Bernard Fanning: Powderfinger, My Happiness and Tea & Sympathy | Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion

Why fans still care

BERNARD FANNING sang the songs a whole generation of Australians grew up on. He topped triple j’s Hottest 100 twice with Powderfinger and once on his own with Wish You Well in 2005, as ABC News and Double J report. When Powderfinger announced a 2027 reunion in October 2026, ABC News noted the band had made the annual Hottest 100 on 22 occasions.

Early life

Bernard Fanning grew up in the Brisbane suburb of Toowong, ABC News reports. In his Take 5 interview with Zan Rowe, his early listening ranged from David Bowie and Bob Dylan to AC/DC, INXS and Sherbet. He started a journalism degree at the University of Queensland, then dropped out to join guitarist Ian Haug’s band.

Career chapters

1. 1989Powderfinger form in Brisbane, as a covers band
2. 1998Internationalist debuts at number 1
3. 2000Odyssey Number Five tops the ARIA Albums Chart
4. 2003Vulture Street goes to number 1
5. 2005Tea & Sympathy, his first solo album, debuts at number 1
6. 2006ARIA Album of the Year; APRA Songwriter of the Year
7. 2007Dream Days at the Hotel Existence; Across the Great Divide tour with Silverchair
8. 2009Golden Rule
9. 2010farewell show at Brisbane’s Riverstage
10. 2013Departures tops the ARIA Albums Chart
11. 2020One Night Lonely livestream
12. 2024The Deluge with Paul Dempsey
13. 2026Powderfinger announce a 2027 reunion tour

A covers band from Brisbane 1989 to 1996

Powderfinger formed in Brisbane in 1989 and started out playing covers, ARIA says, before writing their own songs. Their self-titled EP came out on the band’s own label in 1992. The band was Fanning on vocals with Ian Haug and Darren Middleton on guitars, John Collins on bass and Jon Coghill on drums.

Five number 1s 1998 to 2010

Internationalist came out in September 1998 and gave Powderfinger their first number 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Odyssey Number Five followed in 2000, spent three weeks at the top, and carried My Happiness, the band’s first top 10 single, ARIA records. Vulture Street, Dream Days at the Hotel Existence and Golden Rule made five number 1 studio albums, a total ABC News also gives. In 2007 they co-headlined Across the Great Divide with Silverchair, 34 shows in 26 towns and cities, according to ARIA. ARIA also records a crowd of 10,000 for their farewell show at Brisbane’s Riverstage a week after the 2010 awards.

Tea & Sympathy and the solo years 2005 onward

While Powderfinger took a break, Fanning made Tea & Sympathy. It came out on 31 October 2005 and debuted at number 1, as ARIA and Australian Musician both report. At the 2006 ARIA Awards it won Album of the Year and Best Male Artist, and APRA named him Songwriter of the Year, ABC News reported that June. ARIA records Departures at number 1 too, and says all four of his solo albums reached the top two.

Fanning Dempsey National Park and the reunion 2024 onward

In 2024 he teamed up with Something for Kate’s Paul Dempsey, and their album The Deluge debuted at number 3, ARIA reported. In October 2026 Powderfinger announced they were getting back together. “We are absolutely ecstatic to be coming together to play again,” the band said in a statement quoted by ABC News.

Craft, sound and style

Working as a band

Songwriting went through the whole band. “We used to call it ’taking it through council’,” Fanning told Take 5, describing the other four members as the judges of a song.

Writing the songs

ABC News lists My Happiness, These Days, On My Mind, Wish You Well, My Kind of Scene and Sunsets among the hits he’s behind. These Days was written for Gregor Jordan’s film Two Hands, the National Film and Sound Archive says, and first came out as the B-side to Passenger before it went on the soundtrack. The band later re-recorded it for Odyssey Number Five, the archive notes.

Going solo

Tea & Sympathy stripped things back. Australian Musician points to Wish You Well, Songbird, Watch Over Me and Thrill Is Gone as the songs people know it by.

Stories people still tell

1. Baker Boy’s phone call.

   When Baker Boy reworked Wish You Well in 2022, he was nervous sending Fanning the demo, he told Double J. Fanning came back straight away and said he loved it, Baker Boy remembers.

2. One Night Lonely.

   In May 2020 Powderfinger played a livestream for Support Act and Beyond Blue. “We’re overwhelmed with more than $450,000 raised,” Support Act chief executive Clive Miller told ABC Radio Brisbane.

Legacy

ARIA calls Powderfinger “one of the most successful Australian bands of the last 30 years”, and counts 18 ARIA Awards from 47 nominations for the band. Alongside those five studio chart-toppers, ARIA records two solo number 1s, Tea & Sympathy and Departures.