Tha Nineez - Colt 45's EE TEE SEE

Neil Finn & Noel Crombie (& sometimes Tim Finn). Home demos 1978.
The audio stream is exclusive to neilfinn.com

We were in England in 1978 without a record deal or a manager, no money and too much time on our hands... Noel and I were living at no. 1 Appletree Dell, Dog Kennel Lane, Chorleywood in the country... most nights we would set up our identical Sony cassette decks, knock one up and indulge in some home recording... we were able to do some primitive overdubbing by recording on one machine then playing it back and playing along while recording onto the other... pots and pans, cardboard boxes, bowed cymbals, guitars and snakecharmers were our our instruments..some nights Tim would join us and together we would become the Ninees. - Neil Finn.

Snake Charm Boogie (demo)
Neil Finn/Noel Crombie
An instrumental which first appeared on Nilfun.net in 2000.

Neil and Noel Talk About Tha Nineez
Neil Finn and Noel Crombie talk to Jeremy Ansell in 2003 for Radio New Zealand’s Enzology – The Story of Split Enz.
Interview audio courtesy of Radio New Zealand.
Tha Nineez demos were recorded on two Sony CF-550A cassette recorders.

Give It A Whirl (demo)
Neil Finn/Tim Finn
Neil’s instrumental demo, recorded before Tim and Neil added lyrics.
“Give It A Whirl” became the first song on the Split Enz album Frenzy (before “I See Red” was tacked to the beginning of the LP on reprints) and was released as a single in 1979.

Outa Mongolia
Lead vocal by Tim. Occasionally performed in concert by Split Enz in 1979/80 but never released on record.

Heather Dean
Tim Finn on lead vocal.
Part of the melody was later used in “How Will You Go” on the Crowded House album Woodface in 1991.

Horse To Water
Tim Finn
Tim on lead vocal.
Split Enz recorded this a few months later for Frenzy but it didn’t make the cut until the album was remixed and reissued in 2006. “Horse To Water” has been performed at least in part in many Split Enz concerts.

Untitled 1
Neil Finn/Noel Crombie
Instrumental.

Noel and Neil Talk About Tha Nineez
Noel Crombie and Neil Finn talk to Jeremy Ansell in 2003 for Radio New Zealand’s Enzology – The Story of Split Enz.
Interview audio courtesy of Radio New Zealand.

Carried Away
Neil Finn
Soon after this demo was made, “Carried Away” was rewritten and recorded by Split Enz during The Rootin’ Tootin’ Luton sessions. It was first released on record as the B-side of “I Hope I Never” in Australia, 1980.

Evelyn
Neil Finn
“Evelyn” was another of Neil’s songs to be re-recorded by Split Enz on The Rootin Tootin’ Luton Tapes in 1978 and released in 2007.
Tha Nineez demo was featured on Nilfun.net in 2000 under the title “Always Leaving”.

Mind Over Matter
Tim Finn/Neil Finn
Neil’s song was later recorded with Split Enz for the 1979 Frenzy album after being rewritten with Tim.

Famous People
Tim Finn
Instrumental demo of one of Frenzy’s catchiest tracks.

Catherine Wheels / Disembodied Voices (early sketches)
Neil Finn/Tim Finn
The first of these two excerpts, possibly known in 1978 as “First To Say Gone”, was jammed by Split Enz later in the year and formed the chorus of The Finn Brothers’ song “Catherine Wheels” in 1989. It was another four years before the public heard it for the first time on the Crowded House album Together Alone.

The second sketch stuck in Tim’s mind for even longer before appearing as the the verse of “Disembodied Voices” on The Finn Brothers’ 2004 album Everyone Is Here.

Judy
Tim Finn on lead vocal. A true rarity, having never been recorded in the studio nor performed live.

Fraction Too Much Friction (early demo version)
Tim Finn/Neil Finn
Five years before Tim Finn had his first solo hit single with Fraction Too Much Friction, Tha Nineez recorded this demo at home

Untitled 2
Tim Finn/Neil Finn/Noel Crombie
Acoustic punk (plunk?) The melody was referenced 12 years later in the chorus of “Long Hard Road” by Tim Finn and Phil Judd.

Holy Smoke
Neil Finn
With a change in lyrics, “Holy Smoke” was later recorded by Split Enz in “The Rootin’ Tootin’ Luton” sessions and was first released in Australasia as the B-side of History Never Repeats in 1981.

Snake Charmer
Neil Finn/Noel Crombie
Another trademark Nineez instrumental.

Message Boy (demo)
Tim Finn
Two demos of this song, which was soon recorded by Split Enz on “The Rootin’ Tootin’ Luton Tapes” and became a B-side of “I See Red” at the end of 1978.