Tim Finn makes a solo album and has a giant hit; Split Enz begins to fall apart; the robots take over, and the American label gets all the fax… and they’re not impressed.
Songs in this programme include 'Fraction Too Much Friction', 'Strait Old Line', 'Message To My Girl', 'Kia Kaha' and rare recordings of 'My Darkest Day', 'Merry Christmas to the Frenz of the Enz' and others.
Album Trivia: Conflicting Emotions
- In NZ, the initial copies of the Conflicting Emotions LP included a bonus 12” single of non-album cuts 'Kia Kaha' and 'Parasite'. These tracks were also issued as B-sides on the 'Strait Old Line' and 'Message To My Girl' singles.
- Phil Judd painted the front cover for Conflicting Emotions, as he’d done for the first album, Mental Notes.
- Noel Crombie painted the back cover.
- The 'Strait Old Line' video is one of Nigel Griggs’s favourite Split Enz clips. To film the slow motion effect in time with the music, the band had to mime with their instruments at double speed. Hard to do without cracking up.
- The video of 'Message To My Girl' was shot in two continuous takes, with the one and only edit obscured halfway through. New drummer Paul Hester appears in the video. Neil Finn remembers Nigel suggesting the song be called I Love You.
- A verse was removed from the recording of 'Our Day' before the album was released, but after the lyric sheet was printed. This trips up many fans who like to sing along.
- The arrangement of 'Conflicting Emotions' was influenced by a nightmare Eddie had. The whole song was recorded in five hours with a live vocal by Tim.
- 'Bon Voyage', credited to Tim, was partially composed by Eddie Rayner.
- 'When the Spirit Moves Us', one of Tim's songs, was given a run through by the band but was rejected from the album's final line-up. It's similar in style to the tracks on his Escapade solo album.
- When the album was being mixed in Sydney, Neil flew back to Melbourne every night for three or four nights in a row. On one of those nights, September 24th, Liam Finn was born.
