Michael Hutchence. Largely forgotten?*

Actually, 1992's album "Welcome To Wherever You Are" (an excellent album) was INXS's 'answer' in a way to "Achtung Baby"'s influence.
That's the way I always saw it because the INXS album came out a year after the U2 album.

I resent a lot of the put downs that Michael Hutchence is getting here in this thread.
Let me tell you something: I have seen thousands of shows in my time (due to the work I did) and I can honestly say without reservation that Hutchence was one of the BEST front men I have ever seen in a "live" context. He had charisma in spades. Like Jagger meets Morrison. He had this ability to captivate an audience like I haven't seen very often. INXS were an excellent band live back in the mid 80's right through to 1997.
I saw Hutchence's 2nd last live gig here in Toronto at the "Warehouse" in 1997 and they were just excellent that night. It was the end of their "Elegantly Wasted" tour. Two months later, Michael was dead.

Listen Like Thieves
Kick
X
Welcome To Wherever You Are

...are all very good albums that still hold up today, if you're in the mood for them.

To me INXS were the soundtrack to a lot of good times and sometimes, that's enough. But trust me, Michael Hutchence was one of the all time great front men in the history of Rock. I saw it with my own eyes on more than one occasion.

Let's give him that respect; he was one of the last great "real" Rock Stars.

 

Shabooh Shoobah is my favorite INXS album personally. I see people sometimes mention this one too as their favorite. I just thought everything about it is excellent from the production and songs.

 

That was our introduction to them here in 1982. "The One Thing" came booming out of your car radio at you the same way U2's "I Will Follow" did in late 1980. It made you think "Wow, what a great tune! Who are these guys?"

 

Yep that one was the first to come out in the US. The music video used to be on MTV a bit back then too and they opened for Adam Ant. Then the next year came The Swing and the first two lps were released in the US on Atco.

 

I think they opened for Roxy Music here on the "Avalon" tour.

 

INXS was huge in 1987-1989. In the US. And much bigger than Frankie of Culture Club in the US as well.

 

"X" got a lot of airplay here in 1990/1991.
"Suicide Blonde", "Disappear", "Bitter Tears" and "By Your Side" were all very popular on FM Rock Radio here in Toronto.

 

That can't be true since Avalon came out in 1982 and INXS didn't tour the US/Canada until 1983. They opened for Adam Ant and then later in the year Men at Work.

 

I stand corrected.

 

Believe this was the 6th US show they did. I have this poster

 

Forgotten, what? I hear "What You Need" or "New Sensation" at least once a week in a supermarket or bar or wherever.

X was big around here too, especially "Suicide Blonde". I always loved "The Stairs"

 

You know this thread just serves to remind me how damn good INXS were back in their day.
They were one band that fellas and girls enjoyed equally when it was played at a party.

 

It came out a year after but INXS were demoing songs well before that. As another poster said, the band were concerned that Hutchence was giving Bono access to their demos and taking it back to the band and Eno. Call me cynical but I highly doubt that Bono’s vocal delivery in the Fly, Zoo Station came from anywhere other than Hutchence.

 

At the very least they'll tell you that
you really should listen to more of
Joplin's work before making a silly
comment like that !

 

Great touching video too....INXS were an amazing band!

 

I recently found an aussie c.d. edition of Their "GREATEST HITS" with a bonus c.d. of extended mix's... I also have the 2 d.v.d. edition of both promo and live videos...they were a great audio and visual band...they still sound great to me!

 

Yeah, I'm finding a lot of the most steadfast INXS defenders in this thread are demonstrating pretty profound musical ignorance and incredibly shallow tastes. No wonder they think the band were god's gift to creation. On a shriveled little island it's easy to be king.

I liked INXS and loved Kick - definitely the soundtrack of one year at college for me. But on the same level as Cobain, Hendrix or Winehouse in terms of the art or the influence? You couldn't get me stoned enough to even suggest something that ridiculous. There's a reason why they're almost completely forgotten outside of Australia.

I'd compare them more to acts like Dr. Hook or The Little River Band - solid reliable hitmakers and a great band, but certainly not anything game changing. And there's nothing wrong with that, either - I'd frequently rather hear acts like that than Nina Simone or Bob Dylan. But let's not invite scathing criticism of INXS and Hutchence by trying to elevate them to some extreme level they were clearly never at.

The idea that they influenced Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois for Achtung Baby is laughable. The Edge had been listening to Nine Inch Nails and KMFDM, plus a lot of EDM. I think Bono is an ass, but "One" is a hell of a piece of songwriting and the rest of the record flowed from there and from the experiments in Berlin at Hansa Studios. Yes, that Hansa Studios.

 

Who did they influence? I still haven't seen a list. With cites, as I did for Amy Winehouse.

I'm not a huge fan of Nirvana - not my taste, and I prefer their '70s inspirations anyhow - but they were massively influential and I can certainly appreciate why they had the impact they did. "Liking" them isn't required.

 

I see Achtung Baby and WTWYA almost like companion pieces. While I don't necessarily think either band "stole" or "nicked" ideas, both groups certainly had stylistic and production similarities around the early 90s.

I do however, think Hutchence and Bono cherry picked certain traits off of eachother. I can imagine them both riffing on ideas together.

 

Uh, from The Edge listening to EDM?

Also, somebody needs to introduce you to Giorgio Moroder, because he'd been blending rock and dance music 10 years before, as had Blondie and Rod Stewart. And later - and probably most famously - Michael Jackson on "Beat It". Were you raised in a fallout shelter during the late '70s and early '80s?

 

Yes they were actually pretty big in the US. MTV definitely had them in regular rotation which helped a lot. Another nice thing was they weren't a "hair band" like a lot of rockers in the 80s. I remember really wanting to see them after some friends told me they were amazing live. This is not long before Hutchence's death so of course i never saw them. I still don't understand exactly what happened with him. The story seems very murky somehow.

 

How influential someone is doesn’t really matter to me but clearly does to you and your imaginary list of creditable artists. The Cobain influence unleashed a **** ton of stupid grunge bands that no-one would remember, especially the rancid Silverchair, who only started developing decent songs on their last couple of albums. I don’t even know who Amy Winehouse is, much less her influences. All I know from her is they played that super annoying rehab song where she repeats that stupid line over and over. Like I said. People listen to what they like. They don’t listen to it because some industry tastemaker said they should.

 

Basically, every band influenced by The Velvet Underground were pretty good while every band influenced by Led Zeppelin were pretty bad. INXS were somewhere in the middle.

 

Kind of irrelevant, since we're talking more about why an act has been forgotten than what you do or don't like. It's clear to see why Winehouse made the impression she did and has been remembered - she left an impressive legacy, and several of the world's biggest acts today have her breakthru to thank for their success. She reshaped the sound of pop music.

INXS had some hits.

That's the difference.

 

Not a fan of this band but the Killers seems to be the most obvious one.