Phil Selway sings a song of his own at 7 Worlds Collide in Auckland

Phil Selway sat down alone with a guitar at the Powerstation in Auckland on Monday 5 January and sang “The Family Madness”, a new song of his own, on the first of three sold-out nights by Neil Finn's 7 Worlds Collide. Russell Baillie, reviewing for The New Zealand Herald, called it Selway's live singing debut and one of the nicest surprises of the night.

Finn and his guests are in Auckland recording a charity album for Oxfam at his studio, and the shows run alongside the sessions. Ed O'Brien is in the band too; he and Selway both played Finn's first 7 Worlds Collide shows in 2001 (the November news). Johnny Marr, KT Tunstall, Liam Finn and four members of Wilco are in the company this time.

The second half of the night leaned on Wilco and Radiohead songs. Finn sang “Bodysnatchers” himself, the one song Baillie thought wobbled, as Finn could not quite match Thom Yorke's vocal over the riff. Jeff Tweedy took “Fake Plastic Trees”, with Selway on drums and O'Brien on guitar. Paul Rodgers was out on the road as Queen's singer at the time, and before they started Tweedy warned the crowd that this is going to be like Paul Rodgers fronting Queen².