Phil Judd - After Split Enz

After Split Enz

After leaving Split Enz, Judd became involved with Auckland punk band, The Suburban Reptiles. He produced their second single, "Saturday Night Stay at Home", and performed live with them. He was also briefly a member of Chris Knox's band The Enemy. Out of the remnants of The Suburban Reptiles he formed The Swingers with future Midnight Oil band member Bones Hillman and Buster Stiggs. The band went through a couple of lineup changes, but managed to release a #1 Hit song in New Zealand, "Counting The Beat". The song was used in the 1990s on commercials for DEKA chain of general merchandise stores, and was also used for the New Zealand TV3 Slogan "There aint no place I'd rather be" in 2011. The Swingers also wrote lyrics and composed music for Gillian Armstrong's 1982 New Wave musical Starstruck.

After The Swingers broke up in 1982, Judd recorded the Private Lives solo album, released by Mushroom Records in 1983. It would be 24 years before he released his next solo album. In the US, selections from Private Lives were released as a five-track EP called The Swinger.

In 1986 Tim Finn contacted Judd to write some songs for his new album Big Canoe. It would have been the first time they were to write together since Split Enz. According to Finn, instead of writing, the two spent most of the time drinking and catching up on old times and wrote no material. Instead, Judd played guitar on the album.