INXS
 Tim,
Andy and Jon Farriss formed The Farriss Brothers with school
friends Michael Hutchence, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Beers in
Australia in 1977. A year later they renamed themselves INXS.
The band moved to Perth, Western Australia to develop their own
distinctive rock sound, which incorporated both black dance music
and white soul influences.
INXS began their recording career in 1980 with a single, Simple
Simon on the independent Deluxe label. Their debut album also
appeared in 1980, containing their Aussie hit Just Keep
Walking.
Over the next three years, half a dozen singles reached the
lower Top 40 in Australia, but the second album, Underneath
The Colours sold well, and the next Shabooh Shoobah
reached the Top 5.
It was with the Original Sin single of early 1985 and
its accompanying album, The Swing, that the band finally
hit the top of the charts in Australia.
The album and single generated interest in the band from the
USA, Europe and South America, and the follow-up album, Listen
Like Thieves, consolidated their worldwide success, except in
the UK where critics savaged the band, but it would not be long
before sales finally took off there as well.
Had it not been for the photogenic presence of Michael
Hutchence, INXS would have struggled to graduate from Australia's
pub-rock circuit. While they aspired to fuse funk rhythms with
rock abandonment, more often than not - even on the
million-selling Kick - they sounded like the kind of
band who rolled their jacket sleeves up to expose their
no-nonsense, unpretentious origins.
In 1986, Hutchence made his acting debut in the movie Dogs
In Space. One song from the film, Rooms For The Memory,
earned him a solo Australian Top 10 single. The band toured the
USA and Europe constantly, and MTV aired their videos.
As a result, Kick achieved over 1 million sales on
advance orders in the USA alone and the band finally gained a
number 1 US hit with Need You Tonight in January 1988.
At best they went proficiently where others had gone before,
echoing Prince in hobnailed boots on the
sprightly New Sensation, but elsewhere they epitomised
the ponderous mid-80s.
After Kick and before the release of X, all
the members of INXS had a 12-month break and became involved with
other projects - Hutchence with Max Q, Andrew Farriss in
production work with Jenny Morris, and Garry Beers joining a loose
collection of friends for a tour and recording as Absent Friends.
Hutchence's much publicised, fleeting romance with Kylie
Minogue brought the band's name to the attention of a whole
new generation of potential fans. INXS' 1993 set, Full Moon,
Dirty Hearts, included a duet with Chrissie Hynde (of The
Pretenders) on Kill The Pain, and the single The
Gift. The video of the latter was banned by MTV, formerly
INXS' greatest ally, due to its use of Holocaust and Gulf War
footage.
Hutchence embarked on a highly publicised relationship with
Paula Yates, being cited in her divorce from Bob
Geldof. Over the next few years, until his untimely death in
1997, Hutchence and Geldof were at loggerheads over the custody of
the latter's children with Yates.
Hutchence was found hanged in his hotel room in Sydney,
Australia, on 22 November 1997. Yates died almost three years
later, completing the tragic cycle. The remaining members of INXS
resumed live work in 2000, recruiting Jon Stevens (ex-Noiseworks)
as their new lead singer.
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