INXS

INXS
INXS on stage on 2 July, 2007, with J. D. Fortune singing.
INXS on stage on 2 July, 2007, with J. D. Fortune singing.
Background information
Origin Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Genre(s) Rock, New Wave
Years active 1977 - present
Label(s) Atco Records/Atlantic Records
Epic Records
Mercury Records
Website http://www.INXS.com
Members
Garry Gary Beers
Tim Farriss
Kirk Pengilly
Andrew Farriss
Jon Farriss
J.D. Fortune
Former members
Michael Hutchence
Jon Stevens

INXS (pronounced "in excess") are an Australian rock and New Wave group. The band was formed on 16 August 1977, in Sydney, Australia.

Contents

History

Michael Hutchence era

1980s

INXS began under the name The Farriss Brothers, which was created at Davidson High School, New South Wales, and originally consisted of Michael Hutchence, Andrew Farriss, Garry Gary Beers, Tim Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, and Jon Farriss.[1][2] The band changed their name to INXS prior to the release of their self-titled debut album in 1980, which featured "Just Keep Walking," their first Australian hit single. Its follow-up, 1981's Underneath the Colours (produced by Richard Clapton), became a hit-album in Australia.[3]

In 1982, Shabooh Shoobah was released successfully internationally, reaching #52 on the Billboard 200 and #46 on the Hot Pop Albums chart.[4][5] The single "The One Thing" brought them their first Top-30 hit in United States, and was also a Top-20 hit in Canada.[6] INXS played alongside many of their contemporaries on New Wave Day at the 1983 US Festival.[7] Many songs from Shabooh Shoobah were featured prominently in the 1984 film Reckless.[8]

INXS performed at the 1983 US Festival on May 28, 1983, performing the songs To Look At You, The One Thing, Old World New World, and Don't Change.

With the Nick Launay-produced fourth album, The Swing in 1984, the band received more significant attention from around the world, as "Original Sin" (produced by Nile Rodgers) became their first #1 single and a highly popular song worldwide with fans and reviewers.[9] During that year the song was #1 in Australia (for two weeks at the start of 1984) as well as in Argentina and France, #11 in Canada, #23 in Switzerland, #31 in the Netherlands and #58 in the U.S. [10][6] Yet "Original Sin" was largely ignored in the UK, where INXS didn't have any success in the charts until 1986 with the album Listen Like Thieves. INXS, which had started out as a New Wave act, gradually moved in a more straight-ahead rock-oriented direction through the first half of the 1980s.[11]

INXS performed five songs for the 1985 Oz for Africa concert; "Original Sin", "Listen Like Thieves", "Kiss the Dirt", "What You Need", and "Don't Change". It was broadcast in Australia on both Seven Network and Nine Network, and on MTV in the US.[12] Two INXS songs ("What You Need" and "Don't Change") were also in the BBC broadcast and are contained on Live Aid's four DVD boxed set released in 2004.[13]

By 1985's breakthrough album Listen Like Thieves, the band had perfected a matured sound influenced by Led Zeppelin and XTC, but true to the band's original roots in the Aussie pubs. Listen Like Thieves was highly approved of by critics.[14] In the US the first single, "This Time", stalled at #81 in late 1985, but the band roared out of nowhere with the second, "What You Need", which in early 1986 became a Top-Five Billboard hit, bringing INXS their first breakout U.S. success. The song was also a Top-20 hit in Canada and reached #2 in Australia. INXS played for Prince Charles and Princess Diana of Wales at a concert in Australia. This show was filmed and later released on home video entitled Rockin' The Royals. An edited version of the concert was played on MTV (USA) in 1986 on their Saturday night concert series.

In 1986, INXS recorded two songs with Jimmy Barnes, an Easybeats cover "Good Times" and "Laying Down The Law", which Barnes co-wrote with Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence. "Good Times" was used as the theme song for the Australia Made series of concerts that toured the country in the summer of 1986 - 87. Australia Made was the largest touring festival of Australian music talent that had ever been attempted to that point. INXS and Barnes headlined and the rest of the line-up featured Mental as Anything, Divinyls, Models, The Saints, I'm Talking and The Triffids. The shows began in Launceston, Tasmania on 26 December and concluded in Sydney on Australia Day, 26 January 1987. A concert film of this event was made by Richard Lowenstein and released later that year[1]. "Good Times" peaked at No. 2 on the Australian chart and several months later was featured in the Joel Schumacher film The Lost Boys, allowing it to chart Top 40 in the US.

The band's worldwide peak of popularity came with 1987's Kick, an upbeat, confident album that yielded four Top-10 US singles and several international hits, including "New Sensation", "Never Tear Us Apart", "Devil Inside", and the #1 "Need You Tonight". They toured heavily behind the album throughout 1987 and 1988. The video for the 1987 INXS track "Mediate" (which played after the video for "Need You Tonight") duplicated the format of Bob Dylan's video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues," even in its use of apparently deliberate errors.

In 1989, Hutchence collaborated with Ollie Olsen and made an album titled MAX Q Max Q, which received decent reviews, but at best attained a cult status. This was due largely to the failure of the record company to promote it in the way it deserved.The rest of the band also took a break to work on side projects, but soon returned to the studio to record their follow-up album titled X.

1990s

However, the band had a lot of pressure on its shoulders due to fans and critics alike having high expectations about the follow-up album to Kick. In 1990, INXS released X. It followed in the same vein as Kick, and added harmonica to some songs, but critics and fans considered it a weak follow-up. Nevertheless, X did score two hits in "Suicide Blonde" and "Disappear" (both Top-10 in the US), and was a Top-5 hit album internationally.

INXS performed at Wembley Stadium on July 13, 1991, during their "Summer XS" tour stop in London to a sold out audience of 72,000 fans. During this show, INXS organized a film crew to shoot their show onto video to come out simultaneously as their live album Live Baby Live (the video was also called Live Baby Live). [Note: Name is said Live (as in "to live your life") Baby Live (as in a live performance).]

1992's Welcome to Wherever You Are was an experimental album using sitars and a 60-piece orchestra while adding a much more "raw" sound to their music. It received good critical reviews and went number one in the UK & Sweden and number two in Switzerland, but had difficulty finding an audience in the U.S.

1993's Full Moon, Dirty Hearts received mixed reviews and included a track called "Please (You Got That)" which featured the legendary Ray Charles and title track with The Pretenders Chrissie Hynde. The band made a full video album for the record using unknown Australian students to direct with help by Richard Lowenstein. Full Moon, Dirty Hearts was the last record under INXS' contract with Atlantic.

The band took time off to rest and be with their families. Michael Hutchence remained in the public eye through modeling and film acting. His personal life included dating several models and public personalities including Kylie Minogue, Helena Christensen and Paula Yates.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, INXS was a major force in Australian popular music, leading the way into worldwide popularity for several Australian bands. The band worked closely with several other Australian artists, such as The Models and ex-patriate New Zealander Jenny Morris, helping to establish their careers. By the mid-nineties, however, their popularity had waned, especially in the US, where their Greatest Hits compilation failed to reach the Top-100. At the 1996 BRIT Awards, Michael Hutchence presented Oasis with an award, after which their characteristically arrogant lead singer Liam Gallagher remarked "Has-beens shouldn't be presenting awards to gonna-bes".[15] In 1997, the group released a comeback album titled Elegantly Wasted, which garnered mixed reviews. It fared respectably in Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain (where INXS had ironically more success in the 90s than in the 80s), Sweden and Switzerland. A sidenote is that Michael Hutchence and Andrew Farriss were asked about the backing vocals on the title track for the new album, with the interviewer swearing it sounded like "I'm better than Oasis."

On 22 November 1997, Hutchence was found dead in a Sydney hotel room under suspicious circumstances. The coroner who performed his autopsy ruled his death a suicide. Some speculate his death was actually an accident, the result of autoerotic asphyxiation. [16]

Transitional years

Since Hutchence's death, INXS continued, using Terence Trent D'Arby, Russell Hitchcock and Jimmy Barnes as temporary lead singers. New Zealander, Celebrity Treasure Island host and former lead singer of Australian band Noiseworks, Jon Stevens began singing with INXS in 2000. INXS played as one of the headline acts at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Stevens was officially named a member of the band in 2002. However, he left INXS in 2003 to pursue a solo career, only recording a contractual obligation song called "I Get Up", released as a single (which charted in the Top-100 on the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart) in the same year. The song was also used in the Rugby Union World Cup 2003 and the EA Sports Rugby 2004 video game.

In 2001, INXS was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall Of Fame. In total, the band has received three Grammy nominations over their 30-year career.

Rock Star: INXS

INXS returned to the news in 2004 when it was announced that a new reality television program titled Rock Star: INXS would feature a contest to find a new lead vocalist for the band. The show, which had its debut on the CBS network 11 July 2005, (on Global in Canada, VH1 in the UK and FOX 8 in Australia), featured 15 contestants vying for the position of lead singer. The show was executive produced by Survivor's Mark Burnett and hosted by Brooke Burke and former Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro.

On 20 September 2005, J.D. Fortune (born Jason Dean Bennison, but uses his mother's maiden name of Fortune) of Oakville, Ontario, Canada won the eleven-week competition, which culminated in his singing the Rolling Stones's "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and INXS' "What You Need" in the finale of the show to become the new lead singer of INXS. He has recorded the new album with producer Guy Chambers and went on a world tour with INXS in 2006. Runner-up Marty Casey was the opening act during leg one of the world tour, along with his band, The Lovehammers.[17]

During the Rock Star: INXS competition, the contestants were challenged to write the lyrics and melody to music written by Andrew Farriss. Originally this challenge was divided up into two teams. When Fortune did not see eye-to-eye with his team (that included Casey), he decided to venture out on his own and write his own lyrics. At first Fortune's move seemed to have doomed his chances to win the competition (because it was perceived he couldn't work in a team), but it was this move that resulted in his creation of the lyrics to "Pretty Vegas". This song became a favourite of both fans and INXS and played a major role in Fortune being able to win the competition . This single was released 4 October 2005 and reached #5 on the iTunes Store ranking of top downloaded songs on its first day, debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #37, and became a huge radio airplay hit in Fortune's native Canada.

INXS, v.2.0

On 29 November 2005, the band's first album in eight years was released, entitled Switch. It was released in the United States via Epic Records. Shortly after, in September 2006, the band and Epic parted ways.[18]

After the success of the Switched On World Tour, the band is currently working on their new album. J. D. Fortune has stated that he is writing new material on the road. One such song is called "Angel Skin" which talks about a man descending to Hell. Other demos of songs that have been written include "Death of an Elephant", "Lullaby", "Everybody Says Goodbye" and "Product of the System".[19] Fortune has not confirmed whether the band has a new label worldwide or not.

In 2007, the Farriss Brothers were inducted into the West Australian Music Industry Awards Hall of Fame.

INXS toured Australia and New Zealand in March 2007, with Simple Minds and support band Arrested Development.

[20]Fortune is currently working on a solo album “Death of a Motivational Speaker.”

In August, 2007, INXS has reported what is termed as a "medical issue" on Garry Beers' hand. This announcement came at the cancellation of an August 31, 2007 show in Cleveland, Ohio in which [INXS.com] stated "Due to ongoing medical issues with Garry Beers' hand, the band's doctor has urged the band to not play more than three shows in a row or risk permanent damage to Garry's hand."[21]

According to the RIAA, INXS have sold 15 million units in the United States alone, becoming the 3rd highest selling Australian Music Act in the United States, behind AC/DC and The Bee Gees. [22]

Commercials

In America, 2002, McDonald's and Mazda used "New Sensation" for a promo campaign, and in 2008 Toyota used "What You Need" in their ad campaign.

Whilst in Australia "By My Side" has been used by NRMA Insurance on and off for 8 years.

Discography

For a complete discography, see INXS discography.

Studio albums

  1. 1980 - INXS
  2. 1981 - Underneath the Colours
  3. 1982 - Shabooh Shoobah
  4. 1984 - The Swing
  5. 1985 - Listen Like Thieves
  6. 1987 - Kick
  7. 1990 - X
  8. 1992 - Welcome to Wherever You Are
  9. 1993 - Full Moon, Dirty Hearts
  10. 1997 - Elegantly Wasted
  11. 2005 - Switch

Live albums

  1. 1988 - Live USA
  2. 1991 - Live Baby Live
  3. 1997 - INXS: Live in Aspen - February 1997
  4. 2004 - INXS: Live at Barker Hangar

Compilation albums

  1. 1982 - INXSIVE
  2. 1994 - The Greatest Hits
  3. 2001 - Shine Like It Does: The Anthology (1979-1997)
  4. 2002 - Definitive INXS/The Best of INXS
  5. 2002 - The Years 1979-1997
  6. 2002 - Stay Young 1979-1982
  7. 2004 - INXS²: The Remixes
  8. 2004 - Original Sin - The Collection
  9. 2006 - Taste It : The Collection

EPs

  1. 1983 - Dekadance
  2. 2004 - Bang the Drum

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Biography - Michael Kelland John Hutchence". michaelhutchenceinfo.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  2. ↑ "The Farriss Brothers". h2g2. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  3. ↑ "The Birth of INXS". h2g2. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  4. ↑ "Artist Chart History - INXS - Albums". Billboard.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  5. ↑ "INXS > Charts & Awards > Billboard albums". Allmusic. Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "INXS > Charts & Awards > Billboard singles". Allmusic. Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  7. ↑ "The Clash US Festival May 28th 1983". blackmarketcash.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  8. ↑ Kathy Curtis (26 September 2006). "Highly Overlooked 80's movie". Amazon.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  9. ↑ Ned Raggett. "Original Sin > Song Review". Allmusic. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  10. ↑ "INXS - Original Sin". australian-charts.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  11. ↑ "A Decade in the Life of INXS". Eighties Club. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  12. ↑ "Oz for Africa". liveaid.free.fr. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  13. ↑ "Live Aid 4 DVD". Sanity. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  14. ↑ Parke Puterbaugh (5 December 1985). "INXS: Listen Like Thieves". Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  15. ↑ "Brits behaving badly". BBC (4 March 2000). Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  16. ↑ "Paula challenges Hutchence verdict". BBC (10 August 1999). Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  17. ↑ "J.D. Fortune :: Rock Star INXS". Rock Band Lounge. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  18. ↑ Jonathan Cohen (18 September 2006). "Sudden 'Switch': INXS Parts Ways With Epic". Billboard.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  19. ↑ CANOE - JAM! Music - Karen Bliss's Lowdown: Insider Canadian music news: INXS frontman pens new album
  20. ↑ Fortune 'pressured' in INXS | NEWS.com.au Entertainment
  21. ↑ INXS.com news.new
  22. ↑ RIAA Website Units Sold List retrieved 29th December 2007

External links

Official sites

Database entries

Fan sites

INXS
Garry Gary Beers · Andrew Farriss · Jon Farriss · Tim Farriss · J. D. Fortune · Kirk Pengilly
Michael Hutchence  · Jon Stevens
Studio albums
INXS · Underneath the Colours · Shabooh Shoobah · The Swing · Listen Like Thieves · Kick · X · Welcome to Wherever You Are · Full Moon, Dirty Hearts · Elegantly Wasted · Switch
EPs
Dekadance · Bang the Drum
Compilations
INXSIVE · The Greatest Hits · Shine Like It Does: The Anthology (1979-1997) · Definitive INXS/The Best of INXS · The Years 1979-1997 · Stay Young 1979-1982 · INXS²: The Remixes · Original Sin - The Collection · Taste It : The Collection
Live albums
Live Baby Live · INXS: Live at Barker Hangar
Singles
"Just Keep Walking" · "Stay Young" · "The One Thing" · "Don't Change" · "To Look at You" · "Black and White" · "Original Sin" · "I Send a Message" · "Burn for You" · "Dancing on the Jetty" · "This Time" · "What You Need" · "Kiss the Dirt (Falling Down the Mountain)" · "Listen Like Thieves" · "Different World" · "Good Times" (with Jimmy Barnes) · "Need You Tonight" · "Devil Inside" · "New Sensation" · "Never Tear Us Apart" · "Mystify" · "Suicide Blonde" · "Disappear" · "By My Side" · "Bitter Tears" · "The Stairs" · "Shining Star" · "Baby Don't Cry" · "Taste It" · "Not Enough Time" · "Beautiful Girl" · "The Gift" · "Please (You Got That...)" (with Ray Charles) · "The Strangest Party (These Are the Times)" · "Elegantly Wasted" · "Everything" · "Don't Lose Your Head" · "Searching" · "Tight" · "I Get Up" · "Pretty Vegas" · "Afterglow" · "Devil's Party" · "Perfect Strangers" · "God's Top Ten"
Related articles
Discography · Rock Star: INXS · Max Q · Michael Hutchence · Terence Trent D'Arby · Jimmy Barnes · Dogs in Space