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Split Enz ~ Screen Printed T-Shirts


Several of the group came from an art school background and many of their album covers, T-shirt, costumes and merchandising were designed by band members.

This page shows a selection of Split Enz
t-shirts, celebrating album releases and major tours. Split Enz were the first New Zealand band to achieve world-wide success. In the '70s and early '80s, they were known for their quirky music and extravagant costumes.

Row 1 (above): Designed by percussionist Noel Crombie, the geometric logo from the album cover for True Colours was reproduced on T-shirts in several colourways (a, b,c,d). True Colours, with the Neil Finn smash hit "I Got You" sold 200,000 copies in Australia and broke the band internationally. The T-shirts were for the Canadian tour where the band's album went platinum.
Row 2 (above): (a) The Courting the Act T-shirt was designed by Robert Gillies for a New Zealand tour. The show was very much a theatrical event with the stage and merchandising given a medieval flavour. In 1984 the band's last album release See Ya Round had a T-shirt (b,c) illustrating the "Enz With a Bang" final NZ tour.
The T-Shirt with the Oriental pig-tail characters (d) was designed as a promotional T-shirt for the group by band member Robert Gillies while they were in London in 1978.
Row 3 (above): Crowded House bass player Nick Seymour designed the Mambo yin-yan dog and bone T-shirt front and back (a,b) for the Split Enz/ Crowded House tour in Australia 1989/1990. Gigs included Mudgee, Coff's Harbour, Surfers Paradise and News Year's Eve at Sydney's Darling Harbour.
The roof-scape pattern (c) was contributed by Noel Crombie for the post-Enz band Schnell-Fenster.

Row 4 (above): The sky beachscape of Time and Tide (a, b) saw the band produce another internationally successful album featuring the songs "Dirty Creature" and "Six Months in a Leaky Boat". This T-shirt design was generated by the record company.

For further information on the group, see http://www.frenz.com and other Enz-related websites.

Jean Clarkson, POI Research Team, 2001