Powderfinger

**Powderfinger** were a rock band from Brisbane, Australia. The band started in 1989. The band’s members were Bernard Fanning (singer, guitarist), Darren Middleton (guitarist), Ian Haug (guitarist), John Collins (bass), and Jon Coghill (drums).

## Overview

After some Extended plays (EPs) that sold quite well, and making one full album, Powderfinger became popular in Australia with their second album, _Double Allergic_. Their third album, _Internationalist_, was even more popular and made them celebrities. It sold over 350,000 copies. _Odyssey Number Five_ was their fourth album and was released in 2000. It is their most famous album; it was sold overseas in the United States and Canada. Powderfinger's next two albums were not as popular as the earlier ones, but still got to number one on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) charts.

## History

Powderfinger started in Brisbane, Australia, in 1989. Ian Haug, John Collins, and Steven Bishop (drums), had been playing music with other bands, when they decided to form Powderfinger. The band's name came from the song "Powderfinger" by Neil Young. Haug met Bernard Fanning at university and Fanning decided to join the band. Later, Jon Coghill joined when Bishop left. Darren Middleton was the last person to join, when Powderfinger saw one of his other bands playing and invited him to join.

### Early work

Powderfinger released their first extended play (EP), called _Powderfinger_, in 1992. This was followed by _Transfusion_ in 1993. _Transfusion_ was popular in Australia, and got to number one on the ARIA Alternative Chart, a chart for alternative rock music. Powderfinger signed a contract with record label Polydor after releasing _Transfusion_.

Their first EPs did not sell badly, so they made an album, _Parables for Wooden Ears_, in 1994. It did not do very well, and Fanning said in an interview in 2004 that "the music wasn't very good". The band then released _Double Allergic_ in 1996. This album became very popular in Australia; it sold more than 200,000 copies. Jonathan Lewis from Allmusic said "_Double Allergic_ established Powderfinger as one of the most exciting Australian rock acts of the late 1990s". When they were making _Double Allergic_, Middleton said it was the best music the band had made so far. After releasing the album, Powderfinger went on a tour with You Am I, playing at the Livid concerts.

### Successful releases

After _Double Allergic_, Powderfinger began to work on their third album. The band worked in Melbourne with a new producer, Nick DiDia. In 1998, they released _Internationalist_. The album went to number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, and stayed in the top 50 for 101 weeks. It sold more than 350,000 copies. _Internationalist_ was the first Powderfinger album to win an ARIA Award; it won "Album of the Year", "Best Rock Album" and "Best Cover Art" at the 1999 ARIA Awards. "The Day You Come", the first single, won "Single of the Year" in 1999.

On _Internationalist_, Powderfinger included songs about their political opinions and social ideas, but they said this was not done on purpose. _Internationalist_ sounded different to the band's first two albums. This was because the band experimented with new ways of playing their music and writing songs.

Powderfinger's next album, _Odyssey Number Five_ (released in 2000), is their most famous. It won many awards including "Album of the Year" from _Rolling Stone_ magazine, and the 2001 "Album of the Year" ARIA Award. It also got to number one on the ARIA Albums Chart. From _Odyssey Number Five_, Powderfinger released their most popular single, "My Happiness". It won the 2001 "Single of the Year" ARIA Award, and got to number four on the ARIA Singles Chart. Two songs on _Odyssey Number Five_ appeared in movies; "These Days" was from the movie _Two Hands_,  and "My Kind of Scene" was part of _Mission: Impossible II_.

_Odyssey Number Five_ was Powderfinger's shortest album yet. Similar to _Internationalist_, it talked about political and social issues. It also had numerous songs about love. Fanning liked listening to gospel music, and to soul which is often about love, and wrote his own songs after listening to that. Reviewers disagreed on the album; _Entertainment Weekly_ liked it and gave it a B+, saying the album experimented well, while Allmusic gave it one-and-a-half stars out of five, saying Powderfinger were too careful and not aggressive enough. Powderfinger toured around North America with Coldplay to help promote _Odyssey Number Five_.

In 2003, Powderfinger released their fifth album, _Vulture Street_. It was named after a street in Brisbane where the band would rehearse. _Vulture Street_ got to number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, but did not stay on the chart for as long as the two albums before it. _Vulture Street_ won four ARIA Awards including "Album of the Year" in 2003.

_Vulture Street_ contained louder guitars and drums than the albums before it, especially _Odyssey Number Five_. Bernard Zuel from _The Sydney Morning Herald_ said it was "a rawer, louder, but by no means unrefined, album". Some of the album was recorded during jam sessions, and was similar to what Powderfinger sounded like when playing live. Kenneth Nguyen from _The Age_ said the band "play a crowd-pleasing set".

### Break from recording

In 2004, Powderfinger released a CD/DVD of themselves playing a concert in Sydney. The release was called _These Days: Live in Concert_. After this they released a "best of" album called _Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000_. This included singles from their albums so far, some songs that were not released as singles but appeared on albums, and two new songs. Both compilations did well on the ARIA Albums Chart, reaching number two.

After releasing _Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000_, Powderfinger said they would have a rest from working together.  During this break, Bernard Fanning made his own music, releasing an album called _Tea & Sympathy_. Darren Middleton released an album, called _The Way Out_ with Drag, another band he plays in. Ian Haug and John Collins made a band called The Predators during this time with Steven Bishop, who had left Powderfinger around 1992. The Predators made an EP called _Pick Up the Pace_. During the break, Fanning married his girlfriend, Andrea. The wives of Middleton and Haug both had children during the break.

### Return from break

Powderfinger returned from their break and began work on their sixth album in 2006. The band recorded in Los Angeles with Rob Schnapf, and released _Dream Days at the Hotel Existence_ in 2007. The album's name came from a book called _The Brooklyn Follies_ that Fanning was reading when the band recorded. _Dream Days at the Hotel Existence_ contained songs about politics and the lives of Indigenous Australians, and also about love. Because of the political lyrics on one song, "Black Tears", the album was nearly banned.

The album sold well and was number one in Australia, like many of Powderfinger's previous albums. However, critics did not like it as much as the band's older work; Barnaby Smith of musicOMH said "the volume has been turned down", but he said that was "not always a good thing".

After the album was released, Powderfinger went on a concert tour with Silverchair, another Australian band. On the tour, called the Across the Great Divide tour, the band played shows in lots of cities in Australia and New Zealand. They did the tour to help Reconciliation Australia, an Australian charity that tries to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.

## Philanthropy

Powderfinger have done a lot of work for charities and philanthropic causes. In 2004, the band played at WaveAid, a concert in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The concert made over $2 million in profit, which was donated to help survivors of the earthquake.

The 2007 Across the Great Divide tour featured Powderfinger and Silverchair playing concerts across Australia to help promote Reconciliation Australia, a charity that tries to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. More than 200,000 saw the bands play. After the tour, the bands released a DVD, which included the bands performing, and interviews with their members. In October 2007, Powderfinger played a concert at the Sydney Opera House as part of "Breast Cancer Awareness Month". Only people who had breast cancer, and their families, were invited to the show. Silverchair and Missy Higgins also performed. After the concert, Fanning said that "musicians have a guilty conscience in general about their lives being quite good and tend to be aware of social issues".

## Discography

A dash (–) means it did not appear on the chart.

### Albums

|width=8%|Release year|width=46%|Album|width=8%|Aus chart|width=8%|NZ chart|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1994|_Parables for Wooden Ears_|51|–|||||
|1996|_Double Allergic_|4|–|||||
|1998|_Internationalist_|1|–|||||
|2000|_Odyssey Number Five_|1|15|||||
|2003|_Vulture Street_|1|17|||||
|2007|_Dream Days at the Hotel Existence_|1|26|||||
|2009|_Golden Rule_|1|–|||||

### Other releases

|width=8%|Release year|width=46%|Album|width=8%|Aus chart|width=8%|NZ chart|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1992|_Powderfinger_ (EP)|–|–|||||
|1993|_Transfusion_ (EP)|–|–|||||
|1995|_Mr Kneebone_ (EP)|–|–|||||
|1999|_The Triple M Acoustic Sessions_ (EP)|–|–|||||
|2004|_These Days: Live in Concert_ (Live album)|2|–|||||
|2004|_Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000_ (Best of)|2|–|||||
|2007|_Across the Great Divide Tour_ (Live DVD album with Silverchair)|2|–|||||
|2008|_iTunes Live from Sydney_ (Live album)|58|–|||||
|2009|_Seven Deadly Spins_ (Box set)|–|–|||||
|2010|_Sunsets Farewell Tour_ (Live album)|1|–|||||
|2011|_Footprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 2001-2011_ (Best of)|22|–|||||
|2011|_Fingerprints & Footprints: Ultimate Collection_ (Best of)|15|–|||||

## Other websites

- Powderfinger's official website
    - Discography  on official website
- Powderfinger on Allmusic

## Infobox (musical artist)

- **name**: Powderfinger
- **image**: Powderfinger performing September 2007 (b).jpg
- **landscape**: yes
- **alt**: A stage shot of six men performing: From left, a man seated at keyboards with a microphone, the drummer behind his kit with a drumstick raised in his right hand, a guitarist singing into a microphone, another singer-guitarist highlighted by overhead lighting, a man playing a bass guitar who is mostly obscured behind the lead singer, and the last man at right who is also playing a guitar. In front of the stage are cameramen and audience members. Above is further stage lighting with, at left, a large projected image of the top part of the moon.
- **caption**: Powderfinger performing "These Days (Powderfinger song), These Days" on the Across the Great Divide tour, September 2007, Sydney

Left to right: Lachy Doley, Lachlan Doley (auxiliary musician), Jon Coghill, Darren Middleton, Bernard Fanning, John Collins (Australian musician), John Collins (obscured), Ian Haug
- **background**: group_or_band
- **alias**: Terry, Bruce, Econodogs
- **origin**: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- **years active**: 1989–2010; 2020
- **label**: Finger, Polydor Records, Polydor, Universal Music, Universal
- **past members**: Steven Bishop
John Collins (Australian musician), John Collins
Ian Haug
Bernard Fanning
Jon Coghill
Darren Middleton