Chris Bourke is a New Zealand writer, journalist, editor and radio producer. He first met Neil Finn in 1984, to write about the demise of Split Enz for the New Zealand Listener. While the editor of New Zealand's leading music magazine Rip It Up, he attended the showcase party/concert given in a private house in Auckland in October 1986 to introduce Crowded House to the country's media. Afterwards, he interviewed the band in a bedroom, with everyone sprawled on a double-bed. First published in 1997, Crowded House: Something So Strong was described by Stuart Coupe in the Australian Book Review as a book 'by which writing about popular music in Australasia will be measured for years to come'. In 2010 Auckland University Press published Bourke's Blue Smoke: the Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music, 1918-1964. This won three prizes at the 2011 New Zealand Post Book Awards: the "public choice" award, the general non-fiction award, and the premium award for the book of the year. Bourke lives in Wellington, where he attended Victoria University and graduated with a degree in music history.