Neil Finn is also busy recycling old material on his live album, 7 Worlds Collide (Parlophone), a 74-minute marathon that captures the highlights of the former Crowded House leader's 'epic' residency at the St James Theatre in Auckland earlier this year. Finn is one of those characters much beloved of the old school cognoscenti, for whom quality songwriting and an unfussy performing style are the mark of genuine talent. But he cuts a strangely unglamorous figure in the gaudy marketplace of modern pop, a problem which he addresses here by recruiting a supporting cast of 'friends' whose combined celebrity status turns an otherwise standard concert recording into something of an event.

Thus Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder applies his wobbly bray to Take a Walk, Parting Ways and an old rocker by Split Enz called I See Red. Johnny Marr sings his own song, Down on the Corner, and helps out on a faithful re-creation of the old Smiths favourite, There is a Light that Never Goes Out. Finn's band is also supplemented at times by his brother Tim, Lisa Germano and a couple of the Radiohead boys. It is a sturdy collection of performances by one of pop's more underrated straight men, but hardly a set that is likely to appeal to the unconverted.