Time, Tides & Tim

The first time my brain came under the influence of things Finn was November 1973. I had yet to enter double figures in the age stakes. The Kiwi talent contest "New Faces" was airing Split End's (pre Split Enz) for the first time on NZ's only tv channel. The bizzare circus figures cast in black white images are still with me. Especially ringmaster Tim. This was a very different world to The Seekers, James Last, Herb Albert & Moog music that boomed from Dad's Garrard turntable/valve amp/concrete tube speakers.

It wasn't until the monumental True Colours album at the starts of the '80's that I finally heard the band live. Teenage rite of passage... first festival. Four of us stuffed the seats of a barely road worthy Vauxhall Velox full of cans of warm beer and made our way to Ngaruawahia for Sweetwaters. Tim was now sharing the stage with Neil and the Enz were now an "International" act. "I Got You", "Poor Boy", 'I Hope I Never" were the soundtrack to every party. Apart from the sounds, there it was blissful knowing these guys originated from over the hill.

Fast Forward twenty five odd years to April 2009 for the next time I saw Tim live. He blew the roof off the Jambalaya stage at Byron's Bluesfest. At my side are my son's... around the age when I first saw "the End's" on the Pye wood veneer box. A giant Aussie-Kiwi party broke out as he bounced through his songbook. Highlights, beyond the obvious, included the fragile "Persuasion", "Made My Day" (first time he played in 20 years) and "The Saw and the Tree" (from his most recent album, complete with a Saw soloist).

This week I had a more reflective Finn experience with the chance to see "Poor Boy", a musical play built around Tim's catalogue. Hearing his songs reinvented as part of a unified narrative over two hours reinforced how strong his work is. It also reminded me how through the years things nautical are woven into his imagery.

As with those in a leaky boat..."The lust of a pioneer, will acknowledge no frontier"