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With a career spanning 25 extraordinary years, INXS are undoubtedly one
of the world's great Rock acts, with more than 30 million records sold
worldwide, the band are arguably Australia's most successful Rock export;
it all began in 1997 in Sydney, AUSTRALIA, when vocalist Michael Hutchence,
lead guitarist Tim Farriss, his brothers Andrew on guitar+keyboards and
Jon on drums, bass player Garry Gary Beers and Kirk Pengilly on guitar+saxophone
decided to start a band. As The Farris Brothers, they played regular gigs
in Sydney's Northern beaches and in 1979 the group changed its name to
INXS.
The following year the sextet released their eponymously titled debut
album which included the band's first Australian top 40 hit single, "Just
Keep Walking".
1981's "Underneath The Colours" garnered a lot more critical
and commercial attention on the strength of the hit single "Stay
Young".
A year later, signing with Atco Records in America, INXS with its third
effort, "Shabooh Shoobah", entered the U.S. Top 200 LPs &
Tapes chart at #46, thanks to the Top 40 Sales hit "The One Thing",
the track also peaked at #2 on The Mainstream Rock chart and a second
single, "Don't Change", cracked the top 20 in the same chart.
The band musical development coincided with their growth in popularity
and 1984's platinum-selling "The Swing" spun off a worldwide
smash hit, "Original Sin", a quirky intersection of New Wave-Dance
and Rock, the track hit #1 on the Australian Pop Singles chart and in
several other countries, it was quite successful in the U.S. where reached
the #58 on The Billboard Hot 100; the second single, "I Send A Message",
peaked at #2 in Australia and "Burn For You" hit #3.
October 1985 saw the release of the group's breakthrough effort, "Listen
Like Thieves", the album enjoyed a 81-week chart run in Australia
eventually attaining multi-platinum status, it also reached the #11 on
The Billboard 200 list; the first single, "This Time", received
strong airplay on U.S. album-Rock stations peaking at #11 on Billboard's
Mainstream Rock chart; "What You Need" hit #3 in the same chart,
smashed into the top 5 of The Billboard Hot 100 and also peaked at #2
in Australia; the third single, the album's title-cut, reached the #12
on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart and the final single "Kiss The
Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)" broke into the Australian top 20
in July 1986.
That fall INXS recorded the single "Good Times" with Jimmy Barnes,
the song, which was commissioned for the soundtrack of Joel Schumacher's
film "The Lost Boys", shot to #1 in Australia and hit #3 on
the Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks list.
The sextet managed to soar to unprecedented heights with their sixth album:
"Kick"; it was released in October 1987 reaching the top slot
in Australia, #9 in the U.K. and #3 on The Billboard Top 200 chart selling
over 6 million copies in U.S. alone; "Kick" was powered by no
less than five smash singles, "Need You Tonight" hit #1 on The
Billboard Hot 100, #2 on the British Official Pop chart and #3 in their
native Australia; "Devil Inside" rose to #2 spots on both Billboard's
Hot 100 and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts and hit the top 10 on the Australian
Pop chart; the third single, "New Sensation", shot to #3 on
The Billboard Hot 100 and entered the top 10 of The Mainstream Rock list;
"Never Tear Us Apart" reached the #7 slot on The Billboard Hot
100 upon its August 1988 release, it also hit #5 and #28 respectively
on Mainstream and Modern Rock Tracks charts; before the year was out,
"Mystify" was released as a single in the U.K. alone and reached
the #14 spot on the Official chart, the track received considerable airplay
on U.S. Rock radio stations, it ended up hitting the top 20 of the Billboard's
Mainstream Rock list.
After over a year on the road INXS took a break and Hutchence found time
to launch a side project, Max Q.
Premiered by the smash single "Suicide Blonde", the band's long
awaited seventh album, "X", hit the shelves on September 21st,
1990; the record debuted at #5 on The Billboard 200, peaked at #2 in the
U.K. and had yet another string of successful singles; "Suicide Blonde"
shot to #1 on both the Modern and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts, cracked
the top 10 of The Billboard Hot 100, hit the top 3 in Australia and reached
the #11 on the British Top 40 Sales chart; "Disappear" hit #8
on The Billboard Hot 100 and also climbed into the top 10 of The Mainstream
and Modern Rock charts; in spring 1991 "Bitter Tears" was released
as the third single from the album reaching the top 5 of the Billboard's
Rock Airplay charts, the #46 on the U.S. Hot 100 Sales and the #30 in
Britain; that summer "By My Side" reached the #23 on the Australian
chart and INXS played at London's Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd
of over 70000 fans.
The video of the event was eventually issued in November 1991 coinciding
with the release of the concert album "Live Baby Live", the
set climbed into the top 10 in the U.K. and was certified platinum in
the U.S. where the accompanying new studio-single, "Shining Star",
made the top 20 of the Mainstream Rock chart.
Nearly a year later the band released its eighth studio album, "Welcome
To Wherever You Are", which shot to #1 in Britain, to #2 in Australia
and reached the #16 on the American Billboard Top 200 chart; the first
single, "Heaven Sent", stormed both alternative and active Rock
radio stations falling just one position short of #1 on The Modern Rock
Tracks and peaking at #4 on Mainstream Rock chart, it debuted at #14 on
the Australian Pop Singles chart; both follow-up singles, "Baby Don't
Cry" and "Taste It", cracked the Australian top 40, the
latter also climbed the U.S. Modern Rock chart peaking at #5; "Not
Enough Time" was the album's best-known song in America where reached
the #28 on The Billboard Hot 100 and hit #2 on The Modern Rock Tracks
chart, the final single, "Beautiful Girl", was a mid-sized hit
in the U.K. and in the States, on the Official Pop Sales charts and peaked
at #10 on Modern Rock list.
In November 1993 INXS released "Full Moon, Dirty Hearts", their
most disappointing album, it failed to go gold in the U.S. and included
only one Modern Rock top 10 hit, "The Gift"; the record found
more success in Britain where cracked the top 5 and the main single reached
the #11 spot on the Official Pop Sales chart. Not long after the band
switched from Atlantic to Polygram and began work on their next album.
It was at this time that Michael Hutchence became involved with British
television personality Paula Yates with whom he had a daughter, Heavenly
Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence, in July 1996.
"Elegantly Wasted", was issued in April 1997 reaching the #41
on The Billboard Top 200 list; the first single, the album's title cut,
rose to #13 on The Modern Rock chart, it also debuted in the top 20 in
both the U.K. and Australia; although the follow-up single, "Don't
Loose Your Head", was included in the hit movie "Face Off"
starring Nicholas Cage and John Travolta, the track failed to make chart
impact. That year the band embarked on a lengthy international tour playing
the first show in Capetown, South Africa; the group played a further four
shows before heading to Europe then to North America.
On November 22, 1997, just 4 days prior to beginning the Australian leg
of the Elegantly Wasted world tour, seemingly despondent over his personal
life, Michael Hutchence took his life in a hotel room in Sydney. A service
was held for him at the St. Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney and he was later
cremated at Rookwood Cemetary.
INXS continued to perform occasionally using singers such as Terence
Trent D'Arby and Jon Stevens as vocalists.
In October 2005, with a new lead singer chosen by the viewers of the
CBS reality series "Rock Star: INXS", the Australian band returned
to The Billboard Hot 100 chart after an absence of twelve and a half years
with the single "Pretty Vegas". Canadian-born J.D. Fortune is
the new voice of INXS, the band's first album in eight years was finally
released in November 2005.
INXS biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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