At the height of their popularity, just how big were INXS (Part 2)?

Continuing the discussion from the previous thread ( At the height of their popularity, just how big were INXS? ), I wanted to provide insight into just how big they were at this stage in their career...

Kick was in the US Top 40 longer than The Joshua Tree. And INXS were the first foreign band since Culture Club in 1983 to have 6 consecutive US Top 10 singles (Need You Tonight, Devil Inside, New Sensation, Never Tear Us Apart, Suicide Blonde & Disappear).

Also, INXS heavily under-booked most markets on the '85-'86 Listen Like Thieves & the '87-'88 Kick/Calling All Nations tours (and even in some markets during their "lean" years in the mid-'90s - most notably in, NYC/NJ, Boston, DC/Baltimore, Norfolk/Hampton, LA, San Fran/Oakland & Minneapolis/St. Paul - which helped increase demand for their "later" years with JD Fortune from 2006-2011). Manager, Chris Murphy, virtually begged them to continue touring into 1989 but they desperately needed the break due to over-touring. And once you crunch the numbers, if they had, they easily would've out-grossed U2 in Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Detroit, DC/Baltimore & arguably in NYC/NJ. And they actually did out-gross U2 in London but on the 1990-'91 X tour. But not because X outsold Kick, but because Kick was initially a relatively slow seller in the UK and hadn't quite hit Platinum status yet when they played 2 nights at Wembley Arena in June 1988. Whereas, when they played London on the X tour, Kick was 5x Platinum and X was 2x Platinum. And in late 1990, INXS played 4 nights at Wembley Arena & 2 nights Docklands Arena to over 70,000 fans in total. And then in July 1991, they returned and headlined Wembley Stadium to nearly 74,000 fans, which of course was filmed for Live Baby Live. All 7 London X tour shows grossed nearly $4.5 million USD. Whereas, U2 grossed less than $3 million USD from their 1 night at Wembley Arena & 2 night stand at Wembley Stadium in July 1987.

So INXS were in fact more popular than U2 in a handful of markets in the late '80s/early '90s.

I was lucky enough to have seen them here live once with Michael Hutchence (and twice with JD in 2006 & 2011) on the 1997 Elegantly Wasted tour at the Pacific Coliseum (16,000). There were barely 5,000 people there. And I actually met Tim, Jon & Garry after the show, which was an amazing thrill! Whereas, at the same venue on the Kick tour in 1988, it was sold out and on the X tour in 1991, attendance was 12,000.

Unfortunately, INXS' 40th Anniversary tour plans were cancelled due to one of Tim Farriss' fingers being severed in a boating accident 5 years ago, which rendered him unable to play guitar. And consequently, I doubt INXS will ever tour again. But if they did, even without a new album, and thanks to the 2014 Never Tear Us Apart mini-series that was watched by 1 in 10 Australians, which resulted in all their albums charting again, they'd EASILY fill arenas in Australia no matter who the singer was, especially since The Very Best Of INXS is STILL in the Australian Top 40 (roughly 300 weeks). However, in the rest of the world, depending on who the singer was, demand would literally be ALL OVER THE PLACE in clubs, theaters and arenas/sheds, since they always had regional demand before and after Kick & X, which are their two biggest selling studio albums.

 

A few comments:

Not sure how long either album was in the US Top 40 but according to Billboard.com Kick peaked at #3 and was on the charts for 81 weeks while The Joshua Tree peaked at #1 and was on the charts for 121 weeks or 3 weeks less than Kick and X combined... Maybe you were thinking of Zooropa or Rattle and Hum??

Billboard.com Top 200 charts: (INXS | Billboard vs. U2 | Billboard )

INXS [1986-1997]
Listen Like Thieves Peaked at #11 on 04.11.1986 [55 weeks on charts]
Kick Peaked at #3 on 02.26.1988 [81 weeks on the charts]
X Peaked at #5 on 10.19.1990 [43 weeks on the charts]
Live Baby Live peaked at #72 on 11.22.1991 [11 weeks on charts]
Welcome to Wherever You Are Peaked at #16 on 08.21.1992 [31 weeks on charts]
Full Moon Dirty Hearts Peaked at #53 on 11.19.1993 [5 weeks on charts]
The Greatest Hits Peaked at #112 on 11.18.1994 [3 weeks on charts]
Elegantly Wasted Peaked at #41 on 5.2.1997 [8 weeks on charts]

U2 [1987-1997]
The Joshua Tree Peaked at #1 on 04.24.1987 [121 weeks on the Charts]
Rattle and Hum Peaked at #1 on 11.11.1988 [39 weeks on chart]
Achtung Baby Peaked at #1 on 12.06.1991 [101 weeks on chart]
Zooropa Peaked #1 on 07.23.1993 [40 weeks on chart]
Pop Peaked #1 on 03.21.1997 [28 weeks on chart]

This might be technically true but you're conveniently ignoring Kick (which made it to #33 on the US Billboard Album Rock Chart) and Mystify (which made it all the way to #17 on the US Billboard Album Rock Chart) neither of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100.

In the US, INXS pretty much started out in theaters for the Listen Like Thieves tour in '85 peaked with multi-night arena stands by '88 and fell back to single night arena / theater stands in the early 90's. Compare this to someone like U2 who on the 1st leg of the Joshua Tree Tour in '87 was playing 3-5 night stands in arenas but started playing stadiums by the end of the 3rd leg. U2 did a quick arena Zoo TV tour in the beginning of '92 which acted as warm up gigs to the multi-night "Outside Broadcast" stadium shows later in the summer.

If this was the case why did the Jon Stevens fronted version of the band end up playing casinos in 2002. Thankfully, Rock Star INXS helped increase demand for the band so they could play theaters again.

I guess this is a true statement since U2 didn't tour the US in 1989. But U2 did play Australia in '89 while INXS played similar venues in 1988. U2 ended up playing 1 more concert in Brisbane / 3 more concerts in Melbourne and 2 more nights in Sydney FWIW.

Adelaide - Memorial Drive Park
INXS - 2 nights (10/21-22/1988)
U2 - 2 nights (10/27-28/1989)

Brisbane - Entertainment Centre
INXS - 2 nights (10/14-15/1988)
U2 - 3 nights (10/02-03-04/1989)

Melbourne - National Tennis Centre
INXS - 4 nights (10/31/1988 + 11/01-02-03/1988)
U2 - 7 nights (10/07-08-09-12-13-14-16/1989)

Perth - Entertainment Centre
INXS - 3 nights (11/06-07-09/1988)
U2 - 3 nights (09-21-22-23/1989)

Sydney - Entertainment Centre
INXS - 6 nights (10/26-27-28-29/1988 + 11/12-13/1988)
U2 - 8 nights (09/27-28-29/1989 + 10/20-21/1989 + 11/17-18-19/1989)

Yes, U2 played 1 night at Wembley Arena (12,000) & 2 nights at Wembley Stadium (72,000) in 1987. INXS played 4 nights at Wembley Arena (12,000) and 2 nights at Docklands Arena (15,000) in 1990. INXS may come out ahead if you count the July 1991 Wembley Stadium festival show (6 bands on the 6th anniversary of Live Aid) but U2 comes out ahead if you count in the other direction since they played 1 night at Earl's Court (18,000) in 1992 and 4 nights at Wembley Stadium (72,000) with only 2 opening acts for the stadium shows...

I'm not seeing it.

 

According to page 150 of the The Complete Chart Guide To Every Album In The Top 40 Album since 1955 (Revised & Enlarged - 3rd Edition), Kick was in the US Top 40 for 65 weeks. And according to page 318 of the same book, The Joshua Tree spent 58 weeks in the US Top 40.

Weird. I wasn't even aware Kick was a single? According to the INXS wikipedia chart history, the only part of the world where it apparently charted was your above listing? Maybe it was some sort of direct-to-radio promo or something? Because it doesn't make any sense. And regarding Mystify, it's similar. However, even though it was released as a single in some parts of the world, there doesn't appear to be an entry for it on the main US Top 100 Singles chart either.

Like I said, INXS heavily under-booked most markets on the LLT & Kick/Calling All Nations tours, not so much the X tour, though, as well as several markets during their lean years in the mid-'90s. I'll go into extreme detail regarding the 5 or 6 US markets I mentioned that INXS were definitely a larger draw than U2 at the time. And I'm not referring to after 1991 when comparing the 2 bands. Just from 1987-1991.

I'll use Detroit (and since this is going to take awhile, each day or every other day, I'll compare the remaining ones in question if you want me to?) as an example.

Here's are the boxscores from this market from this era:

INXS, John Butcher Axis
Fox Theater
Detroit, MI
Dec. 1, 1985
Gross: $43,302
Capacity: 4,900
Attendance: 3,093
Ticket Price: $14
Brass Productions

INXS, Second See
Hill Auditorium
Ann Arbor, MI
Feb. 11, 1986
Gross: $52,249
Capacity: 3,993
Attendance: Sold Out
Ticket Prices: $13.50, $12.50
Brass Ring Prods.

Meadow Brook Musical Festival
Rochester, MI
Aug. 5, 1986
Gross: $108,890
Capacity: 7,317
Attendance: Sold Out
Ticket Prices: $18.50, $13.50
Brass Ring Prods.

In the US, by early Dec. 1985, LLT sold about 150,000 copies. By Feb. 1986, it had sold nearly 500,000 copies (Gold). And by Aug. 1986, it sold nearly 1 million copies (Platinum). Considering this, once you crunch the #s and since the last 2 of the 3 Detroit area LLT tour shows sold out and were obviously under-booked, INXS could've grossed roughly 3x as much in this market in Feb. 1986 (they could've played Cobo Hall - 12,000 capacity w/ a $130,000 gross) and about 6x as much in Aug. 1986 (they could've played Pine Knob Music Theater - 17,000 capacity w/ a $260,000 gross) than compared to their Dec. 1985 show.

INXS also played the Detroit area 3x on the Kick/Calling All Nations tour. And since Kick outsold LLT by 3x, once you crunch the #s, the same formula is used to calculate this demand. The East Lansing show in Oct. 1987, would've grossed a lot more than the Dec. 1985 show as well. Then since Kick had sold around 1.5 million copies by March 1988, INXS could've played 3 shows at Cobo Hall w/ more than a $500,000 gross (though a 3rd show wouldn't have sold out) instead of the 1 show they did play there.

INXS, P.I.L.
Cobo Hall
Detroit, MI
March 16, 1988
Gross: $208,408
Capacity: 11,909
Attendance: Sold Out
Ticket Price: $17.50
Brass Ring Prods.

And then when Kick had sold 3 million copies by Sep. 1988, instead of playing the 2 nights at Pine Knob Music Theater, they could've played 4 nights w/ around a $1 million gross. And then, to top it off, if they had continued touring into 1989, since Kick had sold 4.5 million copies by that summer, INXS would've been able to play 2 shows at the Silverdome w/ a gross of over $1.5 million.

Whereas, U2 did 1 show at the Silverdome in 1987 w/ a $853,347 gross but since they skipped Toronto & Cleveland on the 1st JT tour leg (2-3 hour drives each way), the demand level strictly for Detroit would've been probably half that. In fact, U2 weren't grossing over $1 million in Detroit until the ZOO TV tour in 1992.

Jon Stevens didn't connect with the fanbase as much as JD Fortune did. And on the Switch tour (which grossed around $25 million - which was about the same as the X tour), INXS weren't just playing theatres, they were playing arenas in Canada, parts of the US & Australia.

And again, the comparisons in this case I'm making are ranging from 1987-1991. In London, INXS grossed nearly 50% more than U2 did at this point in time. So INXS were definitely the bigger draw in London during this era.

We're getting there...

And btw, thanks for the excellence response!

 

Thanks for the Michigan numbers, pretty neat.
I really wanted to see Public Image, but I think this show was during the school week, 16 with a new driver's license- downstate, right

 

INXS were pretty big in the late '80s, but they were hardly the only ones. Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Guns N' Roses, Michael Jackson and U2 come to mind.
BTW, album sales are not the most accurate way to measure popularity. Kick might've sold a few million more than The Joshua Tree, but U2 had a long buildup of acclaimed, well-selling albums. Taking also into account U2's tremendous reputation as a live act, they were already a household name with a solid catalog and worldwide loyal fanbase before The Joshua Tree.

 

From what I can gather the highest grossing concert tours from 87-89 were
1 Pink Floyd - 135 million
2 Michael Jackson - 125 million
3 Stones - 98 million
4 Bowie - 86 million
5 U2 - 56 million
90-91
New kids on the block - 74 million

Of all time
1 Ed Sheeran - 776 million 2017-2019
2 U2 - 736 million 2009-2011
3 Guns and Rose's- 584 million 2016-2019
4 Rolling Stones - 558 million 2005-2007.
5 Coldplay - 523 million 2016-2017

Inxs were a great band, and just the Wembley stadium show reveals how incredibly popular they were around that time.
Sadly these days, most folks seem to disregard them.
For me, Shabooh Shoobah, the Swing and Listen Like Thieves will always be their best albums.

 

INXS had a big female audience but the ladies dont continue buying records by bands past there sell-by date (unlike men), they also dont buy dodgy solo albums, thus the quick commercial sinking of INXS.

 

I still suffer from Kick burnout Mark. I go for the earlier titles as well when I listen to these guys. Colours probably the most

 

Underneath The Colours is an excellent album.
The debut is good too, it is just quite different from what most people overseas know

 

did Jon Farriss ever change-up that 80's triggered snare drum sound?

 

That Cobo show with PIL was the second concert I ever saw. Magical stuff.

 

Btw, I forgot to include what U2 would've done, if there had been Detroit Lovetown shows (which was a 360 degree arena tour) in the fall of 1989, considering if they hadn't skipped Toronto & Cleveland. They could've played 2 shows at the Palace Of Auburn Hills (22,000) and the gross would've been roughly just under $1 million, since U2's US album sales increased from the spring of '87 from around 9 million to about 19 million by the fall of '89.


Anyway, continuing on with the next market comparison...

Washington, DC/Baltimore:

Here are the boxscores available:

INXS, P.I.L.
Patriot Center
Fairfax, VA
March 24, 1988
Gross: $102,937
Capacity: 5,896
Attendance: Sold Out
Ticket Price: $17.50
Cellar Door Prods.

HFS-tival: INXS, Iggy Pop, Matthew Sweet, Stereo MC'S, X, Belly, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, The Posies, Velocity Girl
RFK Stadium
Washington, DC
July 3, 1993
Gross: $631,188
Capacity: 52,599
Attendance: Sold Out
Ticket Price: $12
WHFS Radio


This is an interesting market for INXS, especially since it's the funk capital of the US and potentially their largest market in the country. And it also happens to be THE most under-booked one too.

This one is a bit trickier to figure out and I included the '93 boxscore for a few reasons. A) because it shows just how under-booked the Kick/Calling All Nations & X tour stops here were, as INXS only played 1 night each at the Patriot Center (as shown above), the Capital Centre (18,000 capacity) in Aug. 1988 and the Capital Centre again in March 1991. And B) even though not the entire gross from this '93 RFK Stadium show is INXS', about $400,000 of it is. And since they were in the midst of their Get Out Of The House club tour and didn't meet demand on the northeastern seaboard, apart from this market, and that 10-25% of their demand in these markets not properly played would've traveled to see them at RFK, that brought demand for DC/Baltimore alone down to about $250,000. This is especially considering Welcome To Wherever You Are barely sold more than 500,000 copies in the US at this point.

Considering what Kick's sales were in 1988/89 & using the same formula in my previous post, INXS could've played 6 nights at the Patriot Center in March 1988, w/ a gross of over $600,000, and 5 nights at the Capital Center in Aug. 1988, w/ a gross of over $1.2 million. And to top it all off, if they had continued touring into 1989, the could've sold out 2 nights at RFK Stadium that summer, w/ a gross of about $2 million. And since X sold nearly 1.5 million copies by March 1991, they could've played 3 nights at the Capital Centre, w/ a gross of around $750,000 (or roughly $700,000 if they had played in Norfolk/Hampton, VA) instead of the 1 night played.

Whereas, U2 played 1 night at RFK Stadium in Sep. 1987 and grossed $969,304 but interestingly enough, the show didn't sell out but it was close with just over 2,000 tix left. If there were Lovetown shows in DC/Baltimore in the fall of 1989, and considering they had sold around 12 million albums by Sep. 1987 and about 19 million albums in the US by the fall of 1989, they would've been able to play 3 nights at the Capital Center, w/ a gross similar to their last stop in Sep. 1987, of just under $1 million (or nearly $1.2 million, if they skipped Norfolk/Hampton, VA, which I believe was under-booked by 1/3 on the JT tour in Dec. 1987). This is because it takes around 4 years for stadium level demand to build back to par, unless under-booking occurs, before potentially increasing (arena level demand usually takes 1-2 years for the same result). And since it had only been 2 years since they last played or met demand in DC/Baltimore, demand would've been about half of what the Sep. 1987 show did but was higher considering U2's US album sales had increased by a whopping 50-60% from the falls of 1987 through 1989. Either way, U2 weren't strictly grossing over $1 million in DC/Baltimore alone until their 2 night stand at RFK Stadium on the ZOO TV tour in 1992...

 

There is some interesting stuff here, but it is always a little scary when a mono fan shows for any artist and starts directing all threads and discourse in that specific artist's direction (e.g. Beatles, Queen, McCartney, Britney, etc.,)

 

The next market comparison is Denver.

I don't have boxscores for INXS shows here. However, guesstimate grosses in this case, are enough info to indicate where demand was at...

On the LLT tour, INXS played the Rainbow Music Hall (1,400 capacity) in Feb. '86, w/ a gross of about $20,000 and Red Rocks Amphitheater (9,000 capacity) in Aug. '86, w/ a gross of around $125,000. On the Kick tour, they played Fiddler's Green Amphitheater (18,000 capacity) in June '88, w/ a gross of over $300,000. And then INXS didn't play here again until the Dirty Honeymoon tour in April '94, where they played McNichols Arena (17,000 capacity) and in Colorado Springs at Arnold Hall Ballroom (2,800 capacity) the next night. Admittedly, this era was considered INXS' lean years, so consequently, ticket prices during the spring '94 leg of the Dirty Honeymoon tour, were in most cases, only $10-$12, in order to help fill venues of this size. If under-booking hadn't occurred here during the '80s, INXS wouldn't have been able to fill McNichols Arena, nor would they have probably bothered with a Colorado Springs show either. Also, when considering the combined sales of WTWYA & FMDH were only around 650,000 copies in the US by the spring of '94 and where LLT & Kick's US album sales were at during their initial runs, I believe these 2 Colorado shows in April '94 grossed nearly $200,000 combined. And consequently, this shows us that instead, INXS could've played 5 nights at Rainbow Music Hall show in Feb. '86, w/ a gross of nearly $100,000, 2 nights at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Aug. '86, w/ a gross of nearly $175,000 (especially since Salt Lake City wasn't re-played), 2 nights at Fiddler's Green Amphitheater in June '88 (Kick's US sales were around 2.5 million by this point), w/ a gross of over $650,000 (especially since SLC wasn't played)...and to top it off, if they toured into the summer of '89, they could've played 1 night at Mile High Stadium (76,000 capacity) w/ a gross of nearly $1.2 million...

Whereas, U2 played 2 nights at McNichols Arena in Nov. '87 w/ a gross of $605,779. And if there had been Denver Lovetown '89 shows, considering it had only been 2 years and U2's album sales increases at these points in time, they would've been able to play 2 nights at McNichols Arena again, however, w/ a gross slightly less than the Nov. '87 shows...and only because Salt Lake City hadn't been played since 1983. U2 weren't grossing anywhere near $1 million in Denver until they played Mile High Stadium on the ZOO TV in 1992...

 

INXS vs U2 part 2.

 

The next market comparison is Chicago...

Here are the boxscores from this era:

INXS, P.I.L.
UIC Pavilion
Chicago, IL
March 11, 1988
Gross: $159,374
Capacity: 9,659
Attendance: Sold Out
Ticket Price: $16.50
Chicago Jam Concerts

INXS, Cheap Trick & Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers
Alpine Valley Music Theater
East Troy, WI
Sep. 3, 1988
Gross: $477,433
Capacity: 27,810
Attendance: Sold Out
Ticket Prices: $16.50, $22.50
Joseph Entertainment Group

INXS, The Soup Dragons
Rosemont Horizon
Rosemont, IL
March 15 & 16, 1991
Gross: $596,295
Capacity: 28,395
Attendance: Sold Out
Ticket Price: $21
Jam Prods.


INXS played the Chicago area 3x on the Kick/Calling All Nations tour. All 3 shows were all sold out. Above are 2 of those performances. They also played at Poplar Creek Music Theater (18,000 capacity) in June '88. And as you can see, the X tour shows were also sellouts. But considering the sales of Kick & X (listed in previous above posts) at these points in time, I don't think these 2 shows were under-booked, and they probably sold out right before showtime. Also, the sales of both albums at this time, shows us that there could've been 3 shows at the UIC Pavilion in March '88 w/ a gross of over $500,000 and 3 shows at Poplar Creek Music Theater w/ a gross of over $850,000 & 2 shows at Alpine Valley Music Theater, w/ a gross of nearly $1.1 million. Though, since INXS already played and met demand in Milwaukee in June '88 (w/ a gross of $303,361 - part of which was Chicago's draw), and that Alpine Valley is about half way between Chicago & Milwaukee, once you subtract Cheap Trick & the WI area's draw, the 2 shows would've grossed about $1 million. And to top it off, if they had toured into the summer of '89, they would've been able to play to 2 shows at Soldier Field w/ a gross of around $1.7 million or over $1.8 million if they had skipped Wisconsin...


Whereas, U2 were playing 4 nights at the Rosemont Horizon in '87 that grossed a total of $1,212,394. Though, these shows were under-booked too but to a smaller extent***, as were the 3 World Music Theater shows on the ZOO TV in 1992 that grossed over $2.45 million. And you can tell based on U2's US album sales at these points in time - 12 million in the fall of '87, 27 million by the fall of '92 and 36 million by the spring of '97. In fact, U2 hadn't met demand in Chicago since the early '80s and they didn't again until they played 3 shows at Soldier Field on the PopMart tour in '97, where they grossed over $5.95 million. ***The above shows us that U2 could've played 6 nights at the Rosemont Horizon w/ a gross of around $1.7 million, since they didn't play in Wisconsin, or 5 nights there and w/ a gross of over $1.5 million, if they had played Wisconsin. And if there had been Chicago Lovetown '89 shows, considering it had only been 2 years (and other demand level factors mentioned in previous above posts), U2 could've played 3 nights at the Rosemont Horizon w/ a gross of over $1 million, or if they had skipped Wisconsin again, 4 nights there w/ a gross of over $1.2 million...

 

What "dodgy solo albums" were there by INXS members? Michael's came out after he was dead. If you look at the Wembley audience shots you can see quite a lot of men there too.

 

There was the Max Q album, that completely sank without trace. It is weird that considering what an absolute behemoth of an album Kick was, everyone had completely lost interest by the time of the follow up X. A three-year gap after a hugely successful album really can kill a band stone dead.

 

Wtf?!

Suicide Blonde was their biggest ever selling US single (it went Gold). In London, they outdrew U2 by roughly 50% compared to their Joshua Tree tour shows. The X tour grossed around $25 million worldwide, with an attendance of 1.2 million from 110 shows. Also, X (their 2nd best-selling studio album) sold over 4 million copies worldwide by the end of its initial run in the summer of '91 - to date, it's more than likely sold 6 million copies worldwide...

 

Actually yes, "Suicide Blonde" was a big hit wasn't it? Hmm, my memory must be playing tricks on me, I remember X being a bit of a commercial flop. Maybe I'm just projecting as I didn't like it very much.

 

Ed Sheeran???
I need a drink right now...

 

Yea ...

 

The next market comparison is NYC/NJ...

Here are the boxscores from this era:

INXS, P.I.L.
Radio City Music Hall
New York City, NY
March 18, 19 & 20, 1988
Gross: $345,600
Capacity: 17,622
Attendance: Sold Out
Ticket Price: $20
Radio City Music Hall Prods.

INXS, Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers
Meadowlands Arena
E. Rutherford, NJ
Aug. 11, 1988
Gross: $314,760
Capacity: 18,200
Attendance: 17,274
Ticket Prices: $17.50, $18.50
Monarch Entertainment Bureau / John Scher Presents

INXS, Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers
Madison Square Garden
New York City, NY
Aug. 12, 1988
Gross: $350,000
Capacity: 17,904
Attendance: Sold Out
Ticket Prices: $18.50, $20
Ron Delsener Enterprises

INXS, Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers
Nassau Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum
Uniondale, NY
Aug. 15, 1988
Gross: $282,024
Capacity: 15,000
Attendance: 14,168
Ticket Prices: $18.50, $20
Ron Delsener Enterprises


INXS, The Soup Dragons
Madison Square Garden
New York City, NY
Feb. 16, 1991
Gross: $363,750
Capacity: 15,000
Attendance: 14,550
Ticket Price: $25
Ron Delsener Enterprises

INXS, The Soup Dragons
Meadowlands Arena
E. Rutherford, NJ
Feb. 21, 1991
Gross: $291,341
Capacity: 17,760
Attendance: 14,220
Ticket Prices: $20, $22.50
Metropolitan Entertainment


In order to see how heavily under-booked INXS' largest US market was until the X tour, we have to go back to the LLT tour and move forward. On the 1st US leg, they played 2 shows at the Beacon Theater (3,000 capacity, w/ an estimated gross of around $90,000) in mid-Dec. 1985, when LLT's US sales were about 200,000 copies. By early summer of '86, LLT's US sales were around 800,000 copies and INXS returned to this market, where they played the Jones Beach Theater (10,000 capacity, w/ an estimated gross of over $150,000) & the Felt Forum (5,500 capacity, w/ an estimated gross of nearly $90,000). Considering LLT's US sales during this time, this shows us that both shows were under-booked and INXS could've done 2 shows at Jones Beach w/ gross of nearly $200,000 and 2 shows at the Felt Forum w/ a gross of over $175,000.

On the Kick/Calling All Nations tour, their 3 night stand at Radio City Music Hall (6,000 capacity) in March '88 (the boxscore is above) was reported to be the fastest sellout in this venue's history at this point - they've could've played 7 nights w/ a gross of over $800,000. INXS returned in Aug. '88 to play 3 arena shows - Madison Square Garden, Nassau Coliseum & the Meadowlands Arena. But here's the problem, I believe the capacities represented in the boxscores above for the Nassau Coliseum & Meadowlands Arena shows are incorrect and that these shows were completely sold out (or at the last minute, tix in the hard right and left corners of the venues were possibly released without publicity). This is because Kick was virtually 3x Platinum at this point, and since it sold roughly half that in March, when the 3 RCMH sold out shows happened. Also, when INXS played the same 3 venues on the X tour in Feb. '91, X had sold virtually the same as Kick had sold in March '88, and the total gross for these 3 shows was over $800,000 (I don't have the Feb. '91 Nassau Coliseum show's boxscore, so the estimate for this show is included by adding the grosses for the other 2 NYC/NJ shows' boxscores above). So the above shows us they easily could've played 6 arenas shows in the NYC/NJ area in Aug. '88 and would've grossed around $1.6 million. And to top it off, considering Kick had sold 4.5 million copies in the US by the summer of '89, if INXS had toured into that summer, they would've been able to play 2 nights at Giants Stadium w/ a gross of around $2.5 million...


Whereas, U2 played the NYC/NJ area on both US legs in May & Sep. '87, where they played 5 nights at the Meadowlands Arena in May '87 w/ a gross of $1,621,278 - however, about 1/3 of that would've been from the Philadelphia and DC/Baltimore areas, since these markets weren't played until the 2nd US leg. And then in Sep. '87, they played 1 night at Giants Stadium w/ a gross of $1,040,820, 2 nights at Madison Square Garden w/ a gross of $744,838 & 2 nights at Nassau Coliseum w/ a gross of $648,643. What makes this complex, is that since U2's NYC/NJ draw from the 1st leg shows at Meadowlands Arena essentially represented the Unforgettable Fire tour's NYC/NJ demand, because these shows were put on sale just as or right after The Joshua Tree album was released and U2 played to/grossed a similar amount here in 1985. So I believe the true JT tour demand in this market is from the Sep. '87 shows. Plus, since U2 hit this market only 4 months apart, about 1/3 of the 1st leg's NYC/NJ demand would've returned to the 2nd leg's shows. So you have to subtract accordingly. And if there were NYC/NJ Lovetown '89 shows, since it had only been 2 years (and aforementioned demand level factors in above posts), U2 would've been able to have played 5 or 6 arena shows w/ a gross of $2-$2.5 million...


So whomever the larger draw in NYC/NJ was at this point in time, the margin was razor thin...

 

The final market comparison is Las Vegas.

Here is a boxscore from the JD Fortune era:

INXS
Mandalay Bay Events Center
Las Vegas, NV
January 28, 2006
$622,070
8,890 /
8,890
1 /
1
$89.25, $49.25
Fantasma Productions, Metropolitan Talent Presents


I left this market for last because it's the weirdest and possibly the most complex. I'll have to give a broader year range for comparison to show just how under-booked this market was for INXS over the years.

INXS played 1 night stands at the Thomas & Mack Center (18,000 capacity) in June '88, Bally's (4,000 capacity) in April '91, the Thomas & Mack Center in April '94, The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel (1,400 capacity) in July '97, the House of Blues (2,500 capacity) in June '02, Mandalay Bay Events Center (in the boxscore above) in Jan. '06, the Aladdin Theater (7,000 capacity) in June '06 & the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in Aug. '07.

If demand hadn't been heavily under-booked for years, then they wouldn't have been able to have played to so many people on the Switched On tour in this market in 2006. Also, Vegas' metro area population in 1988 was only 642,000. In 1991, it was 755,000. In 1994, it was 913,000. In 1997, it was 1.104 million. And by 2006, it was 1.647 million.

Considering the immense population increases above and since Kick has sold around 2.5 million copies by June '88, X had sold about 1.5 million copies by April '91 & WTWYA & FM,DH had sold around 650,000 copies by April '94, this shows us, INXS instead could've played 3 nights at the Thomas & Mack Center in June '88 w/ a gross of roughly $800,000. And if they had toured into '89 and met demand that summer, they could've played 2 nights at Sam Boyd Silver Bowl (36,000 capacity) w/ a gross of nearly $1.6 million. Also, in April '91, INXS could've played 2 nights at the Thomas & Mack Center w/ a gross of about $650,000. In April '94, I believe they met demand at the T&M Center show in April '94 w/ a gross of nearly $375,000. In July '97, they could've played the T&M Center again, w/ a similar gross. After Michael died, INXS started touring with an Aussie named, Jon Stevens. But he didn't seem to blend that well with most fans or even possibly the band, so demand was far lower on their 2002 Just For Kicks tour (though, I'm not sure about Vegas). However, when JD Fortune started singing with them in 2005, and the Switch album sold relatively well with US sales of over 350,000 copies by mid-2006, things started to cook again. The combined gross total of the Mandalay Bay Events Center & Aladdin Theater shows in 2006, considering how heavily under-booked most of their career had been in Las Vegas, was more than likely over $1.1 million (or $1.25 million, if you count the other return engagement show at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in Aug. '07). However, once you subtract the basic percentage of demand returning after the January Mandalay Bay show to the Aladdin Theater show in June, INXS' true Las Vegas demand at this point in time, was just over $850,000. The Switched On 2006 tour's US per show average was about $100,000. So this is over 8x more than their nightly US average on this tour.


Whereas, U2 played to a half full Thomas & Mack Center in April '87, w/ a gross of only $138,192. Considering their album sales had basically doubled & the population of metro Vegas was 612,000 in 1987 & 673,000 in 1989 (a nearly 10% percent increase in only 2 years), if there had been a Vegas Lovetown '89 show, they would've played 1 night at the T&M Center w/ a gross of over $350,000. U2 weren't grossing anywhere near what INXS could've in this market until the ZOO TV tour in 1992, when they played Sam Boyd Stadium and grossed $860,994...