of in the United States. Apter's book does have one major draw, and that is the fact that it is written by someone with the instincts of a journalist. In many instances, Apter took well-known episodes from the Split Enz/Crowded House lore and tracked down additional information to fill out the stories. An example: It's well documented that the engineer for the first Split Enz album was practically asleep on the job and really botched a lot of the recording. I always wondered what that guy was thinking and how he could be so dismissive of great music. Apter found the engineer and interviewed him on the subject--a good piece of journalistic work.

Still, it's not a great book. There are factual errors and typos, and the writing quality is nothing special. THe worst flaw of the book is that is goes over a lot of material that is already well documented. Also, for a book supposedly specifically about the Finn brothers, a lot of pages are filled with details about the early history of Split Enz, which only involved Tim, and often digresses into anecdotes not really relevant to the Finns and their relationship with each other.

Because this book is still in print, and because it covers the time period after Crowded House's first incarnation, it's a good, easily accessible resource for Finn fans. But I can think of two books that are more detailed and more compellingly written for those motivated enough to find them: Chris Bourke's "Something So Strong" (about Croweded House), and Mike Chunn's "Stranger Than Fiction," a story of Split Enz that can be read (completely legally) online--Google the author and title, and you should be able to find the site where the book has been stored with the author's permission.

[Lance Lasalle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book, but those who have read either Mike Chunn's Split Enz biography or Chris Bourke's Crowded House biography should be warned: a good 75 percent of this story is familiar. The bulk of the book is made up of Split Enz days: and, yeah, there is some information here missing in Chunn's biography, though the same can be said for Chunn's biography and the Crowded House book too. Having read all three now I feel that I have the full story, though at times they do not jibe with each other.

I'm most interested in reading about Tim Finn's solo career and Neil Finn's solo career and the resurgence of Crowded House in the '00s and what's happened since...and there's not as much info on either of those as I'd like (probably because Apter focuses on the Finn Brothers together.) though there seems to be a bit more info on Tim Finn's, which I"m grateful for. I get the feeling that he was originally going for a Tim Finn biography but that in the end the info was too hard to get; and the overall picture of the pair is a bit hazy. Are they egotistical assholes or warm hearted honorable men?

There's evidence of both, but, sadly the biography doesn't really penetrate too far beneath the surface. Perhaps I want the insight that a novel would give me and that biography does not. Will the definitive bio be written? It's ahrd to say. They may be rock and roll royalty down under, but they are cult figures at best in the northern hemisphere. Perhaps someday a definitive book will be written on their lives in career. Until then these and the two others I mentioned will tide you over.

[Stuart Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven’t heard of the author before but I picked this up as a fan of Crowded House and Neil’s songwriting. It fulfils the remit of providing a full overview of both of the Finn brothers careers, both within groups and as solo artists, and seems to give equal coverage to each of them. It isn’t particularly in-depth however, with the weaker sections merely amounting to recounting a list of album tracks with a short description of each.

As I knew very little about Split Enz bar the name and that they were a pre-Crowded House group, I found the section on them pretty interesting as I had no idea that it was originally Tim’s group that Neil was made a member of later in their career, which caused tension within the group.

Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable read, but nothing outstanding. It benefits from the fact that the author has both met and interviewed some of the people involved in the narrative, but in weaker sections seems reliant on quoting reviews to pad out the book. You get little idea of what the author’s own opinions are which I found a little strange. I would have preferred a little more analysis; for example he says that Neil was less successful on his own than within Crowded House, but does not attempt to explain why, which would surely be due to a lot of people simply not knowing who he was. The prose style is also somewhat clunky at times which gave me the impression that the book was put together relatively quickly. Worth a look, but by no means definitive.

[Janine · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is terrible. It offers almost no new information to the well read fan that is not already in far superior books featured below, only a few unsubstantiated bits of gossip (since the author acknowledges he had no direct contact with the Finn brothers and does not otherwise reveal sources). It's a mere rehash of old information in the books below and some media articles, etc. If new to things Finn (and Split Enz, Crowded House) you'd be far better off spending your money on the following:

Stranger Than Fiction: The Life And Times Of Split Enz Out of print, but recently made available as an ebook
Crowded House: Something So Strong

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. The best thing about it is the factual information it contains - useful if you know little about the Finn brothers, and particularly useful if you don't live in Australia or New Zealand. Unfortunately the book is written in a journalistic style that is both unoriginal and simplistic. It is obvious the author doesn't know the Finn brothers well (or at all) but he fails even to attempt any in-depth analysis of characters and relationships, relying for the most part on press reports and superficial comments from acquaintances of Neil and Tim. Lots of grammatical and spelling errors too - but what can you expect from a journalist?

[Mike Hales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable but missing the input from Neil and Tim to give it the full colour version of their ongoing story.

[Mindbait]

I had a bad feeling about the book when (a) the author's introduction seemed to focus on how he'd tried to get the Finn brothers on board for the book but it hadn't happened, and (b) several of the photos in middle of the book were mislabelled.

It's not the best bio I've ever read either. He spends much of his time on the Split Enz era, borrowing heavily from Mike Chunn's far superior "Stranger than Fiction" in the meantime offering a lot of his own interpretations on meanings of their songs. He breezes through the majority of Crowded House's career in one chapter and the brothers' 10-20 years of solo and duo careers in the last 2 chapters.

Regardless, the story was interesting enough, reading about the brother's various musical endeavours and a little of their personal background. As is often the case when I read about a musician I'm a fan of, it led me to revisit a lot of their music, so I guess on balance it's a win.

[Chelsea Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2021 Prompt 28: An oxymoron in the title.

I like the music of the Finn Brothers, but as it turns out, I don't know my Split Ends from my Crowded House. This book was interesting enough though. I enjoyed listening along to some of the songs while reading and it is always good to learn more about Kiwi music.

[Wyktor Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written book about the Finn brothers that captures a large chunk of Kiwi music history.
The ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and everything inbetween.
A must read for any Kiwi music fan, or for any Finn fan.
Highly recommended.

[Darlene Dobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Welcome Trip Down Memory Lane

Nice collection of stories about my favourite musical family. It promoted me to revisit their excellent music again and again as I read the book.