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Powderfinger

Powderfinger were a rock band from Brisbane, Australia. The band started in 1989. The band’s members were Bernard Fanning (singer, guitarist), Darren Middleton (guitarist), Ian Haug (guitarist), John Collins (bass), and Jon Coghill (drums).

Powderfinger
A stage shot of six men performing: From left, a man seated at keyboards with a microphone, the drummer behind his kit with a drumstick raised in his right hand, a guitarist singing into a microphone, another singer-guitarist highlighted by overhead lighting, a man playing a bass guitar who is mostly obscured behind the lead singer, and the last man at right who is also playing a guitar. In front of the stage are cameramen and audience members. Above is further stage lighting with, at left, a large projected image of the top part of the moon.
Powderfinger performing "These Days" on the Across the Great Divide tour, September 2007, Sydney
Left to right: Lachlan Doley (auxiliary musician), Jon Coghill, Darren Middleton, Bernard Fanning, John Collins (obscured), Ian Haug
Background information
Also known asTerry, Bruce, Econodogs
OriginBrisbane, Queensland, Australia
Genres
Years active1989–2010; 2020
LabelsFinger, Polydor, Universal
Associated acts
Websitepowderfinger.com
Past membersSteven Bishop
John Collins
Ian Haug
Bernard Fanning
Jon Coghill
Darren Middleton

After some extended plays (EPs) that sold quite well, and making one full album, Powderfinger became popular in Australia with their second album; Double Allergic. Their third album, Internationalist, was even more popular and made them celebrities. It sold over 350,000 copies. Odyssey Number Five was their fourth album and was released in 2000. It is their most famous album; it was sold overseas in the United States and Canada. Powderfinger's next two albums were not as popular as the earlier ones, but still got to number one on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) charts.

History

Powderfinger started in Brisbane, Australia, in 1989. Ian Haug, John Collins, and Steven Bishop (drums), had been playing music with other bands, when they decided to form Powderfinger. The band's name came from the song "Powderfinger" by Neil Young.[1] Haug met Bernard Fanning at university and Fanning decided to join the band.[2] Later, Jon Coghill joined when Bishop left.[3] Darren Middleton was the last person to join, when Powderfinger saw one of his other bands playing and invited him to join.[4]

Early work

Powderfinger released their first extended play (EP), called Powderfinger, in 1992. This was followed by Transfusion in 1993. Transfusion was popular in Australia, and got to number one on the ARIA Alternative Chart, a chart for alternative rock music.[5] Powderfinger signed a contract with record label Polydor after releasing Transfusion.[6]

Their first EPs did not sell badly, so they made an album, Parables for Wooden Ears, in 1994. It did not do very well, and Fanning said in an interview in 2004 that "the music wasn't very good".[7] The band then released Double Allergic in 1996. This album became very popular in Australia; it sold more than 200,000 copies.[8] Jonathan Lewis from Allmusic said "Double Allergic established Powderfinger as one of the most exciting Australian rock acts of the late 1990s".[9] When they were making Double Allergic, Middleton said it was the best music the band had made so far.[10] After releasing the album, Powderfinger went on a tour with You Am I, playing at the Livid concerts.[10]

Successful releases

After Double Allergic, Powderfinger began to work on their third album. The band worked in Melbourne with a new producer, Nick DiDia.[11] In 1998, they released Internationalist. The album went to number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, and stayed in the top 50 for 101 weeks.[12] It sold more than 350,000 copies.[8] Internationalist was the first Powderfinger album to win an ARIA Award; it won "Album of the Year", "Best Rock Album" and "Best Cover Art" at the 1999 ARIA Awards. "The Day You Come", the first single, won "Single of the Year" in 1999.[13]

On Internationalist, Powderfinger included songs about their political opinions and social ideas, but they said this was not done on purpose.[14] Internationalist sounded different to the band's first two albums. This was because the band experimented with new ways of playing their music and writing songs.[11]

Powderfinger's next album, Odyssey Number Five (released in 2000), is their most famous. It won many awards including "Album of the Year" from Rolling Stone magazine,[15] and the 2001 "Album of the Year" ARIA Award.[13] It also got to number one on the ARIA Albums Chart.[12] From Odyssey Number Five, Powderfinger released their most popular single, "My Happiness". It won the 2001 "Single of the Year" ARIA Award,[13] and got to number four on the ARIA Singles Chart.[12] Two songs on Odyssey Number Five appeared in movies; "These Days" was from the movie Two Hands,[16] and "My Kind of Scene" was part of Mission: Impossible II.[17]

Odyssey Number Five was Powderfinger's shortest album yet. Similar to Internationalist, it talked about political and social issues.[18] It also had numerous songs about love. Fanning liked listening to gospel music, and to soul which is often about love, and wrote his own songs after listening to that.[19] Reviewers disagreed on the album; Entertainment Weekly liked it and gave it a B+, saying the album experimented well,[20] while Allmusic gave it one-and-a-half stars out of five, saying Powderfinger were too careful and not aggressive enough.[21] Powderfinger toured around North America with Coldplay to help promote Odyssey Number Five.[21]

In 2003, Powderfinger released their fifth album, Vulture Street. It was named after a street in Brisbane where the band would rehearse.[22] Vulture Street got to number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, but did not stay on the chart for as long as the two albums before it.[12] Vulture Street won four ARIA Awards including "Album of the Year" in 2003.[13]

Vulture Street contained louder guitars and drums than the albums before it, especially Odyssey Number Five. Bernard Zuel from The Sydney Morning Herald said it was "a rawer, louder, but by no means unrefined, album".[23] Some of the album was recorded during jam sessions, and was similar to what Powderfinger sounded like when playing live.[24] Kenneth Nguyen from The Age said the band "play a crowd-pleasing set".[25]

Break from recording

In 2004, Powderfinger released a CD/DVD of themselves playing a concert in Sydney. The release was called These Days: Live in Concert.[26] After this they released a "best of" album called Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000. This included singles from their albums so far, some songs that were not released as singles but appeared on albums, and two new songs.[27] Both compilations did well on the ARIA Albums Chart, reaching number two.[12]

After releasing Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000, Powderfinger said they would have a rest from working together. During this break, Bernard Fanning made his own music, releasing an album called Tea & Sympathy.[28] Darren Middleton released an album, called The Way Out with Drag, another band he plays in.[29] Ian Haug and John Collins made a band called The Predators during this time with Steven Bishop, who had left Powderfinger around 1992. The Predators made an EP called Pick Up the Pace.[30]

During the break, Fanning married his girlfriend, Andrea. The wives of Middleton and Haug both had children during the break.[31]

Return from break

 
Middleton, Fanning, and Haug playing a song called "Sunsets", from Vulture Street, as part of the Across the Great Divide tour

Powderfinger returned from their break and began work on their sixth album in 2006. The band recorded in Los Angeles with Rob Schnapf, and released Dream Days at the Hotel Existence in 2007. The album's name came from a book called The Brooklyn Follies that Fanning was reading when the band recorded.[32] Dream Days at the Hotel Existence contained songs about politics and the lives of Indigenous Australians, and also about love. Because of the political lyrics on one song, "Black Tears", the album was nearly banned.[33]

The album sold well and was number one in Australia, like many of Powderfinger's previous albums.[12] However, critics did not like it as much as the band's older work; Barnaby Smith of musicOMH said "the volume has been turned down", but he said that was "not always a good thing".[34]

After the album was released, Powderfinger went on a concert tour with Silverchair, another Australian band. On the tour, called the Across the Great Divide tour, the band played shows in lots of cities in Australia and New Zealand. They did the tour to help Reconciliation Australia, an Australian charity that tries to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.[35]

Philanthropy

Powderfinger have done a lot of work for charities and philanthropic causes. In 2004, the band played at WaveAid, a concert in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.[36] The concert made over $2 million in profit, which was donated to help survivors of the earthquake.[37]

The 2007 Across the Great Divide tour featured Powderfinger and Silverchair playing concerts across Australia to help promote Reconciliation Australia, a charity that tries to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.[35] More than 200,000 saw the bands play.[38] After the tour, the bands released a DVD, which included the bands performing, and interviews with their members.[39]

In October 2007, Powderfinger played a concert at the Sydney Opera House as part of "Breast Cancer Awareness Month". Only people who had breast cancer, and their families, were invited to the show. Silverchair and Missy Higgins also performed.[40][41] After the concert, Fanning said that "musicians have a guilty conscience in general about their lives being quite good and tend to be aware of social issues".[42]

Discography

A dash (–) means it did not appear on the chart.

Albums

Release
year 		Album Aus
chart[12]		 NZ
chart[43]
1994 Parables for Wooden Ears 51 –
1996 Double Allergic 4 –
1998 Internationalist 1 –
2000 Odyssey Number Five 1 15
2003 Vulture Street 1 17
2007 Dream Days at the Hotel Existence 1 26
2009 Golden Rule 1 –

Other releases

Release
year 		Album Aus
chart[12]		 NZ
chart[43]
1992 Powderfinger (EP) – –
1993 Transfusion (EP) – –
1995 Mr Kneebone (EP) – –
1999 The Triple M Acoustic Sessions (EP) – –
2004 These Days: Live in Concert (Live album) 2 –
2004 Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000 (Best of) 2 –
2007 Across the Great Divide Tour (Live DVD album with Silverchair) 2 –
2008 iTunes Live from Sydney (Live album) 58 –
2009 Seven Deadly Spins (Box set) – –
2010 Sunsets Farewell Tour (Live album) 1 –
2011 Footprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 2001-2011 (Best of) 22 –
2011 Fingerprints & Footprints: Ultimate Collection (Best of) 15 –

References

  1. ↑ Kelsey Munro (November 2001). Internationalists. Juice. 
  2. ↑ Andrew Murfett (22 October 2005). "White with one". The Age. Archived from the original on 29 May 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
  3. ↑ Matt Budden (14 May 1996). Powder Pick Up To Cure All Your Allergies.. Concrete Press. 
  4. ↑ Samantha Clode (January 2000). Forever Young. Juice. 
  5. ↑ Matthew McPherson (January 1994). "Powderfinger". Rolling Stone. 
  6. ↑ Ed Nimmervoll. "Powderfinger > Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 June 2008.[dead link]
  7. ↑ Dino Scatena (December 2004). "Ten Years in the Spotlight". Australian Musician. Archived from the original on 6 October 2007. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2007 Albums". Australian Record Industry Association. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
  9. ↑ Jonathan Lewis. "Double Allergic > Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 June 2008.[dead link]
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Angie Lawrence (1996). "Make Mine A Double". Rave.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Samantha Clode (October 1998). Taking Flight. Juice. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7 "Discography Powderfinger". australian-charts.com. Retrieved 30 June 2008.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 "History: Winners by Artist: Powderfinger". Australian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 30 June 2008.
  14. ↑ Neala Johnson (December 1998). Talkin' Politics?. Beat. 
  15. ↑ Jeff Apter (April 2001). "Powderfinger - Band Of The Year". Rolling Stone. 
  16. ↑ Christie Eliszer (September 2000). Five Easy Pieces. Sain. 
  17. ↑ Rod Yates (September 2000). Trusty Old Jackets. Massive. 
  18. ↑ Simon Wooldrige (September 2000). This Sporting Life. Juice. 
  19. ↑ Pennie Dennison (September 2000). Odyssey Number Five Is Born. Sain Unlimited. 
  20. ↑ Marc Weingarten (30 March 2001). "Odyssey Number Five". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 9 February 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Dean Carlson. "Odyssey Number Five > Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 1 August 2008.[dead link]
  22. ↑ "Quiet conquerors". The Age. 19 September 2003. Retrieved 30 June 2008.
  23. ↑ Bernard Zuel (11 July 2003). "Powderfinger, Vulture Street". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 June 2008.
  24. ↑ Jeffrey G. Klein (27 April 2005). "Powderfinger - Vulture Street". Static Multimedia. Archived from the original on 29 August 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2008.
  25. ↑ Kenneth Nguyen (9 December 2003). "Powderfinger - Rod Laver Arena". The Age. Retrieved 2 August 2008.
  26. ↑ Tim Cashmere (9 September 2004). "Powderfinger : These Days, Live in Concert". Undercover. Archived from the original on 25 June 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  27. ↑ Craig Tangsley. Give Em' the Finger. MTV Scene. 
  28. ↑ Iain Shedden (29 October 2005). "Love and other bruises". The Australian. Archived from the original on 29 May 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  29. ↑ "Drag". Dew Process. Archived from the original on 29 August 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  30. ↑ "Meet new Brisbane outfit The Predators (July 06)". Australian Music Online. 3 July 2006. Archived from the original on 21 October 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
  31. ↑ Jessica Parry (6 June 2007). "Dream Team". Marie Claire. Yahoo!. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  32. ↑ Andrew Murfett (29 June 2007). "Still Fanning the creative flames". The Age. Retrieved 4 August 2008.
  33. ↑ "Powderfinger album faces ban". The Courier Mail. 2 May 2007. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2008.
  34. ↑ Barnaby Smith. "Powderfinger - Dream Days At The Hotel Existence". musicOMH. Archived from the original on 9 June 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Emily Dunn (13 June 2007). "In concert - rock and reconciliation". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  36. ↑ "Thousands to turn out for Wave Aid". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 29 January 2005. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  37. ↑ "WaveAid Profit and Loss Account" (PDF). WaveAid. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  38. ↑ Paul Cashmere (18 November 2007). "Silverchair and Powderfinger to Release Joint DVD". Undercover. Archived from the original on 24 December 2007. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  39. ↑ "Powderfinger and Silverchair Announce One More Gig - In Your Loungeroom!". Yahoo!. 20 November 2007. Retrieved 22 August 2008.[dead link]
  40. ↑ "Powderfinger, Missy Higgins, join forces". The West Australian. 31 October 2007. Archived from the original on 3 February 2009. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  41. ↑ Emily Dunn (1 November 2007). "Rock acts in the pink for breast cancer month". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  42. ↑ Kathy McCabe (1 November 2007). "Powderfinger singing for breast cancer cure at Opera House". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 5 April 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 "Discography Powderfinger". charts.org.nz. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2008.

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