The band is getting back together.
Powderfinger has announced its return 16 years after the band members went their separate ways following a triumphant 2010 farewell tour.
The band revealed on Monday it will take to the road in 2027, with a raft of dates announced for Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, and Cairns.
What happens when the atomic bonds of a band like Powderfinger cease to exist?
And how did their paths bring them back together?
Though reunion tours and oddly repeating farewell shows have become something of a given in this day and age — Black Sabbath and Oasis come to mind — Powderfinger has spent years bucking that trend by seeming to become less, rather than more, likely to get back together over the years.
There were, of course, brief sparks. The boys have found it impossible to resist entirely from performing in each other's company.
Four members — Fanning, Middleton, Haug, and Collins — reunited to play a cover of Neil Young's Like a Hurricane at a Fanning gig at Collins's Brisbane venue the Triffid in 2015.
The same four took to the stage during Fanning's set at Splendour in the Grass 2017, blasting through (Baby I've Got You) On My Mind and These Days before vanishing back into the ether.
The full band made a dizzying return for One Night Lonely in the midst of COVID, giving people something powerful to sing and dance to during what was an immensely isolating time for many.
The show raised almost $500,000 for music and arts industries impacted by the pandemic.
Fanning had already laid the foundation of what would turn into a commanding solo career during Powderfinger's hiatus.
2005's Tea and Sympathy album found enormous success, spending 58 weeks in the ARIA top 50 and netting Fanning yet another Triple J Hottest 100 number one with the muscular bop Wish You Well.
It was during the making of that album that Fanning met his wife Andrea Moreno in Spain. Fanning has always had an affinity with the country, which inspired the song Bless My Soul.
After the band's break-up the family moved to Spain for a year and a half, before returning to Australia where Fanning released his second solo outing Departures in 2013.
His solo discography was further expanded with the twin 2016 and 2017 albums Civil Dusk and Brutal Dawn, thoughtful and accomplished works he spent years touring to adoring audiences.
An old friendship and a shared stature as Australian songwriting titans brought Fanning and Something For Kate frontman Paul Dempsey together in 2024, and Fanning Dempsey National Park was born.
The supergroup's debut album The Deluge showcased something new for both, with Fanning telling ABC TV's Take 5 with Zan Rowe they wanted to do something that "Something For Kate and Powderfinger would run an absolute mile from".
Fanning's musical manoeuvring since 2010 has been tempered by community and charity work over the years, including work for the Australian Marine Conservation Society and hosting songwriting workshops with indigenous teens at 2014's Clancestry festival.
Fanning is the quintessential Australian rock frontman, and has spent the years since Powderfinger's split further solidifying his command over the country's live music scene.
John Collins, widely known as JC, has spent his post-Finger years becoming more and more entrenched within the Queensland music and hospitality industry.
His first foray into the other side of the industry came with the opening of live music venue the Triffid in Newstead in 2014.
It was the first of what would become several of Australia's most beloved venues, with fellow Brisbane spot Fortitude Music Hall following in 2019, and the Hindley Street Music Hall opening its doors in Adelaide in 2022.
During Powderfinger's hiatus following the release of Vulture Street, he and Haug reprised the original high-school Powderfinger line-up with Stephen Bishop to perform as the Predators, releasing EP Pick Up the Pace in 2006 and full-length album Everybody Loves in 2021.
The impact of the COVID pandemic on the music industry spurred advocacy for downtrodden venues and artists, and saw JC become a voice for Queensland's creative community.
It was a role that came naturally, and led to his appointment as Queensland's nightlife commissioner.
Concerns about his commitment to the tour should be discarded, however, with Queensland Youth Minister Sam O'Connor granting him leave from work to perform.
"What is non-negotiable is that JC will be getting leave to perform that tour," Mr O'Connor said.
"That is a service to all Queenslanders and all Australians that Powderfinger can be reunited."
Haug is a musician first and foremost and forever. The towering guitarist certainly looks the part.
Following the band's break-up, Haug spent time championing local music with his Up in the Airlock series, featuring local bands creating live performances in the studio at his Samford Valley home.
Haug, JC and Bishop recorded the Predators' debut EP in the same studio during Powderfinger's hiatus, along with the full-length Everybody Loves in 2021.
Haug's teenage dream was fulfilled in 2014 when he joined The Church — Steve Kilbey's eternal, mercurial outfit — and he hasn't looked back.
Speaking to music writer Noel Mengel in 2014, Haug said the invite came as a shock.
"[Kilbey] said, 'If I asked you to join The Church, what would you say?' I said, 'I would probably say yes'. He said, 'Ok, see ya'. I was left stuck in traffic going, 'What the f**k was that?'" he said.
Like his Predators band mate JC, Haug has had to seek leave from his current job for the Powderfinger tour. It's been granted by The Church, from June onwards.
The other half of Powderfinger's guitar battery, Middleton has similarly spent the post-Finger years playing music anywhere he can.
Middleton had the chance to build his sensibility for genres beyond Powderfinger with his 2000s side project Drag, which set him up for a successful solo career.
Debut album Translations was packed with alt-pop jams and notable guests including Paul Dempsey, Clare Bowditch and Pete Murray, and Fanning, in an inversion of their decades-long dynamic, singing backup vocals on Lover's Shoes.
It was the beginning of a run of six accomplished solo albums, culminating with 2026's Pathways.
In 2014 he formed the touring supergroup Australian Rock Collective with Spiderbait's Kram, Jet's Mark Wilson, and Davey Lane from You Am I, and the group has spent years playing iconic albums from Australian music history start-to-finish.
Brisbane Boys College capitalised on their only Powderfinger alumnus by establishing the annual Darren Middleton Songwriting Competition in 2017. Each year Middleton spends several weeks mentoring young musicians, before judging the winner and performing with students.
Middleton and Haug took Powderfinger "underground" for the first time since 1996 in 2023 when they were invited to test out the acoustics of the Albert Street Cross River Rail tunnel, 35 metres below where Brisbane's Festival Hall once stood.
Coghill has proved since the band's break-up that he is a true renaissance man, pushing beyond music to dabble in filmmaking, writing and journalism.
He returned to university to study journalism full-time and joined the ABC on the Sunshine Coast in 2014, after a stretch mentoring and counselling indigenous teenagers in Brisbane.
Speaking in 2018 about changing careers, Coghill said it felt like "growing up at last".
"Just to feel what it's like to exercise a different muscle in your brain is a big turning point," he said.
During his work for the ABC Coghill paid tribute to triple j — which he noted was instrumental in Powderfinger's success and his own development — on its 40th anniversary.
Leaving the national broadcaster in 2019, Coghill turned his attention to the world of film. He joined with former Survivor producer Dan Munday and the Sunshine Coast Screen Collective to launch the Sunny Coast Showdown in 2023, an annual "film incubator" event championing the local film industry.
He hasn't just been encouraging others though, with more than a dozen feature film spec scripts and TV pilots under his belt and writer/director credits on a slew of short films.
For the band, it's worth considering who is in charge of filming these reunion shows. They've already got a director on board.
