Split Enz Family

There have been many releases by former members of Split Enz, and offshoot projects by band members. This is certainly neither an exhustive list nor a complete discography.

THE SWINGERS

Possibly the most well known and successful bands of the so-called "Split Enz family". Formed by Enz founding member Phil Judd, and including 'Bones' Hillman (later of Midnight Oil fame) and 'Buster' Stiggs.

1980. First single which was a stand alone release, and available only in Australia and NZ.

1981. The band struck gold with it's second single, and the first single from the album "Practical Jokers". This tune shot to number one on the Aussi and NZ pop charts, and is still heared today in advertising campaigns and events. This is the Australian issue, which came in an orange and blue sleeve. Thankfully the 'Bud' Judd nickname didn't really stick!

The New Zealand sleeve was yellow and blue, and released on the Ripper record label instead of Mushroom as it was in Australia.

The song was so big, it even got released overseas! Here is the North American sleeve, which was the same design front and back.

In Europe, the sleeve came out in two different formats. The usual 'join the dots' cover with the above image as the back cover (with slightly different logos and graphics). The second issue reversed the covers, so the above image was acually the front cover. Confused?

The song was also re-issued in 1991, as it was used in the movie "User Friendly".

The second single from the album "Practical Jokers" was the equally catchy "It ain't what you dance...", but alas it didn't chart so well, and was only released in Australasia (but in a  very cool poster sleeve).

Inside of the poster sleeve

The Australian singles were released on the Mushroom label

While the New Zealand discs were released on the Ripper label, which was a subsiduary of Mushroom.

1981. The third single from "Practical Jokers", and again only released in Australasia, and with a rather average back cover.

 

Well, that was it for The Swingers as far as albums were concerned-just the one. There were other re-issues based on the "Practical Jokers" album released for the overseas markets, and some songs on a few soundtrack albums. Judd aslo tried his hand at a solo career and started another band, Schnell Fenster, in 1988.

"Practical Jokers" was repackaged for the American and European markets, on the back of the success of the "Counting the beat" single. It it wasn't for this one song, it's very likely The Swingers recordings would only have been released in Australasia. The American Ebay site usually has cover images of the overseas release, which was re-titled "Counting the beat", and was basically a kind of greatest hits album, with "Practical Jokers" tracks mixed in.

The Swingers contributed three songs to the soundtrack of the 1982 Australian move "Starstruck", and Phil Judd composed a few more. The soundtrack album was released in Australia, New Zealand and USA. OK, so it's really starting to look more like Australian music than New Zealand music. But Phil Judd is definitely ours, and the Australian and New Zealand music scene at that time was so interlinked. Kiwi bands simply had to go over there to have a shot at making a living.

Australian release in nice gatefold cover, showing front and back covers.

Inside of the gatefold cover

It also came with cardboard cutouts, so you could make little figurines which attached to the above fold out cover, to create a pop up scene when you opened the gatefold cover. Nice.

Front and back cover of the inner sleeve.

The USA cover front and back.

The USA inner sleeve, front and back.

There were also some nice singles released in Australia from this soundtrack album

The title track was released as the first single in Australia only

Two other singles were released from the movie in 7 inch format. This song was written by Tim Finn.

The last single, performed by the lead actress.

PHIL JUDD SOLO

As has been mentioned, Phil Judd is one of ours. He may have lived most of his life in Melbourne, but he's still a Kiwi and should be treated as a national treasure like Dave Dobbyn and the Finn boys. OK, so he's chosen a rather reclusive lifestyle out of the public eye, but his music speaks for itself. Here are his solo offerings...

Just the one album, 1983's "Private Lives". Images coming soon...

The first single from the album, it actually did pretty well, and recieved a fair bit of airplay.

"Rendezvous/Private Lives". Due to the relative success of the first single, a second single was released, which failed to do much at all.

Phil also wrote this song with Tim Finn for the movie "Big Steal".

SCHNELL FENSTER

After 5 years out of the public eye, Judd re-emerged in 1988 with a group including ex Split Enz stalwarts Noel Crombie on drums, Nigel Griggs on bass, and a well respected Australian muso. The first album was "Sound of Trees" and featured some impressive cover art created by the man himself.

"Whisper/Lamplight". The first single, a great tune with fantastic Judd vocals, which unfortunately didn't bother the sales charts too much. There were actually two versions of this cover. The other version featured the same picture, but with the "Schnell Fenster" words filled in, and the "Whisper" title in yellow, and is very hard to find indeed. It was also released as an 'extended mix' 12 inch single. 

The Germans produced this rather impressive picture cover, which was technically a promotional record. It is unclear whether this was actually made available to the public.

The great thing about this cover, apart from the fantastic Judd created front cover image based on the album cover, is the Enz family tree which was on the back cover (and deserves a bigger image).

The second single from the album, another highly catchy tune which deserved more airplay than it got. This was also released as a great 12 inch single with extended version of the song, and cassette single.

The third single, once again released on 7 inch and 12 inch formats, plus a now very rare CD single.

A second album was released in 1990, the somewhat awkardly titled "OK, Alright, A Huh, Oh Yeah". The first single was the title track from the album.

This single was also released as a 12 inch single with extended version of the song, CD single and cassette single

The second single from the album which, oddly, was released only as a CD single and cassette single (no vinyl, although a 7 inch promotional record was produced).

Rather unimaginatively, the only other track was the first single!

Coming soon...

Other odds and enz from ex Split Enz members. Coming soon....