Powderfinger

Powderfinger were an Australian rock band formed in Brisbane in 1989¹. From 1992 until their break-up in 2010, the line-up consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bass guitarist John Collins and drummer Jon Coghill. The group's third studio album Internationalist peaked at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart in September 1998. They followed with four more number-one studio albums in a row: Odyssey Number Five (September 2000), Vulture Street (July 2003), Dream Days at the Hotel Existence (June 2007¹) and Golden Rule (November 2009). Their top-ten hit singles are "My Happiness" (2000), "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind" (2003) and "Lost and Running" (2007). Powderfinger earned a total of eighteen ARIA Awards, making them the second-most-awarded band, behind Silverchair. Ten Powderfinger albums and DVDs certified multiple-platinum, with Odyssey Number Five—their most successful album—achieving eightfold platinum certification for shipment of over 560,000 units. After the release of their first DVD, These Days: Live in Concert (September 2004), and the compilation album Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994¹–2000 (November 2004), the group announced a hiatus in 2005. The June 2007 announcement of a two-month-long nationwide tour with Silverchair, Across the Great Divide tour, followed the release of Dream Days at the Hotel Existence.…

Powderfinger were an Australian rock band formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their break-up in 2010, the line-up consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bass guitarist John Collins and drummer Jon Coghill. The group's third studio album Internationalist peaked at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart in September 1998. They followed with four more number-one studio albums in a row: Odyssey Number Five (September 2000), Vulture Street (July 2003), Dream Days at the Hotel Existence (June 2007) and Golden Rule (November 2009). Their top-ten hit singles are "My Happiness" (2000), "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind" (2003) and "Lost and Running" (2007). Powderfinger earned a total of eighteen ARIA Awards, making them the second-most-awarded band, behind Silverchair. Ten Powderfinger albums and DVDs certified multiple-platinum, with Odyssey Number Five—their most successful album—achieving eightfold platinum certification for shipment of over 560,000 units. After the release of their first DVD, These Days: Live in Concert (September 2004), and the compilation album Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000 (November 2004), the group announced a hiatus in 2005. The June 2007 announcement of a two-month-long nationwide tour with Silverchair, Across the Great Divide tour, followed the release of Dream Days at the Hotel Existence. Powderfinger were also involved in various philanthropic causes. In 2005, they performed at a WaveAid concert in Sydney, to help raise funds for areas affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Another performance at the Sydney Opera House in October 2007 raised funds for breast cancer victims and their families. One aim of their Across the Great Divide Tour was to promote the efforts of Reconciliation Australia, and awareness of the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. In April 2010, Powderfinger announced that they would be breaking up after their Sunsets Farewell Tour, declaring it would be their last, as they had musically said everything they wanted to say. On 13 November 2010, they played their last concert, signifying their disbandment. In November the following year, rock music journalist Dino Scatena and Powderfinger published a biography, Footprints: the inside story of Australia's best loved band. On 23 May 2020, the band reformed for a one-off live-streamed charity performance, One Night Lonely. ===1989–1993: Formation and early releases=== Powderfinger were formed in 1989 by Steven Bishop (ex–the Eternal) on drums, John Collins (ex-the Eternal) on bass guitar, and Ian Haug (the Vibrants, the Fossils) on guitar and vocals. The Eternal, the Vibrants, and the Fossils were other Brisbane-based outfits. All three members of Powderfinger were students at Brisbane Grammar School—a private school in Spring Hill—and they started as a cover band playing pub rock classics by the Rolling Stones, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf, Rodriguez, and Neil Young. The band's name comes from Young's song of the same name. Despite their popularity in Brisbane, when playing a heavy metal gig in Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1990, Powderfinger were booed off stage. After completing secondary education, Collins and Haug attended the University of Queensland, where the latter met Bernard Fanning in an economics class – and learned that Fanning had similar interests in music and could sing. Fanning took over the role of lead vocals from Haug and also provided guitar and harmonica. Late in 1990, Jon Coghill—another university student with Fanning and Haug—replaced Bishop on drums, which was described as a "mutual leaving". Bishop later worked in London-based bands based in London, UK, before returning to Brisbane where he was a member of Moonjuice and then the Haymakers. Powderfinger's final line-up change was in 1992 with the addition of Darren Middleton (The Pirates) on guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals. Powderfinger initially performed cover versions of other artists' songs, but gradually developed by writing and performing their own material. In August 1992, the group self-funded a seven-track self-titled extended play, also known as the Blue EP, on their own Finger label, and the album was distributed by MDS. It was produced by Leroy Bath and Ian Taylor, and recorded at Broken Toys Studios, Brisbane. The EP has an early version of "Save Your Skin", co-written by Coghill, Collins, Haug, Middleton, and Fanning; it was later expanded and released in July 1994 as a single from their debut album, Parables for Wooden Ears. Their second EP, Transfusion, was issued in September 1993 and distributed by Polydor Records. At that time, Simon McKenzie of Time Off noted they were "hoping the major label will put a bit of weight behind the disc, but it's not as though they've signed a record deal or anything". McKenzie felt the EP showed they were "wanting to get heavier and louder for a long time, but is it also a reaction against the sixties tags they've been stuck with?". The five tracks include "Reap What You Sow", which reached the No. 1 spot on the ARIA Alternative Singles Chart, replacing Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box". The group recorded their first music video, for "Reap What You Sow"; it was directed by David Barker, who subsequently directed their next seven videos. After the EP's success, the group were signed by Polydor. ===1998–2003: Critical acclaim and chart success=== , another founding mainstay, on lead guitar in Sydney in September 2007. On 7 September 1998, Powderfinger released their third studio album, Internationalist, which peaked at No. 1 and spent 101 weeks in the Top 50 of the ARIA Albums Chart; it was produced by Nick DiDia (Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam). AllMusic's Jonathan Lewis had mixed feelings about the album. He was enchanted by its lead single, "The Day You Come"; however, he believed "the rest of the album didn't measure up" except for "some fine tracks" in "Don't Wanna Be Left Out" and "Already Gone". Nevertheless, by 2007 the album had shipped over 350,000 copies and was certified five times platinum domestically, and it had reached European audiences. Internationalist was the first Powderfinger album to win any ARIA Music Awards. At the 1999¹ ceremony it won "Album of the Year", "Best Rock Album", and "Best Cover Art" (by Kevin Wilkins), and "The Day You Come" won "Single of the Year". "Passenger", another single from Internationalist, was nominated for three additional categories in the following year. The band was both praised and criticised for their political views on Internationalist. In a November 1998 interview with Benedict Watts of Juice Magazine, Haug said that political messages in "The Day You Come" were not something they were just preaching about, but rather were something they saw as a responsibility. Powderfinger's fourth studio album, Odyssey Number Five, was released on 4 September 2000, and also peaked at No. 1. Entertainment Weekly s Marc Weingarten provided a positive review and found the group "prove that there's still terrain left to be explored [in] guitar rock ... melancholy is the default mode ... [they] can be as prim as Travis or as mock-grandiose as Oasis". However, Allmusic's Dean Carlson was more negative, seeing the album as "little more than a slightly off-base perspective into the world of mid-90s American grunge". Odyssey Number Five is Powderfinger's most commercially successful album, shipping 560,000 copies and certified eight times platinum by 2004. It also appeared on the New Zealand Albums Chart at No. 15. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2001¹, the group won "Album of the Year", "Highest Selling Album", "Best Rock Album", "Best Cover Art" (by Wilkins), and "Best Group". Two of Odyssey Number Five s tracks featured on film soundtracks: "These Days", written for Two Hands (1999), and "My Kind of Scene" in Mission: Impossible 2 (2000). Singles from the album are "My Kind of Scene", "My Happiness", "Like a Dog", and the double A-side "The Metre" / "Waiting for the Sun". "My Happiness", which peaked at No. 4 in Australia and No. 7 in New Zealand, is the group's highest-charting single in both countries. At the ARIA Awards ceremony, "My Happiness" won "Single of the Year", and other songs were nominated in various categories. Their tracks received votes from national radio station Triple J's listeners on annual Hottest 100 lists: "These Days" (#1), "Already Gone" (#25), "Good-Day Ray" (#68), and "Passenger" (#100) were ranked in 1999, and "My Happiness" (#1) and "My Kind of Scene" (#3) in 2000. In 2009, "These Days" was voted at No. 21 and "My Happiness" at No. 27 in the Hottest 100 of all time, placing them as second- and fourth-highest Australian tracks after the Hilltop Hoods' "The Nosebleed Section" and Hunters & Collectors' "Throw Your Arms Around Me", respectively. ===2003–2005: Rock resurgence=== Powderfinger's Vulture Street was released on 4 July 2003, and became their third album to peak at No. 1 in Australia, while in New Zealand it reached No. 17. Recorded in January and February 2003, it was named for the location of the band's first recording room in West End, Brisbane. The Sydney Morning Herald s music critic Bernard Zuel approved of "a rawer, louder, but by no means unrefined, album" with "a real energy here that has some connections to early Powderfinger, but bears the mark of a superior intellect"; he felt it had Haug and Middleton "dominating in a way they had not since their 1994 debut" album. Simon Evans of musicOMH described the group as having "opted for a visceral live feel, adding a real punch to songs". Middleton explained that the band's aim was to "get a sound in the songs that was reminiscent of things we grew up loving, which was Bowie, Zeppelin, Kiss ... that sort of thing; all based in the 70s. We wanted to sonically have that as well, so it's a very old-school-sounding record. It's all the old amps, we used old guitars and recorded to tape, of course. It's fairly organic in that sense". Vulture Street won four ARIA Awards in 2003: "Album of the Year", "Best Group", "Best Rock Album", and "Best Cover Art" (by Steven Gorrow, Revolution Design). Singles issued from the album are: "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind", "Since You've Been Gone", "Love Your Way", and "Sunsets". Tracks were also nominated for awards in 2003 and 2004. In September 2004 the group issued their first live album, These Days: Live in Concert, initially as a CD, and followed in October with a two-disc DVD. One single, "Stumblin'", which had appeared on Vulture Street, was issued as a live version. In late October they released a compilation album, Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000, which included many of their singles from the first four albums as well as non-singles "Thrilloilogy" and "Belter", and a re-release of "These Days". "These Days", although never officially released as a single, was ranked at No. 1 on the Triple J Hottest 100 poll of 1999. The album also included two new songs: "Bless My Soul" and "Process This", although only "Bless My Soul" was released as a single. Following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Powderfinger appeared at the WaveAid fundraising concert in January 2005 in Sydney, to raise funds for aid organisations working in the disaster-affected areas. Fanning, as a member of The Wrights, sang lead vocals on "Evie, part 2" at the concert. The Wrights released a studio version in March as a single with some of the proceeds going to tsunami relief efforts. ===2005–2006¹: Side projects=== on guitar in January 2010 at Big Day Out, Melbourne. He joined in 1992 and formed a side project, Drag, in 2001. During Powderfinger's 2005–07 hiatus, Drag regrouped. After the WaveAid concert, from early 2005, Powderfinger had a period of hiatus. During the separation, most band members pursued other musical projects; on the personal front, Haug and Middleton each had children, and Fanning met his future wife. Middleton's side project, Drag, had issued an EP, Gas Food Lodging, in 2002. Zombos Reviews found the EP was "full of well-written jangly pop, and has some rather nice ballads". Their debut album, The Way Out, recorded in March 2005 and released on 10 July, was "a tad disappointing [compared with the EP] ... mostly mid-tempo pop-rock songs, mixed with some slower, pretty ballads. Everything's tastefully arranged, and there's always nice melodies and harmonies". Collins and Haug formed The Predators with Powderfinger's former drummer, Steven Bishop, now on drums and lead vocals. The group released a six-track EP, Pick Up the Pace, in July 2006 and undertook a short tour around Australia. In October 2005 Fanning issued his debut solo album, Tea & Sympathy, which reached No. 1 in Australia and No. 11 in New Zealand. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2006, Fanning won in four categories including "Album of the Year" for Tea & Sympathy and "Best Video" for its lead single, "Wish You Well". "Wish You Well" was ranked at No. 1 on the Triple J Hottest 100 poll in 2005. At the end of 2006, Fanning toured in support of the album's release in the United Kingdom and North America; at its conclusion, Powderfinger resumed from their hiatus. Fanning compared his solo work to Powderfinger recordings, saying, "when a problem came up in the studio, especially guitar-wise, I've always had Darren and Ian to call on. They could usually come up with something good. But I played all the guitar on it, and my abilities are fairly limited" and that "Powderfinger is my real job and I'm looking forward to doing it again". ===2007–2008: Return from hiatus=== " on the Across the Great Divide tour. Middleton, Fanning, Collins and Haug are visible, Coghill is obscured. Powderfinger started recording their sixth studio album, Dream Days at the Hotel Existence, in January 2007; it was released on 2 June. Debuting at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart—their fourth to do so consecutively —it broke the Australian digital sales record with over 3,000 copies sold online. In general, reviewers did not rate it as highly as its predecessor Vulture Street, with Cameron Adams of the Herald Sun HiT describing it as "No radical reinvention, no huge change in direction ... In a word: consistent". Zuel described it as "Powderfinger's first dull album" but the band as "the biggest rock band in the country." "Lost and Running", their first single for three years, had been issued in May, and reached No. 5. A second single, "I Don't Remember", appeared in August. One song from the album, "Black Tears", was amended following concerns that it could prejudice a trial over the 2004 Palm Island death in custody case. Fanning stated that an alternative version would be on the album as a result of the concerns. On 18 August that year, Powderfinger performed a concert in Karratha as part of Triple J's AWOL Series. The band was supported by The Grates and Muph N Plutonic, and various local acts. While in Karratha, Fanning and Coghill visited Gumala Mirnuwarni, a local school in Roebourne that encourages children to stay in school. In June 2007 Powderfinger and Silverchair announced the nine-week Across the Great Divide tour to promote reconciliation with Indigenous Australians. From August to October that year the two groups toured all state capital cities as well as fourteen Australian regional centres, and included four performances in New Zealand. They performed 34 concerts in 26 towns across Australia, with an estimated total of 220,000 people in attendance. On 1 December, a triple-DVD set was released with the same title as the tour, with the Melbourne performances for both bands and backstage footage from the tour. The schedule consisted of three main parts, beginning with a supporting artist performing one set, followed by Silverchair and then Powderfinger playing the final set. The two bands united on stage during only three performances throughout the tour, including Daniel Johns (Silverchair) and Fanning sharing lead vocals on a cover version of The Who's "Substitute" at one show in Sydney and two in Melbourne. Dream Days at the Hotel Existence was the recipient of the ARIA Award for "Best Cover Art" in 2007. It was also nominated for "Album of the Year", "Best Rock Album", and "Best Group", while "Lost and Running" received nominations for "Single of the Year" and "Best Video". Powderfinger failed to win any of these awards, with tour mates Silverchair's Young Modern and "Straight Lines" obtaining all five. On 28 October at the ceremony, Powderfinger performed "Lost and Running". The third single from Dream Days at the Hotel Existence, "Nobody Sees", was released in December 2007. On 27 September 2008, Powderfinger performed "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind" and AC/DC's "Long Way to the Top" at the AFL Grand Final. Their song "Drifting Further Away" featured on Grey's Anatomy s fifth season in episode 13, "Stairway to Heaven", which aired on 21 January 2009. ===2009–2010: Golden Rule and disbandment=== , 6 November 2010, Sydney. They played their final show at the River Stage in Brisbane one week later in front of 10,000 fans. The last song was "These Days"; the group disbanded after the tour. From mid-June 2009 Powderfinger worked with DiDia producing their seventh studio album, Golden Rule, which was issued on 13 November. The album peaked at No. 1 on the ARIA albums chart, becoming their fifth studio album in a row to do so. The album's lead single, "All of the Dreamers", was released in September. "Burn Your Name", the second single, followed in December. That same month the band performed at the 2009 Homebake festival after a 10-year absence. In late January they toured on the 2010 Big Day Out. The third single from the album, "Sail the Widest Stretch", appeared in April. Also in April 2010, Powderfinger announced that after 21 years the group would disband following their Sunsets Farewell Tour in September and October that year: Airbus A320 with Powderfinger logo at Newcastle Airport in September 2010. It was used on the Sunsets Farewell Tour. Coghill told Australian Times that the final tour is "going to be great fun, but it's also going to be sad". He confirmed that he had no plans to start a new band or for a solo project. Instead he intended to finish his degree, "[o]nce I'm done with that, I might put the feelers out and see what's happening. I don't think I'd be doing anything solo, but I might look to join other bands, just to have a chance to keep playing. I'm just not keen to be off touring the world anymore". Powderfinger played their final show at the River Stage in Brisbane on 13 November 2010 in front of 10,000 fans; the last song they performed was "These Days". On 25 January 2011 the band issued a previously unreleased track, "I'm on Your Side", as a fundraiser for the Premier's Flood Appeal as a result of major flooding in Queensland from December the previous year into January. The song was available via the band's website with all proceeds going towards the cause. On 8 November 2011, the group released a second compilation album, Footprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 2001–2011, containing two new tracks. There was also a 2-disc release, Fingerprints & Footprints – The Ultimate Collection, combining both Fingerprints and Footprints in one set. Also in November, Dino Scatena, together with the band, published a biography, Footprints: the inside story of Australia's best loved band. Scatena, a rock music journalist, had started writing the book in October of the previous year, during the Sunsets Farewell Tour. ===2010–present: Afterwards=== Former Powderfinger member Bernard Fanning worked on his second solo album Departures during late 2012 in Los Angeles, with Joe Chiccarelli producing. It was released in June the following year and peaked at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Middleton had relocated to Melbourne and worked with Red Door Sounds' Paul Annison, producer of Children Collide's album Monument (April 2012). In December that year Middleton revealed that "I'm halfway through a new record". Middleton's album, Translations, was released independently in November 2013¹. Around the same time Coghill was working as a journalist on the Gold Coast, while Collins was "developing business projects in Queensland". In January 2013 Haug produced the second album, Sins of a Li'l Later Kiss, by Brisbane-based folk duo Cole and Van Dijk. He then joined the Church, replacing Marty Willson-Piper, and featured on their 2014 album Further/Deeper. On 23 May 2020, Powderfinger reformed for a one-off live-streamed YouTube charity performance titled One Night Lonely, with all proceeds going to Beyond Blue and Support Act. On 25 May, an EP of the performance was released. On 31 August 2020, Powderfinger confirmed the release of a compilation album of unreleased songs titled Unreleased (1998–2010), released on 27 November 2020. It was preceded by the single "Day by Day", released on 18 September. On 13 November 2020, Powderfinger released "Daybreak", the second single preceding the release of the album.

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