Crowded House front man, Neil Finn, had already gone platinum once - with his brother, Tim, in the eclectic New Zealand pop band Split Enz. Neil recruited drummer Paul Hester (another Enz alumnus) when Split Enz split and he formed Crowded House in 1985 with bassist Nick Seymour. For this tour, he also enlisted another ex-Enz member, Eddie Rayner, to play keyboards. But Finn was determined to take Crowded House in a different direction than the Enz, and by the time the group came to America seven months after the release of their first record in Australia, their hit single "Don't Dream It's Over" was breaking out all over radio and MTV.
The band, which eventually split up in the mid-1990s, was exceptional on this debut tour, especially drummer Paul Hester, who, sadly, committed suicide in his native Australia.